SPACEX Test Fires Powerful New Engine
Press Release
Video Shows SuperDraco Engine in Action
Hawthorne, CA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has successfully test fired SuperDraco, a powerful new engine that will play a critical role in the company’s efforts to change the future of human spaceflight.
WATCH THE VIDEO: http://youtu.be/PUUnYgo1-lI
“SuperDraco engines represent the best of cutting edge technology,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technology Officer. “These engines will power a revolutionary launch escape system that will make Dragon the safest spacecraft in history and enable it to land propulsively on Earth or another planet with pinpoint accuracy.”
The SuperDraco is an advanced version of the Draco engines currently used by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to maneuver on orbit and during reentry. As part of SpaceX’s state-of-the-art launch escape system, eight SuperDraco engines built into the side walls of the Dragon spacecraft will produce up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust to carry astronauts to safety should an emergency occur during launch.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program awarded SpaceX $75 million in April of last year to begin work developing the escape system in order to prepare the Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts. Less than nine months later, SpaceX engineers have designed, built and tested the engine.
In a series of recent tests conducted at the company’s Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas, the SuperDraco sustained full duration, full thrust firing as well as a series of deep throttling demonstrations. SpaceX’s
launch escape system has many advantages over past systems. It is inherently safer because it is not jettisoned like all other escape systems. This distinction provides astronauts with the unprecedented ability to escape from danger at any point during the launch, not just in the first few minutes. The eight SuperDracos provide redundancy, so that even if one engine fails an escape can still be carried out successfully.
SuperDracos can also be restarted multiple times if necessary and the engines will have the ability to deep throttle, providing astronauts with precise control and enormous power. In addition, as a part of a recoverable Dragon spacecraft, the engines can be used repeatedly, helping to advance SpaceX’s long-term goal of making spacecraft more like airplanes, which can be flown again and again with minimal maintenance between flights.
A Pocket of Star Formation
This new view shows a stellar nursery called NGC 3324. It was taken using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The intense ultraviolet radiation from several of NGC 3324′s hot young stars causes the gas cloud to glow with rich colours and has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust.
Find out more:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1207/
The Wild Early Lives of Today’s Most Massive Galaxies
ESO, APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO), A. Weiss et al., NASA Spitzer Science Center
Using the APEX telescope, a team of astronomers has found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today. The galaxies, flowering with dramatic starbursts in the early Universe, saw the birth of new stars abruptly cut short, leaving them as massive — but passive — galaxies of aging stars in the present day. The astronomers also have a likely culprit for the sudden end to the starbursts: the emergence of supermassive black holes.
The release, images and videos are available on:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1206/
2012 | Year of the Dragon
Press Release
January 23, 2012
Today marks
the start of the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar and this year, SpaceX’s Dragon will become the first privately developed spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.
Space travel is one of the most difficult of all human endeavors, and success is never a guarantee. This flight introduces a series of new challenges and new magnitudes of complexity; if even the smallest thing goes wrong, we will be forced to abort the mission.
What is guaranteed, however, is our commitment. There will be challenges along the way, but SpaceX will again make history and become the first private company to send a spacecraft to the Space Station. We take this responsibility very seriously and will not stop until we succeed.
Dragon is a spacecraft unlike any other. Not only is it the first privately developed spacecraft to successfully return from Earth orbit, but it is also the only reusable spacecraft designed for human transport in operation today. In the coming days, we’ll take a closer look at some of Dragon’s advanced technologies in celebration of the Year of the Dragon and the opening of a new era in space travel.
In the meantime, checkout out the interactive panorama below for a look inside Dragon in its cargo configuration, as it will be on its first mission to the International Space Station:
(click image to view interactive
panorama–flash required)
At the top you have the hatch that will connect with the International Space Station. To the side is the hatch as well as racks and straps to hold
cargo, which in our next mission will include several hundred pounds of astronaut provisions. And on the floor, just above the heat shield, is
additional storage space behind metal doors that are shown both open and closed.
Print You Own NASA ISS Calendar
Print your own 2012 Int’l Space Station calendar, packed with photos & interesting facts. 1.usa.gov/yyXnze #ISS
ESO’s Vista Shows The Helix Nebula in New Colours
ESO’s VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies.
Find out more: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1205/
Planets Around Stars Are The Rule Rather Than The Exception
An international team, including three astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. After a six-year search that surveyed millions of stars, the team concludes that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The results will appear in the journal Nature on 12 January 2012.
Read more: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1204/
Hubble Pinpoints Furthest Protocluster of Galaxies Ever Seen
Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of development, making it the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early Universe.
Read more:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1201/
El Gordo — A “Fat” Distant Galaxy Cluster
An extremely hot, massive young galaxy cluster — the largest ever seen in the distant Universe — has been studied by an international team using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama Desert in Chile along with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The new results are being announced on 10 January 2012 at the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
Read more: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1203/