Astronauts Matthias Maurer, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron arrived at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final launch preparations. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

Astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Matthias Maurer, and Kayla Barron flew from their home base in Houston to NASAs Kennedy Space Center Tuesday to begin their final few days of launch preparations before blasting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the International Space Station Sunday.

Three of the crew members Chari, Maurer, and Barron are first-time space fliers. Maurer, a German-born European Space Agency astronaut, will be the 600th person to fly into space, according to NASA statistics.

Chari will be the 599th, and Barron will be the 601st person to reach space since 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched into orbit at the beginning of the Space Age.

I was the lucky one that got the round number, but we will all have fun in space, Maurer said Tuesday after arriving at Kennedy aboard a NASA Gulfstream jet.

Being No. 600 in 60 years, it makes 10 persons per year, Maurer said. But I think in a very few years we will see an exponential rise of that because now were entering the era of commercial spaceflight, and all the suborbital flights, they also count in the statistics.

NASAs spaceflight statistics include every person who has reached an altitude of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers), the boundary of space also recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. military.The Krmn line at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) is where space begins according to theFdration Aronautique International.

The FAA has awarded commercial astronaut wings to pilots and crew of Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, which flies above the 50-mile boundary but does not reach the internationally-recognized 62-mile threshold.

Twenty people have joined the list of space fliers under the U.S. government definition since the beginning of this year. Seventeen of those are not professional astronauts or cosmonauts, with most of them flying as passengers on suborbital trips on Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin vehicles.

The arrival of the Crew-3 astronauts at Kennedy Space Center marks the start of a busy few days leading up t0 liftoff Sunday.

We are super excited to be here at Kennedy, said Chari, commander of the Crew-3 mission.

We got to see the pad flying in, which was amazing, he said. The last few days have been full of reviews. Weve had the benefit of getting to focus on training while our leadership teams have been making tough decisions and getting the vehicle ready to make it safe for us to fly. And were ready to go.

The only technical issue under review by NASA and SpaceX engineers involves the toilet on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The waste system malfunctioned on the most recent Dragon crew mission last month, when SpaceX launched four private citizens into orbit on the first-of-its-kind all-commercial Inspiration4 mission.

A glued joint in a line that carries urine into the spacecrafts waste tank became disconnected during the three-day flight. SpaceX welded the joint in the waste system on the Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-3 mission to avoid having the same problem.

NASA teams are reviewing the modification before formally giving the go-ahead for the Crew-3 launch this weekend. Agency officials are also studying the condition of the toilet system on the Crew Dragon spacecraft currently docked at the space station, which will be used by four astronauts to return to Earth next week.

Chari and his crewmates will spend this week reviewing flight plans, rehearsing for launch day, and taking some time off before their scheduled blastoff to the International Space Station at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT) Sunday from pad 39A.

Assuming an on-time launch, the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft the newest member of SpaceXs crew capsule fleet will dock at the station around 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT) Monday.

The Crew-3 astronauts will spend six months at the space station, performing experiments and maintaining the complex as part of a seven-person long duration crew. Three other crew members launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The new crew will spend a few days getting briefings and updates from the outgoing Crew-2 astronauts, who arrived at the space station in April on SpaceXs Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. The Crew-2 mission will end Nov. 4 or 5 with an undocking from the station and a splashdown off the coast of Florida.

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German astronaut to become 600th person to fly into space Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A museum on Clevelands lakefront honors women who have reached the heights and aimed for the stars.

And it doesnt have anything to do with rock n roll.

These stories have a ripple effect for young women, said Sara Fisher, executive director of the International Womens Air and Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport. They hear these stories and think, If this strong woman can do it, I can do it.

The museum, founded in 1998, is the only one of its kind in the world, Fisher said. It recognizes the full range of womens contributions to aviation, from pioneering pilots and astronauts to engineers, astronomers and physicists.

There are more than 20,000 items in its collection, including photographs, clothing, letters and even full-size aircraft and flight simulators. The museum holds over 6,000 biographies of women, highlighting accomplishments that dont make it into most textbooks.

The museum will host a Zoom program at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day -- on Women in the Armed Forces: World War II and Beyond, in conjunction with the Liverpool, N.Y., Library. Fisher will discuss the obstacles encountered and the accomplishments of women aviators over the last 75 years.

More than Amelia

There is more to the history of women in flight than Amelia Earhart, the museum illustrates in its virtual exhibit Defying the Odds, launched online in June.

Everyone knows the names of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the first men to fly. But few are aware of the contributions of their sister, Katherine, who supported them during their experiments and was one of the first airplane passengers. She also found time to agitate for the vote for women.

Fisher said one of the most heartbreaking episodes of historic amnesia is the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to earn a pilots license. Because of the prevailing racial bias of the time in the United States, she had to travel to France to train, learning the language before she left.

The air is the only place free from prejudice, Coleman said.

Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license, but had to travel to France to train and be tested. She died in a plane crash in 1926, but inspired generations of future flyers. (John S. Matuszak, special to cleveland.com)

She became a barnstormer in the 1920s, and was tragically killed in a plane crash in Florida in 1926. Her accomplishments inspired generations of African-Americans to follow her lead.

Women faced many barriers to flying, but refused to be grounded. Barred from competing with men, they launched the first Intercontinental Womens Air Derby in 1926, a 2,759-mile race from California to Cleveland that included Earhart.

Accounts of their feats were condescending. Emma Todd, who designed airplanes, was described by the New York Times as a little woman who has invented and built one of the handsomest aeroplanes in existence.

The museum recognizes the feats of women from around the globe, from China to Argentina to Egypt, and even those with disabilities, such as the first deaf pilot.

Flying for freedom

There was a desperate need for pilots during World War II, and women answered the call. Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, was founded in 1942 by Jacqueline Cochran, who would go on to be the first woman to break the sound barrier.

These women tested and ferried aircraft and trained pilots, freeing up men for combat missions. Around 1,100 women participated in this volunteer effort; 38 were killed.

The outfit was disbanded in 1944, with Gen. Hap Arnold acknowledging that the women had fulfilled their mission and in many cases equaled or surpassed the abilities of men.

However, the women flyers werent granted military status until 1977, and were belatedly issued the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

Into space

The Mercury 13 women, including future space traveler Wally Funk, underwent the same testing and training as the first group of men astronauts, but were denied the opportunity to fly in space. Funk finally went aloft in June, as the oldest person to fly in space. (John S. Matuszak, special to cleveland.com)

One of the major episodes examined by the museum is the experience of the Mercury 13 women astronaut trainees, a group that included Wally Funk, who last summer became the oldest person to fly in space.

Funded privately by Jackie Cochran, and under the supervision of NASA, the women undertook the same testing and training as their male counterparts, often exceeding them.

Funk was able to remain in a sensory deprivation tank for 10 hours, besting the four hours endured by John Glenn, who became the first astronaut to orbit the earth, Fisher pointed out.

The program was scrapped and the women never got the opportunity to fly in space, until Funk went up in the Blue Origin rocket at 82 -- five years older than Glenn when he made his second space flight in 1998.

It was more than 20 years after the first American flew in space, and 14 years after the first moon landing, that Sally Ride became the first American woman to go into space, in 1983.

The museum recognizes the growing number of women who have flown in space, but they still represent a small percentage of astronauts. (John S. Matuszak, special to cleveland.com)

Barriers still exist. Of the 200 astronauts who have traveled to the International Space Station, only 39 so far have been women. Of the more than 500 humans who have flown in space, only about 11 percent have been women.

