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High winds scrub SpaceX’s Starlink 12-21 launch from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX

High winds scrub SpaceX’s Starlink 12-21 launch from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) ahead of the launch of the Starlink 12-21 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update March 11, 12:50 a.m. ET: SpaceX scrubbed the launch due to high winds. SpaceX is preparing to launch its first batch of Starlink satellites in more than a week. The planned flight comes following a fuel leak in a Falcon 9 booster caused its destruction shortly after landing. However, high ground-level winds prevented the launch from moving forward on Monday and SpaceX is pivoting to a backup window on Tuesday night. The launch of the Starlink 12-21 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is now set for 10:48 p.m. EDT (0248 UTC). It’s one of two planned Falcon 9 launches Tuesday night, including the ridshare lau...

Majorana 1: Microsoft under fire for claiming it has a new quantum computer

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Science

Majorana 1: Microsoft under fire for claiming it has a new quantum computer

Microsoft’s Majorana 1 quantum computerJohn Brecher/Microsoft Last month Microsoft announced, with fanfare, that it had created a new kind of matter and used it to make a quantum computer architecture that could lead to machines “capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades”. But since then, the tech giant has increasingly come under fire from researchers who say it has done nothing of the sort. “My impression is that the response of the expert physics community has been overwhelmingly negative. Privately, people are just outraged,” says Sergey Frolov at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Microsoft’s claim rests on elusive and exotic quasiparticles called Majorana zero modes (MZMs). These can theoretically be used to crea...

Space Center Houston Awards the Cherri Brinley Outstanding Educator Award to Javier Montiel at the 31st Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC)

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NASA

Space Center Houston Awards the Cherri Brinley Outstanding Educator Award to Javier Montiel at the 31st Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC)

Javier Montiel, a bilingual aerospace educator and a 14-year presenter at Space Center Houston, received the distinguished Cherri Brinley Outstanding Educator Award at the 31st Anniversary of the Space Educators Exploration Conference (SEEC) held at Space Center Houston. From left to right: Alan Charles Brinley, (son of Cherri Brinley), Angela Case, Javier Montiel and Ann Hernandez. (Photo Courtesy, Space Center Houston) Each year, Space Center Houston honors a distinguished educator with the Cherri Brinley Outstanding Educator Award, recognizing their contributions to space exploration education at the Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC).   On Friday, February 7 the Cherri Brinley Outstanding Educator Award was presented to Javier Montiel, an aerospace educator andf...

X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle concludes seventh successful mission > United States Space Force > Article Display

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Space Force

X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle concludes seventh successful mission > United States Space Force > Article Display

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), the U.S. Space Force’s dynamic unmanned spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, March 7, 2025 at 02:22 a.m. EST. The U.S. Space Force landed the X-37B at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, to exercise its rapid ability to launch and recover its systems across multiple sites. X-37B’s Mission 7 was the first launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket to a Highly Elliptical Orbit. While on orbit, Mission 7 accomplished a range of test and experimentation objectives intended to demonstrate the X-37B’s robust ...

SpaceX to launch NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH spacecraft on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX

SpaceX to launch NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH spacecraft on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg – Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions for NASA. Image: SpaceX NASA is preparing to launch its first ride share flight in support of the Science Mission Directorate with two missions flying on the same Falcon 9 rocket Monday night. Onboard are the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory and four spacecraft that make up the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base is set for 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC). A joint NASA-SpaceX launch readiness review was held on Friday and the mission was then sched...