Iran on Wednesday launched a “biological capsule” into low Earth orbit – an effort the nation’s minister of communications claims is a precursor to crewed flights.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), a state organ, reported that the capsule weighed 500 kilograms, was launched atop a “Salman” rocket, and reached an altitude of 130 kilometers.
Comms minister Isa Zarepour reportedly described the launcher and capsule as having been designed locally to send Iranian astronauts into space.
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Stratolaunch takes ready-to-fly hypersonic craft skyward, but still no launch
_Stratolaunch has taken its Talon-A reusable hypersonic aircraft into the sky fully fueled and ready to launch, but the long-delayed test flight isn’t happening yet. _
The operator of the world’s largest aircraft said reported it had flown the Roc mothership, which will be used as an airborne launcher for its reusable hypersonic craft, for a three-hour tour with the first fully-fueled Talon-A. When it finally launches, the unmanned aircraft is designed to fly at Mach 5 or above carrying a variety of payloads, before landing ready for reuse.
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Here’s how fast a spacecraft should fly to successfully detect amino acids erupting from Enceladus
Future spacecraft flying close to Enceladus may be able to detect amino acids, an essential class of organic compounds for life on Earth, in the explosive plumes erupting from the moon’s surface, a new study suggests.
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NASA engineers got their parachute wires crossed for OSIRIS-REx mission
NASA has revealed how a wiring mix-up resulted in a parachute problem on its otherwise successful OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.
The release triggers for the parachutes could have been wired incorrectly, resulting in the signals designed to trigger the drogue parachute – a small parachute used to provide some control and stability before the main parachute is deployed – being fired out of order.
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Yeesh. You’d think that NASA would take extra special care in checking all the equipment related to parachute release on sample return missions after the embarrassment of the Genesis mission. That one crashed in 2004 because the accelerometer for triggering the parachute was installed backwards.
To me one of the main takeaways from this story is that NASA had an astronaut up on the ISS for over a year, had him working on growing tomatoes, and explicitly forbade him from eating any? After going so long without fresh fruit that’s just mean.