One of those was Catherine Coleman, who has served as a volunteer at the Cleveland museum. Sunita Williams (virtually) ran the Boston Marathon and completed a triathlon while aboard the space station.

The museum at Burke Lakefront displays a wall with the photos of all of these women, along with their biographies, and has had to post the expanding roster on another board.

Fisher said she enjoys seeing the faces of the girls and young women on school tours, as they realize what has been achieved and what they themselves can aspire to.

The men flyers have given out the impression that aeroplaning is very perilous work, something that an ordinary mortal should not dream of attempting, early aviator Harriet Quimby observed. But when I saw how easily the men flyers manipulated their machines, I said I could fly.

Admission to the International Womens Air & Space Museum, at 1501 N. Marginal Road, is free. Guided tours and lunch tours are available for a fee.

For information, including registration for the Women in the Armed Forces presentation, visit http://www.iwasm.org.

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International Womens Air & Space Museum celebrates women with the right stuff - cleveland.com

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Image: Blue Origin

Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is teaming up with other firms to build a space station in Earth orbit. The group announced its plans on Monday, revealing the latest concept for a privately built orbital outpost that could replace or complement the International Space Station. The New York Times

Called Orbital Reef, the proposed space station is described as a mixed-use business park in space. The projects announcement comes months after Blue Origin completed its first human space flight, which included Bezos along with three others. Partners in the project include Sierra Space, Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University.

As per Blue Origins announcement, Orbital Reef will provide the essential infrastructure needed to scale economic activity and open new markets in space. The company intends for the station to serve a range of customers from space agencies to media and travel companies. They also claim that the station will start operating in the second half of this decade.

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Blue Origin plans to build a 'mixed-use' space station by the end of the decade - Archinect

Washington, November 1: A team of scientists, engineers and social workers are working on a project that aims at inclusive space exploration for people with disability. As part of the project named AstroAccess a group of 12 disabled scientists, veterans, students, athletes and artists launched into a zero-gravity environment last month. Conducted by the Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G), the flight was aboard a plane equipped with a special padded section that flies up to an altitude of around 32,000 feet and then begins a rapid descent at about 4 miles per second. This quick descent creates a free fall, or microgravity, weightless effect lasting roughly 30 seconds.

Afterwards, the plane climbs back up to a stable altitude, and repeats the process again. On the October 17 flight, the process was repeated roughly 15 times. The historic parabolic flight aimed to address how disability looks like in a weightless, microgravity environment-like space. "The whole point of this project is to demonstrate that people with disabilities are able to fly safely into space," said Dr. Erik Viirre, director of The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California San Diego, and a neurologist at UC San Diego Health. "What we're working on in this initial flight are demonstrations of a variety of different tasks that our Ambassadors will have to carry out, including navigating up, down, left and right; clear communication; and being able to move to a set location," he added. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin To Build A Private Space Station By 2030.

The 12 AstroAccess Ambassadors selected for this first microgravity flight included four blind or low-vision Ambassadors; two deaf or hard-of-hearing Ambassadors; and six Ambassadors with mobility disabilities, all carrying out a variety of tasks and challenges in the weightless environment. One of the challenges was seeing whether all crew members could perform basic safety and operational tasks, like navigating to oxygen masks. The crew also tested a procedure to see whether sound beacons can be used for blind members to orient themselves, and the effectiveness of haptic devices in communicating commands. They're also investigating how American Sign Language will be impacted by microgravity. To get a better idea of what is needed for more inclusive space travel, AstroAccess plans to conduct a series of follow-on parabolic flights after this inaugural launch, the researchers said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 01, 2021 05:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).

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A Space Exploration Project Inclusive of People With Disability Takes Flight - LatestLY

Lesson Overview

Featured Article: A Future for People With Disabilities in Outer Space Takes Flight by Amanda Morris

Recently, 12 passengers with disabilities traveled aboard a parabolic flight in an experiment testing how people with disabilities would fare in a zero-gravity environment.

In this lesson, you will learn about their experience and the efforts being made to ensure that the future of spaceflight is more inclusive. Then, you will think about accessibility and universal design in your community.

Do you want to travel to space? When we asked students this question in February, many of them were excited about, or at least interested in, this possibility. Before reading the featured article, consider the two additional questions below in writing or class discussion.

What limitations or barriers are there to your traveling to space?

Have you ever considered how ability or disability affects your possibilities for space travel? Why or why not?

Read the article and then answer the following questions:

1. In what ways has the history of spaceflight been exclusionary? How does the nonprofit organization AstroAccess attempt to make spaceflight more accessible?

2. Why do the participants in the AstroAccess flight argue that it is important to consider accessibility in private space travel now, rather than later?

3. What is the purpose of the space travel testing that AstroAccess is currently doing?

4. Tim Bailey, the executive director of a nonprofit organization focused on space education, said at first that he was concerned about people with disabilities on a zero-gravity flight. What assumptions did he make? Why did he change his mind?

5. What were some of the designs that were tested on the AstroAccess flight to address various accessibility needs?

6. How are space agencies and private spaceflight companies becoming more inclusive or not for astronauts and everyday people with disabilities who are interested in space travel?

7. The article featured the personal stories and reflections of several of the passengers on the AstroAccess flight. Choose one story that you found particularly interesting and share what stood out to you about that passengers experience.

The featured article focuses on accessibility for people with disabilities in space. Learn more about accessibility here on Earth by exploring one or more of these articles:

Inclusive Design: Did you know there is a whole movement dedicated to accessible and inclusive architecture and design? It is sometimes called universal design, or inclusive design. You can learn more about inclusive design by reading about a museum exhibit dedicated to accessible designs, or an architectural reflection of changes to design following the American With Disabilities Act. Or you can learn about accessible cosmetics designs or home designs for older people.

Choose one article and, as you read, make note of any design features that you had not considered before. Would any of these benefit a space you go to often, such as your school, your home or your local grocery store? How so? What additional questions or reflections do you have about accessible design in your community?

Accessibility at Work: Making Work Accessible, an illustrated article from the Scratch column, profiles Krystal Bailey, a vocational rehabilitation counselor in the Bronx who helps people with disabilities enter the work force. As you read, consider how Krystals experience using a wheelchair has made her interested in this kind of work. Then, make note of how she helps her clients find work and the different elements she must consider in terms of accessibility.

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

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Lesson of the Day: A Future for People With Disabilities in Outer Space Takes Flight - The New York Times

The weird motions of planet Earth and its sun will be a fun sight for future NASA astronauts standing on the south pole of the moon, if a new agency animation is any indication.

NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland released the short video compressing a simulated viewpoint over three months (or a little over three lunar days) into two minutes. You can see Earth bobbing up and down while the sun does a more graceful glide around the horizon.

If you keep a close eye on the video, after a while you'll be treated to an eclipse of Earth passing in front of the sun, which is the opposite of lunar eclipses that we can see from Earth.

"For observers on Earth, this is a lunar eclipse, in which the moon passes through the shadow cast by Earth. Viewed from the moon, however, this is an eclipse of the sun," the NASA studio said in the video description.

Related: Every single mission to the moon ever

The virtual camera in the animation is on the rim of Shackleton Crater, partially visible in the bottom right, and is aimed at Earth.This is approximately the same region that NASA is targeting for its Artemis moon-landing missions.

The agency hopes to put boots on the surface later in the 2020s, with a suite of robotic explorers joining the effort. Those payloads, collectively known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, may touch down on the moon as early as 2022.

