Bob the TravelerOleg Grigoryevich Makarov, who died OTD in 2003, flew into space 4 times, including two trips to the Salyut 6 space station https://toilet-guru.com/blog/3.html?s=mb #spaceflight #history
Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, who died OTD in 2003, flew into space 4 times, including two trips to the Salyut 6 space station https://toilet-guru.com/blog/2.html?s=mb #spaceflight #history
Where are we now?
RTNIndependent:
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SpaceX has been forced to ground its Starship rocket while it conducts an investigation into an incident during its most recent test flight.
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""“A return to flight of the Starship Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.”""
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/starship-rocket-mishap-faa-spacex-next-launch-b2984994.html
28.5.2026
#FAA #Rakete #Raumfahrt #rocketry #SpaceFlight #SpaceX #Starship #StarshipFlight12 #StarshipV3 #SuperHeavy #USA
#Hackaday:
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Decoding The Tianwen-2 Sample Return Mission’s Telemetry Signal
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"China’s Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission launched on 28 May of 2025 and is scheduled to arrive at its target – near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo’oalewa – in June 2026. .."
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/27/decoding-the-tianwen-2-sample-return-missions-telemetry-signal/
27.5.2026
#China #Kamooalewa #Raumfahrt #Raumsonde #SampleReturn #SpaceFlight #Telemetrie #Telemetry #Tianwen2
threelonmusketeers[Jack Congram] Galactic Energy's Pallas-1 Appears at Jiuquan Ahead of Debut Flight
[David Ariosto] As geopolitics reshape space, SpinLaunch sees an opening
[David Ariosto] As geopolitics reshape space, SpinLaunch sees an opening - sh.itjust.works
::: spoiler Article text David Ariosto 5–7 minutes SpinLaunch CEO Massimiliano “Massi” Ladovaz paints an ambitious picture of a rapidly shifting space industry driven as much by geopolitics and sovereignty as by engineering innovation. Ladovaz argued that SpinLaunch’s Meridian system, meant to employ smaller, highly-efficient satellites, could make sovereign constellations financially attainable for countries and regional operators that previously lacked the resources to compete. He spoke with SpaceNews about the company’s nascent launch technology, which uses kinetic acceleration rather than traditional rockets, and the broader strategy aimed at radically lowering the cost of deploying satellite constellations. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length. David Ariosto: Your company became famous just by virtue of the nature of the technology, essentially using centrifuge acceleration that uses a mechanical arm inside a large vacuum chamber to fling payloads into orbit, rather than using rockets. Massi Ladovaz: Absolutely. Who doesn’t know SpinLaunch, right? It’s fascinating what the team put together. And it talks a lot about the nature of the company. It’s really disrupting innovation. Try having a problem and try to look at it in a different way. Yes, and you yourself have been around the block a few times, having worked across the space industry. With your own evolution in terms of leadership, what convinced you to go to SpinLaunch? ’ve been in the industry for the last 25 years. I’ve built quite a few satellites, including, obviously, I was the CTO of OneWeb. [That meant] hundreds of satellite launches. But when I was contacted for the job [at SpinLaunch], my first reaction was ‘forget it, I’m not interested.’ I said no to it. And then after extensive due diligence, I realized that these guys had put together something really, really disruptive. And that’s why I got very excited about it, and I said, ‘I want to be part of it.’ What guidance and what lessons did you bring? First of all, I bring all the scars of building a constellation. I know how hard it is to bring a constellation, but I really try to build on what the team has put together. As I said, the main differentiator of Meridian is looking at the LEO problem in a different way. Meridian is substantially cheaper to build and to deploy than other systems. We need hundreds of millions to build and deploy a constellation, versus billions. When I saw that, I said, ‘guys, we also need to change the go-to-market.’ Today, there is another challenge that the industry has, or another need. [That’s] about control. Sovereignty is becoming more and more important as an element.The paradigm can be completely changed, because if a constellation costs 6, 7, 8 billion dollars, even a government is struggling to pay that amount of money. [But] if you go to a government and you say, no, actually, it’s going to cost hundreds of millions, immediately, the door is open … And that’s where we did change the go-to-market. That was my contribution. Some customers are really just trying to minimize the cost of the infrastructure. That’s for Kuiper, and that’s for Amazon. Good for them. A lot of other customers are concerned about the fact that one day, they could be turned off. One way, one day, somebody would decide, ‘Oh, this country cannot access the system anymore.’ And this is resonating very, very much. I mean, you can see the push in Europe, you can see the push in the Middle East, you can see the push in Asia. We are still a relatively small startup, but the intensity and the demand from customers is incredible. They really want control. They want sovereignty. Does that diversity happen if it’s not done in tandem with launch? Because I don’t know that the launch question has been solved in terms of the broader global market. The fact is that our technology is such that we could launch an entire constellation on only one launcher. And that changes the story. Now, obviously, you have to find one rocket, but it’s very different to find one rocket and having to find 20, 30, 40. From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like you’re competing with something that’s got far more redundancy and therefore far less risk … but explain that to me a little bit more. The technology allows you to get to the number of satellites that Starlink has launched. It very much depends how much redundancy or how many satellites that a customer would want. Our system is so cheap that we could keep launching at a fraction of the cost. Other systems are very sophisticated, very expensive and you don’t want to even try to compete on that. [But] that’s a differentiator. We could launch thousands of satellites if we wish. We don’t need them. We are operating at a higher altitude as well. We could launch at lower altitudes if people want. That’s the type of flexibility that we give to the customers. How much does the geopolitical situation play into the calculus for customers? Everyone now is talking about sovereignty, and people understand sovereignty in a different way. What we offer is a turnkey system to customers. People can buy and own their own constellation. All those elements about control and the geopolitical situation are really, really very important with a lot of customers. :::
[Jeff Foust] Virgin Galactic returns Unity to flight to prepare for next-generation spaceplane
[Jeff Foust] Virgin Galactic returns Unity to flight to prepare for next-generation spaceplane - sh.itjust.works
::: spoiler Article text Jeff Foust 3–4 minutes [https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unity-may2026.jpeg] Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceplane performs a glide flight above Spaceport America in New Mexico May 27. Credit: Virgin Galactic AMSTERDAM — The Virgin Galactic spaceplane used for the company’s first commercial flights has returned to service to train its pilots for its next-generation spacecraft. Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane performed a glide flight May 27 after being released by the Eve aircraft in the skies above Spaceport America in New Mexico. Unity glided to a runway landing at the spaceport. This was the first flight for Unity since its last commercial suborbital spaceflight in June 2024. Virgin decided to stop flying the vehicle to focus its resources on its new spaceplane, called SpaceShip, currently in development. Virgin started flying Unity to provide proficiency training for its pilots as it prepares to begin flights of the first SpaceShip later this year, while also practicing ground operations. “Unity’s glide characteristics and energy-management profile provide an outstanding real-world proxy for our new spaceship,” Mike Moses, Virgin Galactic’s spaceline president, said in a statement. “Using a proven vehicle in this way prepares our pilots and operations teams to move through flight testing for our new spaceship more efficiently and with greater confidence than simulator training alone could provide.” In a May 14 earnings call, Virgin executives said the Unity glide flights were part of preparations for SpaceShip test flights starting in the third quarter, with commercial suborbital flights beginning before the end of the year. “One of the many ways we are preparing for the first flight test of our new spaceship is by bringing our prototype spaceship, Unity, back for an encore performance,” Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said during the call. He said the company planned to perform “several” Unity glide flights for training starting later in May. He said the company was sticking to earlier schedules that called for glide flights of the new SpaceShip in the third quarter and powered test flights in the fourth quarter before beginning commercial operations. The flight test program, he added, would be much shorter than Unity’s, which took years before the vehicle made its commercial debut in 2021. :::
GizmodoElon Musk Says America's Kamikaze Drones Used the Wrong Starlink Subscription
