Super Heavy 19 and Starship 39 at liftoff (Image courtesy SpaceX)

0

It was the afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the 12th test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company, which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 19 and the Starship identified as Starship 39 or Ship39 or simply S39. It was the first test of the vehicles in their Block 3 version.

The Smile satellite blasting off atop a Vega-C rocket (Photo ESA-S. Corvaja - ESA Standard License)

0

A few hours ago, the Smile satellite was launched from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Vega-C rocket. After about 56 minutes, the Smile satellite separated from the rocket’s last stage and began maneuvers that are scheduled to last approximately 25 days. Eleven burns of the spacecraft’s engines will lengthen its orbit, initially circular at an altitude of approximately 700 kilometers, to approximately 121,000 kilometers above the North Pole and approximately 5,000 kilometers above the South Pole.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start its CRS-34 mission (Image NASA+)

0

A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-34 (Cargo Resupply Service 34) mission, also referred to as SPX-34. After almost 12 minutes, it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 34th mission for the Dragon/Dragon 2 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

Artist's concept of the zone called ENDTRANZ, colored in red, part of a forming star system

0

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the results of a study that has identified an important part of the planetary formation process. A team of researchers led by Indrani Das of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) has discovered a transition zone where gas becomes a part of a planet-forming disk using the ALMA radio telescope. This zone was called ENDTRANZ (Envelope Disk Transition Zone) and was located around the protostar L1527 IRS.