NASA's Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed loop around the moon and then back to Earth again, is expected to launch in February 2022, the agency announced last week. The mission was delayed several times due to technical issues.

The next planned mission is Artemis 2, a crewed lunar orbiting mission that will fly the first international astronaut (a Canadian) to the moon's vicinity. The very tentative date for that is 2023. NASA then hopes to have Artemis 3, a landing mission, touch down in 2024.

But these dates may change as Artemis 1 is finalized and technology development and funding are further along. The spacesuits for Artemis, for example, appear to be too far behind to make a 2024 deadline, according to NASA's inspector general.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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This is what Earth looks like from the moon's south pole (video) - Space.com

A massive solar flare from the sun could lead to a dazzling (and maybe spooky) northern lights display for parts of the northern United States this Halloween, according to a NASA scientist.

The sun storm, a powerful X1-class solar flare, erupted from the sun on Thursday (Oct. 28) and sent a vast cloud of charged particles toward Earth that should arrive over Halloween weekend, and possibly even the haunted day itself. Those particles will slam into the Earth's atmosphere to amplify the regular northern lights caused by the sun's solar wind.

The solar flare, the second most powerful eruption from the sun this year, sparked a strong geomagnetic storm that should supercharge the northern lights, and could make them visible from as far south as New York, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon, Maryland and Nevada, said C. Alex Young, NASA's associate director for science at the Heliophysics Division of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Related: The sun's wrath: Worst solar storms in history

See the northern lights?

If you take a photograph of the Halloween northern lights from the solar flare, send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

"This could be a great show for people in the mid-to-upper U.S. latitudes for aurora," Young said in an email late Thursday. "Especially those in Canada, [Upper Peninsula of Michigan], Alaska, Iceland, Norway, Scotland, etc."

Seeing auroras at such low latitudes is rare and can be difficult, especially if you live in a big city filled with streetlights and other light pollution. To get your best chance at seeing any auroras this weekend, try to get away from city lights and find the darkest sky possible.

Also, don't expect to see the dazzling, sweeping displays common at higher latitudes, Young warned. It won't be as dynamic a show as the ribbons of light seen far northern regions known for such light shows, or those seen by astronauts from space.

If you're hoping to see the northern lights for yourself, check out our guides on where and how to photograph the aurora, as well as the best equipment for aurora photography and how to edit aurora photos once you have your snapshots. If you need equipment, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography to start out.

Young said the solar flare was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a huge eruption of radiation, that spewed solar particles away from the sun at a mind-boggling 2.5 million mph (4 million kph).

"The current estimates for the CME are that it will reach Earth on Oct. 31," Young said.

Thursday's solar flare erupted from an active sunspot called AR2887 that is currently located in the center of the sun as it makes its way across the star's face, as seen from Earth. Another active sunspot, called AR2891, rotated into view this week for its own two-week trip across the sun's face. It fired off a moderate, M-class solar flare on Sunday (Oct. 24).

X-class solar flares are the strongest type of sun eruptions. When they're aimed directly at Earth, the most powerful ones (the X1 flare on Thursday is the lowest level) can endanger astronauts in space, interfere with satellite communications signals and affect power grids on Earth. Thursday's solar flare caused a temporary radio blackout for high frequencies, as well as a GPS blackout for systems that use low-frequency signals, Young said.

"The flare will probably have no impact on the ISS," he added, referring to the International Space Station, which is home to seven astronauts from the U.S., Japan, France and Russia. Four more astronauts will launch to the station on SpaceX's Crew-3 mission on Halloween.

As for the rest of us, there's no need to worry, either, Young said.

"We dont have much to worry about as far as impact to our daily lives but there could be more space weather impacts in the future as we continue to move towards solar max around 2024-2025," he added.

The sun is currently in the beginning phase of its latest 11-year solar cycle, called solar cycle 25, in which its activity rises and falls over time. Currently its activity is relatively low.

"And the sun can always surprise with an unexpected large flare/CME/SEP combo," Young said. "Historically, those often come after we pass solar max but the Sun, she always aims to keep us on our toes.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandInstagram.

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Huge solar flare could supercharge northern lights on Halloween - Space.com

Not only did Mary Haizlip and Blanche Noyes make names for themselves through competitive flight, but they also made money by flying. The women worked as test and demonstration pilots, one of the many ways they contributed to the field of aviation. Discover their stories.

Mary Haizlip was the second woman in the United States to hold her commercial pilots license. She was a test pilot for Spartan Aircraft, American Eagle, and Buhl Aircraft.

In addition to her work flying, Haizlip also held the world's speed record for women for seven years. In 1930 she flew a Cessna racer, finishing second in a race and posting the fastest pylon time for the Cessna racer. In ten days at the 1931 Cleveland National Air Races, she competed in six different high-performance aircraft. Haizlip was the second highest money winner, man or woman, at the 1931 National Air Races.

Haizlip was the first woman pilot inducted in the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame on December 17, 1982.

Blanche Noyes left a promising theater and movie career to marry an airmail pilot who wound up teaching her to fly. Dewey Noyes bought Blanche her first plane in 1929 and taught her to fly because he wanted to prove that anyone could do it. She soloed on February 15, 1929 and earned her license in July of the same year, becoming the first woman pilot in the Cleveland area. She immediately entered the Women's Air Derby from Santa Monica to Cleveland and placed fourth.

Noyes was a demonstration pilot for Standard Oil in 1931 and continued flying with various corporations until 1935. Following the death of her husband in a crash in 1935, Noyes joined the Air Marking Group of the Bureau of Air Commerce in the summer of 1936, and later was a member of the Women's Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. Blanche was the copilot for Louise Thaden when Thaden won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race, a first for a woman. For many years, she was the only woman pilot allowed to fly a government aircraft.

Noyes, who raced in nearly every national air race for women, was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1970. In recognition of her 35 years of government service for air safety, Noyes became the first woman to receive a gold medal from the Commerce Department.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit, Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in the Museum in the early 2000s.

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Flying for Work | National Air and Space Museum - National Air and Space Museum

The CEO and founder of Space Perspective, Jane Poynter, talks to us about launching space travels very first luxury experience.

The commercial space race has been dominated by headlines from Bezos, Branson and Musk. Their rocket ships herald a new era in space flight and tourism for a select few. But hot on the heels of these high-profile space bros is another relatively more accessible offering that aims at an altogether gentler, more luxurious experience.

Imagine sipping on a martini, breathing deeply and looking over the blue layers that demarcate the edge of the atmosphere as the sun edges up slowly in the curved horizon. Youre dressed in your favourite cocktail club outfit and cast your eye, scanning the coastline below, a stars view of where land slowly meets the oceans on planet Earth. It might sound more like science fiction, but its closer to reality than you think.

Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, partners in business and life, have launched a unique experience onboard the ground-breaking, pressurised Spaceship Neptune, a luxury-cruise experience in the sky. Travellers in a piloted pod will ascend into the edge of space, some 100,000 feet high, using flight technology used for decades at NASA another of Poynter and MacCallums companies, Paragon Space Development Corporation, has supplied life-support system equipment to the agency for years and state-of-the-art space-balloon-engineering.

Space Perspectives trips will enable eight people, plus a pilot, in each Spaceship Neptune capsule to experience 360-degree, 725-kilometre views of space, the stars, sunrises and sunsets, as well as epic, breathtaking views of Earth below. The profound, six-hour, once-in-a-lifetime journey can be shared with friends and family, and even be the setting for special events, such as small weddings or concerts.

