HEADLINES & GLOBAL NEWS
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(Photo : Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images) SpaceX Crew-2 Mission Launches From Cape Canaveral
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - APRIL 23: In this NASA handout, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company s Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASAs SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide onboard, Friday, April 23, 2021, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASAs SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the second crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agencys Commercial Crew Program. Kimbrough, McArthur, Pesquet, and Hoshide launched at 5:49 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost
In 2017, I wrote here that “SpaceX’s Reusable Rockets Could Revolutionize Warfare”. Four years later, it appears the Air Force now agrees. In a recent release from Air Force Public Affairs, a new category called Rocket Cargo is noted as one example of a capability called Future Tactical Lift – one of nine “Key Capabilities for the Air Force We Need”.
This new recognition seems to have come out of recent senior-level meetings. Last summer, the Air Force Research Laboratory held a “WARTECH Summit” between the USAF’s operational and acquisition communities focusing on leading edge technologies in the Science and Technology portfolio that could be transitioned into immediate warfighting capabilities.
03 May 2021, 12:05 am
China s Long March 5 or Long March-5B Y2 rocket, which carried its Tiangon Space Station s module called Harmony of the Heavens, could crash into Earth s atmosphere. Experts claim that some of the rocket s debris could hit some popular areas.
(Photo : Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
A prototype of SpaceX s Starship spacecraft is seen at the company s Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas. The Starship spacecraft is a massive vehicle meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Previously, the Asian country hailed its Long March 5 launch as successful since it was able to bring the Harmony of the Heavens or Tianhe, which will serve as the hub of China s upcoming space station, into orbit.
Jess Hardiman
5:41 PM, May 03 2021 GMT+1
A Chinese rocket is set to make an uncontrolled re-entry as it heads back to Earth sometime in the next dew days, with concerns that it could rain heavy pieces of spacecraft on populated areas.
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The 21-ton object is the core stage of China s Long March 5B rocket, which launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China s Hainan Province on Wednesday.
The core module successfully separated from the rocket and entered the predetermined orbit, but the 100ft booster started circling Earth, uncontrolled, rather than falling into a designated spot in the ocean - as is common for used rockets.
Photo: Su Dong
GLOBAL TIMES, April 30: China has successfully sent the first section of its own space station - the Tianhe core module cabin - into preset orbit via a Long March-5B Y2 carrier rocket from Wenchang spaceport in South China s Hainan Province on Thursday, kicking off an intense construction phase of the project.
Encased in the extra-large fairing of the country s state-of-the-art Long March-5B launch vehicle, the 16.6-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe (literally meaning Harmony in Heaven) core module, rose from the tropical island province of Hainan at 11:23 am on Thursday morning. After a flight time of around one hour, the solar panels onboard the spacecraft smoothly unfolded and functioned normally, marking the mission s complete success, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA.)