Trend: Longshots

SpaceX Sticks the Landing on Starship Test

SpaceX successfully executed a high-altitude flight test of its Starship rocket Wednesday evening, nailing the landing. This was the first successful high-altitude Starship test to date. The prototype SN15 took off from the site in Boca Chica, Texas, on May 5. Fueled by three Raptor engines, Starship climbed toward a 10 km altitude, at which […]

Ingenuity Completes Third Successful Flight on Mars with Greater Speeds and Distance

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed a third successful flight on April 25 showing progress on its abilities to fly further and faster than in the two previous demonstration flights, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced. Ingenuity’s third flight occurred at 4:31 a.m. EDT or 12:33 p.m. Mars time, according to NASA. The helicopter climbed 16 […]

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Achieves Historic First Flight on Mars

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter made history on April 19 completing the first powered flight on Mars, according to an announcement from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who confirmed the flight at 6:46 a.m. EDT today. The flight took place at 3:34 am EDT, which is 12:33 Mars time, and was flown completely autonomously. The data […]

How Does the Aerospace Industry Solve Its Education Problem?

Emerging technologies in the aviation industry like electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) and artificial intelligence (AI) are facing a big problem that could stymie their implementation: the education of their future workforce. Industry professionals say aerospace education needs to undergo major changes in order for the industry to grow and be successful. The success […]

SpaceX Crew-1 Launch Officially Starts New Era in Commercial Human Space Travel

SpaceX’s successful launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station on Sunday, Nov. 15 was a significant milestone for the company, but only the beginning of a six-month process where key technology and physiological aspects of future commercial human space travel will be evaluated. The historic launch occurred at […]

Can Virgin Galactic Reach CEO’s Future 400 Spaceflights Per Year Goal?

Virgin Galactic plans to perform the first human space flight from its New Mexico Spaceport next week, the latest milestone in the space travel operator’s long-term goal of achieving 400 space flights a year from such facilities, the company’s new chief executive officer Michael Colglazier told analysts during their Nov. 5 third-quarter earnings call. “I […]

AFRL Recruits Purdue and Notre Dame for Hypersonic Research

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is partnering with Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame to conduct hypersonic research in key areas including the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, predicting the heating of turbulent flow, systems engineering, and propulsion, Jonathan Poggie, a professor in the school of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue […]

NASA Mission to Examine Binary Asteroids Fits With Wider, “Responsive Space” Vision

As the nascent U.S. Space Force envisions a “responsive space” future in which the newest military service is able to launch low-cost rockets carrying small satellites and cube satellites, NASA is getting into the game with a new space mission – Janus, named after the two-faced Roman god – to examine the heretofore mysterious binary […]

Could This Self Charging Thousand Year Diamond Battery Power an Airplane in the Future?

Two breakthrough proof of concept demonstrations of a disruptive new self-charging diamond battery powered by nuclear radioactive waste has Pleasanton, California-based green energy startup NDB Inc. poised to disrupt the future concept of power within aerospace applications. NDB Inc. CEO Dr. Nima Golsharifi told Avionics International that research and development of the first ever nano […]

Heron Systems Shows Future Potential of AI in Win Over Top F-16 Weapons Instructor

Heron Systems was declared the winner of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) AlphaDogfight trials between artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled F-16 simulators and U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots that took place Friday, Aug. 21, after being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The finals were to occur at AFWERX headquarters in Las […]