This summer, for the first time ever, your ticket to explore space with Poynters company is available to book online. Start saving.

Our entire careers have been devoted to looking at ways of taking people to space in a way thats more accessible, and rockets just didnt seem to be it yet. I mean, theres a lot of energy with a rocket, right? And its still a fairly nascent technology. And experientially, I think getting on a rocket is difficult for a lot of people to get their heads around and weve got high Gs and a lot of vibration and training. So we were looking for a way for people to have that astronaut experience in a much more comfortable, relaxed, gentle way.

When Taber was in his early teens, he saw his astrophysicist father send a large gamma-ray telescope under a space balloon to study our Milky Way he was actually on the team that discovered the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. Taber remembered seeing these balloons going up and remembered the elegance and how gentle they were. He walked into my office one day and said, What do you think about taking people up under a space balloon? And that was it. Thats the idea. Thats exactly what we were looking for.

Its expensive and definitely for the wealthy, but I actually expected it to be more. Well, its less than half the price of Virgin Galactic actually it was half the price, as Virgin has gone from about US$250,000 to $425-450,000. So its quite likely youll see our price go up in the future, but we want this to be accessible to as many people as possible. The demand is such that well almost certainly be putting the price up before it comes down. Our long-term vision is for it to come down, but I think it would be a while before it does.

Its even smoother than being on a plane theres going to be a bar, therell be food. Theres no zero gravity or space suit, so you can lounge, and theres a bathroom. When youre in an aeroplane youre going through the air, so you sometimes get that buffeting. Were going up through the air, but were going so slowly, at 12mph [20km/h], that its incredibly smooth Its not the same mechanism as a hot-air balloon, but I suppose by analogy and experientially its similar. So, its not really like anything youve ever experienced before, but its very smooth.

We talked with a lot of astronauts about what the quintessential experience of being in space is. And you know what almost the universal response is? Its experiencing Earth from space. The zero-G part is cool, but it can also be kind of annoying. The rocket ride is like, OK but its really that experience of looking down at Earth, which youll be able to see.

It takes two hours to go up to space. And then youre really sitting on top of the atmosphere for about two hours, floating, and about two hours to come back down again. If you think about that, were in that last 1 percent of the atmosphere, and were 20 miles above the planet. And that last 1 percent extends for many, many, many miles beyond the International Space Station. So everything that you think of in low Earth orbit, thats all in that last 1 percent of the atmosphere.

So 80 percent of them at the moment are American and I think thats mostly because its where the majority of our press has been to date. And the rest is from all over the world. About 70 percent of those whove booked are men, which doesnt mean to say they arent going to take female companions with them. We also dont know exactly, for some of the flights, who the other customers are. About 45 percent of our flights have been booked as complete capsule flights between people. So sometimes well have somebody call and they say, Would you book two seats for me right now? But could you hold the rest of the capsule for a few days? Im just gonna go call some friends. And then a couple of days later, theyll call back and go, OK, I need the whole capsule.

I think that having more and more people go into space translates into a greater understanding of what the space industry at large brings to our everyday lives. Eventually with millions of people having that experience of seeing Earth in space, whether its from where were flying in suborbital flight, or from the moon or Mars, or from low Earth orbit in a space hotel one day, its going to have a huge ripple effect, because its the kind of experience that you dont un-experience, right? Once youve had that perspective change, you cant go back to the way you were before.

This article first appeared on Prestige Online Hong Kong.

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Out of This World: CEO and Founder of Space Perspective, Jane Poynter on Luxury Space Travel - Prestige Online

A huge solar flare from the sun has spawned an eerie green glow over some parts of Earth in a Halloween northern lights show that has stargazers over the moon.

A powerful X1 solar flare from the sun on Thursday (Oct. 28) unleashed a wave of charged particles that reached Earth last night just ahead of Halloween (Oct. 31). It spawned what scientists call a G3-class geomagnetic storm in the Earth's upper atmosphere, and could make the northern lights (auroras typically seen around the Earth's north pole) visible at latitudes much lower than normal.

Halloween night sky 2021: See Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and maybe some spooky fireballs

See the northern lights?

If you take a photograph of the Halloween northern lights from the solar flare, send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

"Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal," the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center wrote in a statement Friday (Oct. 29). "However, a G3 storm has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence and if other factors come together, the aurora might be seen over the far Northeast, to the upper Midwest, and over the state of Washington."

"Tonight was an actual dream," John Weatherby, a photographer in Iceland who also creates NFTs of the northern lights, wrote on Twitter while sharing a video of the auroras. "KP7 aurora for our workshop group's first night. So grateful they got to see this incredible show."

Related: Halloween in space! These wild astronaut costumes are just out of this world

The northern lights (and their south pole equivalent the southern lights) occur when charged particles from the sun's solar wind hit particles in Earth's upper atmosphere causing a glow visible from the surface. These particles are funneled to the Earth's poles by our planet's magnetic field, making them normally visible from high latitudes closer to the poles. The northern lights are known as the aurora borealis, while the southern lights are called the aurora australis.

During a major solar flare (X-class flares are the most powerful), the sun can unleash powerful radiation storms and eruptions known as coronal mass ejections that send much more charged particles toward Earth than the everyday solar wind. That's what happened during Thursday's solar flare, which sent a coronal mass ejection toward Earth at just under 2.2 million mph (3.5 million kph), SWPC officials wrote in the statement.

Related: The sun's wrath: Worst solar storms in history

That wave of particles reached Earth Saturday night, making the auroras visible and brighter at lower latitudes. Those conditions should continue through Halloween night, according to the SWPC.

NASA solar scientist C. Alex Young, associate director for science at the Heliophysics Division of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, cautioned observers at lower latitudes like the U.S. Northeast, upper Midwest and Washington that the display won't be as impressive as those farther north. You will also have to get away from city lights if you hope to see any auroras.

If you're hoping to see the northern lights yourself, check out our guides on where and how to photograph the aurora, as well as the best equipment for aurora photography and how to edit aurora photos. If you need equipment, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography to make sure you're ready for the next aurora event.

Skywatchers in regions of the Earth that normally see bright auroras have reported truly dazzling aurora displays.

"WHAT A NIGHT," wrote a skywatcher named Thomas on Twitter while sharing dazzling photos of the Halloween auroras from Sweden's Lapland region.

One skywatcher in Reykjavk, Iceland didn't have to travel far to see the northern lights. They were easily visible from the comfort of home.

"Aurora in my backyard," the observer, who goes by @PhinerianKlipsy on Twitter, wrote while sharing photos of green auroras in the sky.

Skywatcher Michael Charnick also spotted the storm from Iceland and used an iPhone 13 to photograph the event, which he observed late Halloween eve (Oct. 30).

"Incredible substorm over the west coast of Iceland ~ 30 min ago," he wrote on Twitter.

Charnick then captured some stunning views of the auroras over the Labrador Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The sun is currently in the beginning phase of its latest 11-year solar cycle, called solar cycle 25, in which its activity rises and falls over time. The X1 solar flare of Oct. is only the second X-class solar flare of the cycle. It follows and X1.6 solar flare that occurred on July 3.

If you take a photograph of the Halloween northern lights from the solar flare and want to share them for a possible photo gallery or story, let us know! You can send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

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Halloween northern lights from huge solar flare thrill skywatchers - Space.com

The International Space Station is nearing its end of life, but before it's retired, it will be joined by a new space station called Orbital Reef.

