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Space Force

Space Force to accept Air Force Reserve volunteers for full-time positions > United States Space Force > Article Display

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) -- Air Force Reservists in space-related career fields interested in volunteering for the U.S. Space Force in a fulltime capacity can expect the application window to open June 1–Nov. 30, 2024.This transfer option is part of the Space Force Personnel Management Act (PMA), approved by Congress and signed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.When fully implemented, the PMA will enable the Space Force to create a new model of service that integrates active-component Guardians and Air Force Reservists serving in space-focused career fields into a unified service that offers both full- and part-time service options.“This is an important first step toward fully integrating critical space expertise...

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on 5th anniversary of its first dedicated Starlink flight – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on 5th anniversary of its first dedicated Starlink flight – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky over Central Florida amid the Starlink 6-63 mission on May 23, 2023. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 11:15 p.m. EDT: SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than 48 hours with a mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As with its launch Wednesday night, SpaceX sent another 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Either serendipitously or intentionally, the Starlink 6-63 mission fell on the fifth anniversary of the first dedicated Starlink launch, Starlink v0.9 on May 23, 2019. The launch times of the two missions are also coincidentally very similar. Thursday night’s flight lifted off at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 UTC) and its five-year counterpart launched at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 UTC). The ...

NASA defends Artemis cost and schedule amid planning of possible changes

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NASA

NASA defends Artemis cost and schedule amid planning of possible changes

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson defended the cost and schedule performance of the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration effort even as officials hinted as the possibility for changes in one upcoming mission. At a May 23 hearing, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s commerce, justice and science subcommittee, pressed Nelson on costs associated with Artemis and suggested that the agency convene an independent review of those costs. She asked Nelson to describe “what NASA is doing to hold contractors accountable for cost overruns and scheduling delays” including whether the agency withheld payments to contractors for those overruns. She did not cite specific cases with Artemis but rather past studies on the overall costs of the pr...

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SpaceX

NASA, Boeing and ULA announce June 1 as new target date for Starliner’s Crew Flight Test – Spaceflight Now

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was fueled for launch May 6, 2024 for the Starliner Crew Test Flight. Image: NASA TV NASA is looking at the start of June for its next attempt to launch its astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on board Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The announcement came last Wednesday night in a blog post, stating that June 1 will be the earliest that the Crew Flight Test of Starliner can begin. The new launch date has a T-0 liftoff of 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 UTC). There are also backup opportunities available on Sunday, June 2; Wednesday, June 5; and Thursday, June 6. The May 6 launch date was originally scrubbed about two hours prior to launch due to an issue with an oxygen pressure release valve on the upper stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket....

Quantum to cosmos: Why scale is vital to our understanding of reality

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Science

Quantum to cosmos: Why scale is vital to our understanding of reality

It can be hard to wrap our minds round the very large and the very small. Ron Koeberer/Millennium Images, UK Imagine setting off on a spacecraft that can travel at the speed of light. You won’t get far. Even making it to the other side of the Milky Way would take 100,000 years. It is another 2.5 million years to Andromeda, our nearest galactic neighbour. And there are some 2 trillion galaxies beyond that. The vastness of the cosmos defies comprehension. And yet, at the fundamental level, it is made of tiny particles.”It is a bit of a foreign country – both the small and the very big,” says particle physicist Alan Barr at the University of Oxford. “I don’t think you ever really understand it, you just get used to it.” Still, you need to have some grasp of scale to have ...