Latest news on "Space"

A few years ago, the US National Aerospace Agency announced that it was resuming its nuclear program to develop space engines. In 2023, it selected the first concept of a bimodal nuclear propulsion system using a "wave rotor excitation cycle", which will reduce the flight time to Mars to 45 days.

Last year, there was a successful demonstration of the American strategy of operational replacement of damaged satellites in orbit. The private space company Firefly Aerospace launched the Victus Nox mission, showing that the United States is able to launch a payload in less than 60 hours from the moment of need. But on a large scale, such actions in response to the real threat of satellite loss will most likely not be enough. Therefore, the American Space Forces are considering a set of response measures.

The General Designer of RSC Energia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Solovyov, announced at the Royal Readings that a spaceplane was being developed in Russia "to obtain new qualities of the ROS transport and technical support system," that is, the Russian orbital station. The proposed design is highly questionable from a technical point of view.

The automatic interplanetary station SLIM landed on January 19 — Japan became the fifth country to make a soft landing on the surface of a natural satellite of the Earth. However, the joy was short-lived.

FT: an AFU fighter admitted the impossibility of holding a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper

The Ukrainian troops defending near the village of Krynki are experiencing a shortage of heavy weapons and incur heavy irretrievable losses. The Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier told the Financial Times that Ukraine will not be able to hold this site for long. The military observer of Gazeta investigated what mistakes the Ukrainian Armed Forces made in Krynki and what are the prospects of this Ukrainian bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.

Until 2024, only four countries managed to land gently on the moon: Russia, the USA, China and India. At the same time, recent attempts of this kind by Roscosmos, the American private company Astrobotic, as well as private Israeli and Japanese players ended in crashes. The Japanese Space Agency became the fifth in the list of those who were able to do this, showing a non-trivially high level of competence.

The next stage of the so-called initial flight test of the prototype of the first stage of the Zhujue-3 Zhuque-3 VTVL-1 launch vehicle has been carried out in China. A feature of the engine of this stage is that it runs on methane.

The connection with him has been established, JAXA said

Communication with the first Japanese lunar module SLIM has been established after its landing on the moon, but it is experiencing power problems due to the fact that solar panels do not generate energy. This was reported by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Serial launches of reusable Falcon 9 rockets from SpaceX have reduced the cost of putting cargo into orbit to $1,500 per 1 kg. When the big Starship rocket starts flying, the price will drop by another third, and when these missiles can be used on a permanent basis, the price will drop to $232 per 1 kg. This is a threshold level that makes various daring experiments in space profitable, and the launches themselves are accessible to small private structures.

SpaceX plans to conduct 150 space launches this year, compared to 96 in 2023, with about a dozen of them to be Starship flights. The head of the company believes that he found out the causes of the explosion of the ship during its last, third, test flight and this allows us to hope for the success of subsequent ones.

Colonel Khodarenok: many NATO countries are not ready for war with Russia

NATO is preparing for a large-scale offensive operation of the Russian Armed Forces on the eastern flank of the alliance, according to the German newspaper Bild. At the same time, the publication relies on a secret document of the Bundeswehr. Is a war between the Russian Federation and the countries of the alliance possible, how it will develop and how true the tabloid's forecasts are, the military observer of the Newspaper figured out.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.

American science columnist Megan Bartels, in an article for Scientific American magazine, considered options for decommissioning the International Space Station. Naked Science translated her article for a Russian-speaking audience.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks accused Beijing and Moscow of wanting to "turn space into a sphere of warfare"

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks claims that China and Russia are deploying assets that can be used against GPS and other systems in space, allegedly seeking to weaken American military capabilities.

When the launch vehicle consumes fuel, its fuel tanks are no longer needed: they turn into dead weight. In addition, by losing the fuel tank, tens of millions of dollars more are lost — the cost of the engines used on the stage. "Self‐devouring rockets" that would burn their tanks as fuel would not only solve the problem of garbage, but would also save customers a lot of money. For the first time, a group of engineers from the UK built a prototype rocket engine that "feeds" on rocket parts.

Astrobotic, which developed the Peregrine lunar lander, reported on January 9 that the spacecraft was losing fuel due to a malfunction of the propulsion system

On January 9, 2024, the American company Astrobotic, which developed the Peregrine lunar lander, reported that the spacecraft was losing fuel due to a malfunction of the propulsion system systems.

The Peregrine device sent the first photo after going into space. Judging by it, earlier fears were confirmed: there is no question of any soft landing on the moon. Before that, the United States landed on a natural satellite of the Earth in 1972. The failure of Peregrine means that the United States will not be able to repeat a soft landing on the Moon until the second half of the 2020s.

Even before the first flight, the Vulcan rocket received 70 firm orders for future launches, more than anyone else in history. A private lander went on board to the Moon, which will hold the first "soft" funerals of people in history there. By the way, Indian tribes that deify the Moon have already sent a protest to NASA demanding that the flight be stopped. What will it actually be? Does SpaceX finally have at least one serious competitor — or is this just an overly ambitious hearse that is taking Boeing and Lockhid Martin, behind Vulcan, to the cemetery?

Colonel Khodarenok told how to make a formula for success in the war

American billionaire Elon Musk supported the opinion of businessman David Sachs, who said that in any protracted conflict, the country that can produce ammunition on a large scale at a lower cost and for a longer time wins. Is Musk right, is there anything new in his statement and what might be the real formula for winning the war - in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.

According to the CEO of CENKI, Nikolai Nestechuk, Russian Angara missiles will receive returnable reusable stages. At the same time, we are talking about an unclear "certain reusability", which will be given to Angara and Amur LNG.

The main events of 2023 in the military sphere: the superiority of the Russian Armed Forces in the zone of its own

The main event of the year in the military sphere remains the special military operation in Ukraine, which demonstrates the superiority of the Russian Armed Forces on the battlefield over the Ukrainian Armed Forces, despite the extensive military support of the Kiev regime by the West.