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The announcement comes from Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Space, and a few other companies who plan on launching the new space station that will have the facilities to support interests from national governments, the private industry, and tourism. According to Brent Sherwood, the senior vice president of advanced development programs for Blue Origin, Orbital Reef will lower the cost, expand access and provide the services needed to normalize spaceflight.

Sherwood said, "We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalize spaceflight. A vibrant business ecosystem will grow in low Earth orbit, generating new discoveries, new products, new entertainments and global awareness." The announcement states that Orbital Reef will be up and running with operational capabilities by the late 2020s. If you are interested in reading more about this announcement, check out this link here.

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Blue Origin announces a new space station to 'normalize spaceflight' - TweakTown

We know the names of early American women pilots like Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart. However, across the globe, women pilots were also taking to the skies and setting records. Travel across the globe with these stories of four such pilots.

Helene Dutrieu of Belgium was known as the "girl hawk" of aviation because she was the most daring and accomplished woman pilot of her time. She first soloed in France in 1909 and within a year was setting altitude and distance records. She thrilled the world in September of 1910 by flying non-stop from Ostend to Bruges, Belgium, and she became the first Belgian woman to receive a pilot license on November 25, 1910. During her second year as an aviator, she narrowly escaped death twice. She visited the United States in 1911, making her American debut at the Nassau Boulevard Aviation meeting. Back in Europe, Dutrieu won France's Coupe Femina for the women's world nonstop light record on December 31, 1911, flying 158 miles (254 kilometers) in 178 minutes. In Florence, Italy, she was the only woman in a field of 15 and out flew all of her male competitors to win the King's Cup. In 1913 the French government awarded Dutrieu the Legion of Honor for her achievements. She also became an ambulance driver and later a director of a military hospital.

In 1909, while the Baroness Raymonde de Laroche was dining with Charles Voisin, he suggested that she learn to fly an airplane. Her new ambition took her to the French flying grounds at Chalons where she was taught by Voisin himself. On March 8, 1910, she received the first pilot's license awarded to a woman. She entered the 1910 Reims meet as the only female participant and was seriously injured in a crash. After a lengthy recovery, she went on to win the Femina Cup for a nonstop flight of four hours. In 1919, the Baroness set a women's altitude record of 15,700 feet (4,785 meters). In the summer of 1919, de Laroche, who was also a talented engineer, reported to the airfield at Le Crotoy to copilot a new aircraft in hopes of becoming the first female test pilot. Unfortunately, the aircraft went into a dive on its landing approach and both the Baroness and the pilot were killed. A statue of de Laroche stands at Le Bourget airport in France.

In 1930, Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia and did so with very little flying experience. She had only received her license in 1929, learning to fly at the London Aeroplane Club at Stag Lane, but she was an impressive secretary-turned-pilot who earned an aircraft ground engineer's license as well. Flying a Gipsy Moth namedJason, Johnson made the England to Australia trip in May 1930 in 19 and a half days, and continued to make many impressive cross-country flights from England around Europe and to Moscow and Tokyo.

In 1931, she married fellow British aviator James Mollison and promptly broke his record for the England to South Africa flight. In 1936, she reclaimed the record again, flying 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) in 12 days. Johnson and Mollison flew the Atlantic together in July 1933, but crashed on landing at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Both received only minor injuries and so ordered another plane for a west-to-east flight to England, but it crashed on take-off. Johnson and Mollison made it as far as India during the 1934 MacRobertson Race from England to Australia; soon after, they divorced.

During World War II, Johnson flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), ferrying aircraft around England. She was killed in January 1941 when she bailed out of her crippled twin engine aircraft and drowned in the Thames River. Johnson's popularity in England was equal to the Amelia Earhart phenomenon in the United States, and a song,Amy, Wonderful Amywas written in her honor.

Jean Batten grew up in New Zealand and developed a love for aviation that overcame her desire to be a concert pianist. Her interest in flying stemmed from the 1919 England to Australia flight by Ross and Keith Smith, and later solo flights.

Batten's father did not approve of her aviation enthusiasm but she convinced her mother to move to England with her and help her become a pilot. She received her license and her commercial rating at the London Aeroplane Club at Stag Lane and then began planning for a flight from England to Australia. Her first two attempts failed, but she succeeded in 1934, flying a Gipsy Moth.

Batten became an instant sensation in Australia, New Zealand, and in England upon her return flight the next year (it was the first roundtrip by a woman). In 1935, she broke James Mollison's records for England to Brazil and Dakar to Natal while becoming the first woman to solo across the South Atlantic. Then, in 1936, she realized her dream of flying solo from England to New Zealand in a Percival Gull in 11 days and earned her second consecutive Harmon Trophy, having shared the first one in 1935 with Amelia Earhart. In 1937, she set another record for an Australia to England flight. Unable to obtain a flying job during World War II, Batten gave up flying and eventually became a recluse, living with her mother in Majorca, Spain, and appearing in public only for a few anniversary events. In 1937, she published her autobiography,My Life.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit, Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in the Museum in the early 2000s.

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Around the World with Barrier Breaking Women Pilots - National Air and Space Museum

Women made history not only as pilots of aircraft, but also by being willing passengers. Would you be brave enough to fly in an aircraft when it was a relatively new invention? Discover three of these womens stories.

Therese Peltier

Therese Peltier, a talented sculptor, became the first woman to fly as a passenger in a heavier-than-air aircraft (as opposed to a lighter-than-air aircraft like a balloon). On July 8, 1908, she made a flight of 656 feet (200 meters) with Leon Delagrange in Milan, Italy. She subsequently made several solo flights in a Voisin biplane but did not pursue a flying career. On her flight at the Military Square at Turin, she flew for two minutes and traversed a distance of 656 feet (200 meters) at an elevation of seven feet.

Edith Berg

Edith Berg watched Wilbur Wright demonstrate the Wright Flyer at Le Mans, France. She was so thrilled by the performance that she asked Wright for a ride. Thus, in October 1908, she became the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane, soaring for two minutes and seven seconds. Seated in the right seat of the aircraft, she tied a rope securely around her skirt at her ankles to keep it from blowing in the wind during the flight. A French fashion designer watching the flight was impressed with the way Berg walked away from the aircraft with her skirt still tied. Berg was then credited with inspiring the famous "Hobble Skirt" fashion.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart is best known for the records she set as a pilot and her mysterious disappearance. However, she too made history from the passenger seat. In 1928, she was the first woman to be a passenger on a transatlantic flight. Amy Phipps Guest owned the Fokker F.VII Friendship and wanted to make the flight but when her family objected, she asked aviator Richard Byrd and publisher/publicist George Putnam to find "the right sort of girl" for the trip. On June 17, 1928, Earhart and pilots Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon departed Trepassey, Newfoundland, and, though promised time at the controls of the tri-motor, she was never given the opportunity to fly the aircraft during the 20-hour 40-minute flight to Burry Point, Wales. She did get in the pilot's seat for a time on the final hop to Southampton, England. The dramatic 1928 flight brought her international attention and the opportunity to earn a living in aviation. When she later flew solo across the Atlantic, her earlier flight also made her the first person to cross the Atlantic twice by air.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit, Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in the Museum in the early 2000s.

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Making History from the Passenger Seat | National Air and Space Museum - National Air and Space Museum

Update for 4 p.m. ET on Aug. 23: Blue Origin announced today (Aug. 23) that it has pushed the target date for its uncrewed NS-17 mission back 24 hours, to Aug. 26 at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT).

