OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

WD 1856+534 is a white dwarf located in the constellation of Draco. At a distance of about 25 parsecs (80 ly) from Earth, it is the outer component of a visual triple star system consisting of an inner pair of red dwarf stars. The white dwarf displays a featureless absorption spectrum, lacking strong optical absorption or emission features in its atmosphere. It has an effective temperature of 4,700 K (4,430 °C; 8,000 °F), corresponding to an age of approximately 5.8 billion years. WD 1856+534 is approximately half as massive as the Sun, while its radius is much smaller, being 40% larger than Earth.

The white dwarf is known to host one exoplanet in orbit around it. The exoplanet was detected through the transit method by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) between July and August 2019. An analysis of the transit data in 2020 revealed that it is a Jupiter-like giant planet with a radius over ten times that of Earth’s, and orbits its host star closely at a distance of 0.02 astronomical units, or 60 times closer than Mercury’s distance from the Sun. The unexpectedly close distance of the exoplanet to the white dwarf implies that it must have migrated inward after its host star evolved from a red giant to a white dwarf, otherwise it would have been engulfed by its star.

Video credit: NASA Goddard

Wikipedia dicit:

Using data collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, this animation shows the trajectories of particles after their emission from asteroid Bennu’s surface. The animation emphasizes the four largest particle ejection events detected at Bennu from December 2018 through September 2019. Additional particles, some with lifetimes of several days, that are not related to the ejections are also visible.

Video credit: M. Brozovic/JPL-Caltech/NASA/University of Arizona

Wikipedia dicit:

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX in the United States. It is powered by Merlin engines, also developed by SpaceX, burning cryogenic liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) as propellants. Its name is derived from the fictional Star Wars spacecraft, the Millennium Falcon, and the nine Merlin engines of the rocket’s first stage. The rocket evolved with versions v1.0 (2010–2013), v1.1 (2013–2016), v1.2 “Full Thrust” (2015–present), including the Block 5 Full Thrust variant, flying since May 2018. Unlike most rockets, which are expendable launch systems, since the introduction of the Full Thrust version, Falcon 9 is partially reusable, with the first stage capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing vertically after separating from the second stage. This feat was achieved for the first time on flight 20 with the v1.2 version in December 2015.

Falcon 9 can lift payloads of up to 22,800 kilograms (50,300 lb) to low Earth orbit, 8,300 kg (18,300 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) when expended, and 5,500 kg (12,100 lb) to GTO when the first stage is recovered. The heaviest GTO payloads flown have been Intelsat 35e with 6,761 kg (14,905 lb), and Telstar 19V with 7,075 kg (15,598 lb). The latter was launched into a lower-energy GTO orbit achieving an apogee well below the geostationary altitude, while the former was launched into an advantageous super-synchronous transfer orbit.

In 2008, SpaceX won a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) using the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule. The first mission under this contract launched on October 8, 2012. Falcon 9 has been human-rated for transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS as part of the NASA Commercial Crew Development program. Falcon 9 has been certified for the National Security Space Launch program and NASA Launch Services Program as “Category 3”, which can launch the priciest, most important, and most complex NASA missions. Falcon 9 has been considered as the world’s most advanced space launch vehicle by various sources.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship system is a fully-reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project.

The second stage—which is also referred to as “Starship”—is being designed as a long-duration cargo, and eventually, passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is being used initially without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle’s atmospheric reentry. While the spacecraft is currently being tested on its own at suborbital altitudes during 2019–20, it will later be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where the spacecraft will serve as both the second stage on the two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle and the in-space long-duration orbital spaceship.

Integrated system testing of a proof of concept for Starship began in March 2019, with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to a reduced-height prototype, nicknamed Starhopper – similar to Grasshopper, an equivalent prototype of the Falcon 9 reusable booster. Starhopper was used from April through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July and August 2019. More prototype Starships have been built and more are under construction as the iterative design goes through several iterations. All test articles have a 9-meter (30 ft)-diameter stainless steel hull.

SpaceX is planning to launch commercial payloads using Starship no earlier than 2021. In April 2020, NASA selected a modified human-rated Starship system as one of three potential lunar landing system design concepts to receive funding for a 10-month long initial design phase for the NASA Artemis program.

Video credit: SpaceX

SpaceX dicit:

SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel Ms. Tree catches a Falcon 9 fairing half after launch of SpaceX’s eleventh Starlink mission on August 18, 2020. The fairing used on this mission previously flew in support of SpaceX’s fourth Starlink mission.

Video credit: SpaceX

NASA dicit:

Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida work to safely return the Artemis I Orion spacecraft to the FAST cell after completing the installation of the spacecraft adapter (SA) cone inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on Aug. 20, 2020. This is one of the final major hardware operations the spacecraft will undergo during closeout processing prior to being integrated with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in preparation for the first Artemis mission.

Video credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center