STEM SPACE stuff

[Matski]

Four Telescopes Confirm There's Something Deeply Strange About the Mysterious Object Headed Into the Solar System

Astronomers simply can't shake the feeling that there's something really off about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. The mysterious entity, which was first spotted hurtling towards the Sun in early July, ...

www.yahoo.com

Let's hope it wasn't shot out of orbit by Bug plasma from within the Arachnid quarantine zone.

Also... don't just link dump.

 

[WBarnes]

Venus Aerospace completes first US flight test of Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine

Venus Aerospace completed a flight test of a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) on May 14, 2025. The engine is designed to "enable vehicles to travel 4 to 6 times the speed of sound from a...

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'A game changer': Space shuttle astronaut Pam Melroy joins Venus Aerospace after revolutionary rocket engine breakthrough

"We believe in a future where this is the engine powering everything..."

www.space.com

 

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Price: $876.00 million

Rocket Height: 98.1m

Payload to Orbit LEO: 95 000 kg

Liftoff Thrust: 39 440 Kilonewtons

Stages: 2

Strap-ons: 2

 

[Matski]

Clearing the tower is still the benchmark for success.... right?

 

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Link

 

[WBarnes]

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NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 Launch

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Watch live as four explorers from three space agencies lift off for a scientific mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are heading to low Earth orbit on NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission. They're scheduled to launch from the coast of Florida, aboard their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, at 5:15 a.m. EST (1015 UTC).

Meir, Hathaway, Adenot, and Fedyaev are scheduled to dock with the station on Saturday, Feb. 14. After they arrive, they'll carry out a science mission of studies and experiments that will help teach us how to live in space while making life better back on Earth.

 

[WBarnes]

Rocket-Powered, Space-Based Interceptors Enter Golden Dome Discussion

Rocket-Powered, Space-Based Interceptors Enter Golden Dome Discussion | Aviation Week Network

Boost-phase missile defense challenges the historic model for space-based interceptors, but a startup is proposing a possible thrust-based solution.

aviationweek.com

The U.S. Defense Department’s Golden Dome program is seeking a space-based interceptor with the thrust to intercept long-range ballistic and hypersonic missiles and the range to cover multiple launches from sites on land and submarines in the open sea.
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Revealing the size of the interceptors necessary to provide boost-phase coverage, this concept would shoot down incoming missiles launched from Earth with a constellation of theater interceptor-size missiles in space.

• Change to rocket motor’s exhaust nozzle opens path to hypersonic and space applications
• X-Bow is assessing latest XB-34 static fire test results

X-Bow Begins Hot-Firings Of Large Solid Rocket Motor For Hypersonic Applications - Defense Daily

X-Bow Systems last month conducted the first static firing of its largest solid rocket motor (SRM) yet, the XB-34, a self-funded 34.5-inch diameter motor

www.defensedaily.com

The size of the interceptors involved is indicated by a technical change that X-Bow (pronounced “Crossbow”) Systems plans to make to the exhaust nozzle of the freshly tested, 34.5-in.-dia. XB-34 solid rocket motor.

But the U.S. military selected the XB-34 to become a second-source supplier to Northrop Grumman on two hypersonic missile programs, removing a potential production capacity constraint. That decision makes X-Bow a future supplier for the 34.5-in.-dia., two-stage rocket that powers the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile and the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), also known as the Dark Eagle.

To qualify for the hypersonic missile role, X-Bow Systems plans to modify the XB-34 motor with the same type of flexseal nozzle that Northrop uses for the CPS and LRHW missiles. The flexseal nozzle includes a swivel bearing, which allows the rocket to meet the CPS and LRHW requirement for thrust-vector control steering.

Making that single change, however, opens a new path for the XB-34 as the steerable propulsion system for a space-based missile.

“Instead of a [High-Mobility Rocket Artillery System (Himars)] launcher on the ground, you basically have your Himars in space,” Hundley tells Aviation Week.

The concept has emerged as the Defense Department refines the architecture for the Golden Dome missile shield. In additional to a terrestrial “underlayer” of land-based interceptors, the architecture includes a space layer focused on shooting down ICBM and hypersonic glide vehicles during the short boost phase after launch, Pentagon officials say.

The catch is that intercepting offensive missiles in boost phase is challenging. The stage lasts only 3-5 min. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed the Brilliant Pebbles program, which envisioned a constellation of about 2,000 satellite-like interceptors, with solid rocket motors on board to propel them toward the incoming missiles (AW&ST Feb. 26, 1990, p. 62). But the vastness of low Earth orbit and the limitations of those thrusters meant that only a handful of Brilliant Pebbles interceptors would be in range of any single ICBM launch. An enemy that launched multiple ICBMs nearly simultaneously could defeat the system.

But propelling space-based interceptors with large solid rocket motors—especially an XB-34—could change the orbital math, expanding the reach of each missile over a broader coverage area.

The concept envisions a constellation of XB-34-powered interceptors in low Earth orbit, each refreshed by a new interceptor every 3-5 years. The thrust available to the rocket motor makes deorbiting into the Earth’s atmosphere unnecessary, Hundley said. The missiles instead could be launched on a solar trajectory. That ability to rocket away from the planet also makes these interceptors an option for asteroid defense, Hundley adds.

Asked if space-based, rocket-powered interceptors had advanced beyond the concept stage, Hundley says: “Most of the conversations going on in this area are classified, but we think we’ve got some low-cost, affordable and scalable capability in this area that could be a game changer on that equation.”