Blue Origin is targeting Aug. 25 for the next flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, company representatives announced today (Aug. 18).

The uncrewed mission is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT; 8:35 a.m. local time) on Aug. 25. You can watch it live here at Space.com at that time, courtesy of Blue Origin, or directly via the company.

Next week's spaceflight will be the 17th overall for Blue Origin and the first since the company's debut crewed mission, which took place on July 20. On that day, a New Shepard vehicle carried company founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver Daemen to suborbital space and back.

In photos: Blue Origin's 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos

The Aug. 25 mission, known as NS-17, won't carry any people, but New Shepard a reusable rocket-capsule combo won't be empty. The capsule will contain 18 commercial payloads, 11 of which are NASA-sponsored, as well as thousands of postcards submitted by kids via Blue Origin's nonprofit Club for the Future, company representatives said today.

In addition, the capsule's exterior will host NASA's Deorbit, Descent and Landing Sensor Demonstration experiment, a suite of technologies designed to help spacecraft land more accurately on the moon and other cosmic bodies. This will be the second Blue Origin flight for the sensor suite, which first reached suborbital space aboard New Shepard in October 2020.

And, in a first for a New Shepard mission, NS-17 will feature an art installation Amoako Boafo's "Suborbital Tryptych." The work consists of three portraits "painted on the top of the crew capsule on the main [para]chute covers," Blue Origin representatives wrote in an NS-17 mission description. "The portraits capture the artist, his mother and a friends mother. The artwork is part of Uplift Aerospaces Uplift Art Program, whose purpose is to inspire new ideas and generate dialog by making space accessible and connected to the human experience."

Blue Origin currently operates two New Shepard vehicles. One of them the one that will lift off next week is dedicated to flying research payloads on uncrewed missions. NS-17 will be the eighth space mission for that particular vehicle.

Blue Origin has one main competitor in the suborbital space tourism business Virgin Galactic, which conducted its first fully crewed suborbital mission last month. Virgin Galactic flies a six-passenger, two-pilot space plane that lifts off from a runway beneath the wings of a carrier aircraft and glides back down for a runway landing at the end of each mission. New Shepard, by contrast, is fully automated, and both of its elements come back down to Earth under parachutes.

Virgin Galactic is selling seats for $450,000 apiece. Blue Origin has not yet announced how much a ride on New Shepard costs.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin targeting Aug. 26 for next spaceflight - Space.com

Computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight(REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters)

To kick-start Mars exploration, use a money prize to incentivize enterprise.

Americas public-sector space program recently had a rough couple of weeks that perfectly exemplify why it desperately needs a free-market overhaul.

On July 29, the International Space Station (ISS) suffered a serious loss of control after a Russian spacecraft docked with it, accidentally causing the station to make a full 540-degree rotation and a half before coming to a stop upside down, when the astronauts got it under control.

Like most NASA programs, the ISS is massively over budget. Costs were initially projected at $12.2 billion, but the bill ultimately reached a stunning $150 billion. American taxpayers paid around 84 percent of that. What happened to the American dream of human space exploration? Put simply, the government happened. NASA devolved into a jobs program to bring home the space bacon.

Then, on August 10, NASAs inspector general released a report deeming plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024 unfeasible because of significant delays in developing the missions spacesuits. Right now the suits are being built by 27 different companies that successfully lobbied the government for a piece of the action. SpaceXs Elon Musk has rightly noted that NASA has too many cooks in the kitchen. The difference between NASAs cumbersome designed-by-committee suits and SpaceXs suits created by a single contractor is remarkable, even to the naked eye.

The report unconvincingly blames NASAs failure to develop a new spacesuit over the last 14 years solely on shifting technical requirements. It recommends ensuring technical requirements for the next-generation suits are solidified before selecting the acquisition strategy to procure suits for the ISS and Artemis programs.

Instead of dealing with the problem, the Biden administration is trying to distract attention from the space agencys mismanagement by announcing plans to land the first person of color on the moon . . . even though NASA has been incapable of sending astronauts of any color into space under its own power since July 2011. NASA has been reduced to begging the Russians for a ride. The agencys troubled Constellation program, meant to replace the Space Shuttle fleet, was canceled after tens of billions of dollars had already been spent.

But NASAs troubles are, depressingly, likely to get even worse.

In November the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will finally launch, after taxpayers have forked over $9.7 billion. It was originally supposed to launch in 2007 on a budget of $500 million. That means the project is over a decade behind schedule and costing almost 20 times its initial budget. Perhaps the telescope, meant to locate potentially habitable planets around other stars and perhaps even extraterrestrial life, could instead search for a calendar . . . or fiscal sanity . . . in the stars?

JWST isnt the first NASA space telescope to suffer cost overruns and setbacks. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was originally intended to launch in 1983, but technical issues delayed the launch until 1990 because the main mirror was incorrectly manufactured.

JWST is very likely to fail because it is supposed to unfold itself origami style in space in an extremely technically complicated process. If difficulties arise, JWST lacks HSTs generous margin for error because of its location far beyond earths orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 LaGrange point. NASA currently lacks the capability to send a team of astronauts out that far to fix any problems. Even if NASA could get out to JWST, the telescope doesnt have a grappling ring for an astronaut to grab onto and thus could potentially kill astronauts attempting to fix it.

It is hard to imagine a better example of the private sectors amazing ability to outcompete government bureaucracy and mismanagement than NASAs planned Shuttle replacement, the Space Launch System. It is estimated to cost more than $2 billion per flight. Thats on top of the $20 billion and nine years the agency has already spent developing the vehicle. Contrast that with the comparatively inexpensive $300 million spent by SpaceX to develop the Falcon 9 in a little over four years, and the fact that each Falcon 9 costs around $62 million. One SLS launch could pay for over 32 SpaceX launches.

Private ventures such as SpaceX are more efficient because they have a lot more incentive to avoid excessive costs and focus on solutions: Their own money is at stake, and people spend their own money more carefully than they spend taxpayer dollars collected from others. Multiple private American space firms are currently pursuing accomplishments beyond those of NASA, and they are more advanced and ambitious than the entire government space programs of China and the European Union combined. So one possible solution to NASAs woes would be to greatly increase its reliance on commercial launch providers. And one way to do that would be to return to the system that made civil aviation great: prizes to reward private-sector innovation.

Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of the privately funded Orteig prize, valued at almost $395,000 in todays money. Another famous example was the X Prize, which rewarded Burt Rutans company Scaled Composites with over $14 million in todays money for becoming the first nongovernmental organization to launch a reusable and manned space vehicle, SpaceShipOne. The X Prize succeeded in creating over $100 million in investment by private corporations and individuals.

Aerospace experts expect that establishing a $10 billion prize for successfully landing a crew on Mars and returning it safely to earth could very well lead to a successful landing. Thats a bargain compared with the $500 billion cost estimates NASA puts out for the same objective. And of course in the worst-case failure scenario for a prize program, taxpayers would pay nothing until the mission was complete. A system based on private enterprise incentivized by a fixed prize would end government cost overruns and waste.

The cause of space exploration is simply too important to leave to the public sector.

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Private Firms Are the Key to Space Exploration - National Review

Netflix's trailer for its upcoming documentary on SpaceX's private Inspiration4 spaceflight has landed to introduce the first all-civilian crew set to launch into orbit next month.

The near real-time Netflix series "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space" which breaks new territory for the long-time streaming provider will air across several episodes launching on Sept. 2.SpaceX will launch the four civilian astronauts into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sept. 15.

