Spaaaaace (Part 1)

El Reg checks in with Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck to see how that hat tastes amid reusable rockets and swelling payloads

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Going big: catching a Saturn V first stage with a helicopter

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3741/1

3741a
Hiller’s concept for a giant helicopter that could ferry Saturn V first stages and catch them in midair.

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Michael Collins, once the world’s ‘loneliest man,’ is dead. If that name means little or nothing to you, read this

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Good: Water vapor signal detected for first time on distant planet. Bad: Er, we’ll let one of the boffins explain

Evidence of what was once possibly water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere in a distant world for the first time – though one of the scientists involved in the discovery told us this would-be interstellar getaway is “completely inhospitable.”
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It’s all good, though.

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Former Senator and one-time astronaut Bill Nelson named as NASA’s new administrator

Former US Senator Bill Nelson has been confirmed as NASA administrator with breath-taking speed (compared to his predecessor).
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Don’t get cocky, kid.

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Wednesday night should be cloudless though so I might try then (it’s also unseasonally cold, I have some runner beans here beside me that I haven’t planted out yet as it’s due to be -2C tomorrow night!).

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Again, the dark nights are what I miss most from home. I used to sit out all night watching meteor showers. Chicago’s lights blot out all dim stars and meteors to the northwest of me now.

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Calculate the meteor shower activity at your site.
The handy Fluxtimator below is a Java applet that allows you to calculate the expected shower rate for a given date and a given location. It also allows you to see the difference between staying downtown or moving out into the country side to a dark and clear location. All rates were calculated by taking into account the Moon light, but assume a transparent cloud-less sky and unobstructed field of view.

https://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

The Fluxtimator is infrequently updated with information regarding newly characterised showers and meteor outbursts. Keep tuned!

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Cold weather in May? Maybe you could watch the meteors via Youtube.

My sister sent me the link to the article about the meteors, but I think I won´t see them as I have the very same light problem of your city.

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NASA’s $2.89bn contract awarded to SpaceX for its Starship rocket to send the first American woman and next man to the Moon has been put on ice after SpaceX’s competitors complained to the US Government Accountability Office.
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If you’re the 1% and have 10 mins to spare this July, bid for a place on first Blue Origin space tourism launch

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The Starship has landed. Latest SpaceX test comes back to Earth without igniting fireballs

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It’s easy to forget how huge that rocket is. That “little fire” was about 3 stories tall. Personally, I would have been worried if it was my spaceship. But hey, any landing you can walk away from (had there been passengers) is a good one, right?

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