The trailer, released Thursday (Aug. 19) on YouTube, shows the crew in training and promises that Inspiration4 will be the "next epic leap forward for civilians." The one-minute teaser focuses on aspects such as overcoming disability, fundraising money for charity, and dealing with worries from families about the inherent risk of climbing on a rocket.

The privately chartered Inspiration4 plans to fly four people to space Sept. 15 aboard a SpaceX Dragon, orbiting Earth for three days. The crew includes billionaire and mission financier Jared Isaacman, childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux (whom Isaacman invited), data engineer Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, science communicator and artist. None of them are professional astronauts.

In the trailer, Netflix paid tribute to the two contests from which Sembroski and Proctor received their seats. One of Isaacman's major goals of the mission is to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital also Arcenaux's workplace and the spot where she received her cancer treatments years ago.

Photos: See the Inspiration4 astronauts learn how to fly a SpaceX Dragon

Netflix plans five episodes, along with livestreaming the launch on Sept. 15 on its YouTube channel. Assuming the launch lifts off on schedule, Sept. 6 will see two episodes drop, focused on meeting the crew. The launch preparation will come into focus in two episodes airing Sept. 13. The last episode, sometime in late September, will feature the journey home.

The documentary series will be co-produced by Time Studios, and is directed by Jason Hehir creator of the Michael Jordan series "The Last Dance."

While not hinted at in the trailer, Netflix also plans to release a "hybrid live-action animation special for kids and families" about the mission to air Sept. 14. It will discuss matters such as how rockets work, how astronauts sleep and eat in space and other mission basics, according to The Verge.

Netflix's decision to focus on diversity in the Inspiration4 trailer comes in the wake of criticism about two other billionaire-funded space missions that ran in July. The crewed spaceflights were Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity (including founder Richard Branson) and Blue Origin's New Shepard (including founder Jeff Bezos).

Online commentators questioned aspects of the Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin missions including whether the billionaires were in competition (both denied it), the worth of spaceflights for rich people and their invitees, and what the missions mean for the space tourism market, which so far has been open to a select few.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Watch Netflix's 1st trailer for the Inspiration4 documentary on SpaceX's private spaceflight - Space.com

The biggest rocket ever built may be ready to fly surprisingly soon.

The first full-size prototype of SpaceX's Starship vehicle should be ready to launch on an orbital test flight "in a few weeks," company founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter on Saturday (Aug. 14).

That target seems very soon, given that SpaceX has yet to run the 395-foot-tall (120 meters) rocket through its usual battery of preflight tests. And there's a big logistical hurdle to overcome as well: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting an environmental assessment of SpaceX's South Texas orbital launch site, where Starship will lift off.

Related: SpaceX's Starship becomes the world's tallest rocketPhotos: SpaceX lifts huge Super Heavy rocket onto launch stand

The FAA has not yet released its draft review, and the agency will accept public comments about the report for 30 days after it comes out. So Starship's orbital jaunt cannot feasibly happen just a few weeks from now a reality that Musk acknowledged in his Saturday tweet, which ended with the words "pending regulatory approval."

In fact, Musk's tweet may have been designed to put a little pressure on the FAA to pick up the pace. After all, he has expressed frustration with FAA regulations in the past, stressing that such rules need to be streamlined if humanity is ever going to achieve game-changing launch frequencies.

And SpaceX intends Starship to be a game changer. The vehicle, which consists of a huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a spacecraft called Starship, is designed to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations.

Related: See the Evolution of SpaceX's Rockets in Pictures

SpaceX has conducted test flights of previous Starship prototypes, sending the spacecraft 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) into the sky from the South Texas site, which is near the Gulf Coast village of Boca Chica. But the upcoming test flight will mark the first time a fully stacked Starship a Super Heavy topped with a Starship spacecraft takes flight, and the first time the system reaches orbit.

If all goes according to plan, Super Heavy will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after liftoff. Starship, meanwhile, will power its way to orbit, loop around our planet once and come down in the Pacific Ocean, near the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

SpaceX has already taken some steps toward this landmark flight. On Aug. 6, for example, the company stacked the two Starship components a 29-engine Super Heavy called Booster 4 and a six-engine Starship prototype known as SN20 atop the South Texas orbital launch mount for the first time ever. But the duo was de-stacked later that day so technicians could perform some more work on each element.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's Starship could be ready for 1st orbital test flight 'in a few weeks,' Elon Musk says - Space.com

Australian regulators have given Taiwan Innovative Space, a five-year-old launch company that goes by Tispace, the green light to conduct a commercial launch at a newly licensed facility in southern Australia later this year.

Tispace will conduct a test flight of its two-stage, suborbital rocket Hapith I from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in Southern Australia. The flight will be used to validate the vehicles propulsion, guidance, telemetry and structure systems, Tispace said in a news release. The launch facility, operated by space infrastructure company Southern Launch, received its license from the countrys industry ministry in March.

The news is potentially significant for both Australia and Taiwans burgeoning space industries, which have lagged behind other nations. Australia only established a domestic space agency in 2018, and interest in how the country can get in on the new space economy has only grown since. The newly licensed launch facility will initially support a test launch campaign for up to three suborbital rockets, in order to collect data on the possible environmental impacts of the site.

This [launch permit approval] is an important outcome in establishing Australias commercial launch capability and demonstrating what our country can offer to the international space sector, Australias Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Christian Porter, said in a statement. Space is a significant global growth market that will support Australias economic future through big investment, new technologies and job growth across multiple industries.

Taiwan has also been slow to develop a home-grown space industry, though the country took a major step forward when Taiwanese legislators passed the Space Development Law in May to spur the development of a domestic space program. But while the country has a handful of satellites in orbit most recently the YUSAT and IDEASSat CubeSats, which were transported into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in January it has yet to launch a rocket or spacecraft from its soil.

Hapith I is Taiwans first domestically manufactured rocket, and Tispace its first commercial space launch company. The company had planned to test the Hapith vehicle from a launch site in Taiwan, but the site was scrapped over legal issues concerning the location. In addition to launch, Tispace may start conducting even more of its operations abroad: According to an Australian press release, its also considering bringing manufacturing of complete rocket systems to the land down under.

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Taiwan Innovative Space will conduct a test launch of its Hapith I rocket in Australia later this year - TechCrunch

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity made its 12th Red Planet flight on Monday (Aug. 16), during which the little chopper served as eyes in the sky for its larger companion, the Perseverance rover.

The flight was designed to serve as reconnaissance for the rover's continuing explorations of a region dubbed South Stah, according to a flight plan NASA posted before the attempt that called the sortie "ambitious."

"Flying over Stah South carries substantial risk because of the varied terrain," Ingenuity scientists wrote in the plan. "When we choose to accept the risks associated with such a flight, it is because of the correspondingly high rewards. Knowing that we have the opportunity to help the Perseverance team with science planning by providing unique aerial footage is all the motivation needed."

Related:Watch NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity explore intriguing Raised Ridges

Unlike most of its recent flights, this sortie saw Ingenuity make a round trip. That choice matched the flight's purpose. While the helicopter had been focused on keeping ahead of Perseverance, this time Ingenuity was gathering detailed scouting information for the rover.

That's because while flying over South Stah is risky for the little chopper, driving through the region is also dangerous for the Perseverance rover. But the region is also full of intriguing rocks that Perseverance's science team would love to study up close.

So the 10 or so color photographs and the stereo scene that Ingenuity was directed to capture during its flight will guide Perseverance scientists as they decide where to point the rover. After Perseverance's first sampling attempt failed to capture any rock, the team is looking for a new target to try packing away for a future mission to ferry to Earth.

During its first 11 flights, Ingenuity had flown a total of about 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) and spent nearly 19 minutes in the Martian skies, according to tallies provided by NASA. The 12th flight added nearly 1,500 feet (450 meters) and 169 seconds to that total.

Ingenuity has vastly exceeded its original directive, to make five flights around its initial deployment site over the course of a month to prove that flying a rotorcraft on Mars is possible.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity soars through challenging 12th flight on Red Planet - Space.com

Spacecraft development is a risky and sometimes explosive business. SpaceX's Starship prototype spacecraft is an example of that. The fully reusable launch system for eventual moon-and-Mars trips is no stranger to explosions, ruptures and failed landings.

The supercut video above shows the main SpaceX failures (some intentional, others not so much) from Starship's early development. At 395 feet (120 meters) the stacked Starship and Super Heavy rocket is the world's tallest rocket, and Starship is designed to do complex flips and maneuvers upon landing.

Many of these failures happened, therefore, simply because Starship is a new system trying to do unusual things. All the same, the footage is clear (and entertaining) example of some of the challenges of spacecraft development. Learn more about each Starship failure and the "lessons learned" below.

Related: See the evolution of SpaceX's rockets in pictures

SpaceX's SN1 prototype burst apart during a pressure test on Feb. 28, 2020 at its launchpad near Boca Chica, Texas. At the time, the prototype was undergoing a liquid nitrogen pressure test. The midsection of the prototype buckled, then shot upward before smashing into the ground.

Video: Watch Starship SN1 burst apart in test

Company founder Elon Musk appeared to take the failure in stride and to be thinking ahead about strengthening SN2, according to a series of tweets posted shortly after the explosion. "So how was your night?" readone tweet, which accompanied a video of the prototype's death. This was followed by "It's fine, well just buff it out," and thenanother tweetthat said, "Where's Flextape when you need it!?"

Another cryogenic pressure test for prototype Starship SN3 (the SN2 test article was fine) did not go to plan, either. Starship SN3's prototype tank collapsed on April 2, 2020. SN3 was trying to show that it could withstand the high pressure of very cold fuel that is loaded in ahead of launch.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN3 collapse in test

In a tweet, Musk said that SN3 had passed an ambient temperature test the night before. "We will see what data review says in the morning, but this may have been a test configuration mistake," Musksaid in a follow-up post, adding in another tweet, "Some valves leaked at cryo temp. Fixing & will retest soon."

SpaceX's next prototype, Starship SN4, had a fiery explosion on May 29, 2020 very soon after a rocket engine test. The dramatic failure happened only a minute after a short test of its Raptor rocket engine, but immediately after the explosion it was unclear what caused the conflagration.Just like with past explosions, Musk kept saying the company keeps learning from each test and forging ahead.

Video: Watch Starship SN4 explode in a massive fireball

That said, the Starship SN4 was by far the longest-lived and most-tested Starship prototype at that time. SN4 survived five static-fire engine tests before exploding.

After the loss of Starship SN4, SpaceX developed the SN5 and SN6 prototypes before moving on to SN7, which the company intentionally pushed to failure.

The Starship SN7 prototype tank rupturedduring a pressure test on June 23, 2020 but this one was a planned failure. SN7 had finished another pressure test just a week before, resulting in a leak; the second test was far more showy given the planned explosion.

Video: Watch SpaceX pop the Starship SN7 tank on purpose

The first test of the SN7 Starship tank, which leaked but did not explode, was a promising sign for the program's development, Musk said in comments on June 15, 2020.The company is shifting from 301 stainless steel to 304L, he added.

The SN8 prototype made a dramatic flight on Dec. 9, 2020, successfully hitting several milestones before failing to stick the landing and erupting in a fireball. The prototype launched to an altitude of about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) using itsthree Raptor engines.

At peak altitude, the rocketshut down its engines and performed a "belly flop"for a glide to the launch pad.After firing its engines once more before touchdown to attempt an upright landing, though, the rocket landed too fast due to lower than expected fuel tank header pressure.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN8 launch and explode on landing

Musk was pleased with the progress. "SN8 did great!" Muskwrote on Twitter on Dec. 9. "Even reaching apogee would've been great, so controlling all the way to putting the crater in the right spot was epic."

SpaceX's Starship SN9 managed to climb even higher than SN8 on Feb. 2, 2021 before experiencing its own fiery explosion upon landing. It reached its target altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) and did a complex horizontal flip to simulate re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. But it hit the landing site too hard after 6.5 minutes of flight, resulting in a catastrophic end.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN9 crash hard in landing

"Again, we've just got to work on that landing a little bit,"SpaceXprincipal integration engineer John Insprucker saidduring SpaceX's launch webcast."We got a lot of good data, and the primary objective to demonstrate control of the vehicle in the subsonic re-entry looked to be very good, and we will take a lot out of that," he added.

Doing one better over its predecessor SN9, the prototype Starship SN10 soared to its planned altitude of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) on March 7, 2021, did the horizontal re-entry flip practice, and came back to the ground for a smooth touchdown. Unfortunately, some flames were visible near SN10's base shortly after landing and the vehicle soon exploded on the launch pad.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN10 ace its landing, then explode

Musk later said on Twitter that the spacecraft came in a little too fast for the landing, due to low thrust likely caused by an issue in the fuel header tank. The hard landing crushed the legs of the landing system, along with part of the engine skirt. The resulting damage led to the explosion a few minutes later.

On March 30, 2021, SpaceX's Starship SN11 lifted off in thick fog only to meet a similar fate of its SN10 predecessor.

Like SN10, Starship SN11 flew to an altitude of 6.2 miles (10 km) and then returned to Earth for a landing attempt. Six minutes into the flight, its onboard cameras cut out. Apparently, it exploded above the landing pad before making it back to Earth.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN11 launch in fog

"Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship Number 11," John Insprucker, launch commentator for SpaceX, said during the broadcast. "Starship 11 is not coming back, do not wait for the landing."

Elon Musk later wrote that engine 2 of the three Raptor engines on Starship SN11 experienced problems during ascent that only got worse when it reignited for the landing burn. "Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today," Musk wrote at the time on Twitter.

After the failure of Starship SN11, SpaceX stood down from launches for a time as it worked through several more iterations. Then, a breakthrough.

On May 5, 2021, SpaceX made a Starship triumph when its Starship SN15 prototype launched and landed safely, and didn't explode afterwards.

The test flight, which occurred on the 60th anniversary of the launch of Alan Shepard, the first American in space, showed off all the lessons SpaceX had learned to that point while developing Starship.

Video: Watch SpaceX's Starship SN15 launch and land safely

"SN15 has vehicle improvements across structures, avionics and software, and the engines that will allow more speed and efficiency throughout production and flight: specifically, a new enhanced avionics suite, updated propellant architecture in the aft skirt, and a new Raptor engine design and configuration," SpaceX representatives wrote in a description of the flight.

SpaceX has since moved on to more Starship prototypes and its booster, the Super Heavy, as it aims for a potential orbital flight. In August 2021, SpaceX stacked its Starship SN20 atop a Super Heavy for the first time, making the world's tallest rocket.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Every SpaceX Starship explosion and what Elon Musk and team learned from them (video) - Space.com