November 27, 2015

SpaceX Rocket Debris Washed Up on British Beach (Source: Mirror)
An American rocket which blew up moments after take-off is thought to have been found 4,065 miles away washed up on the Isles of Scilly. Debris from the doomed SpaceX Falcon-9 was apparently discovered by coastguards patrolling the tranquil destination off the Cornish mainland, some five months after the unmanned rocket exploded as it left Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The metal, a large section of alloy about 10m by 4m, was spotted on the surface between the islands of Bryher and Tresco. It was recovered with the help of local professional boatman, and is currently securely held on the beach at Tresco. (11/26)

Superluminal Travel in Einstein’s Universe (Source: The Conversation)
The story of the drawn-out development of Albert Einstein’s revolutionary rewrite of the laws of gravity has been told many times, but over the past 100 years it has given us extreme stars and black holes, expanding universes and gravitational mirages. Einstein also ensured you will never get lost, enabling the technology that helps your phone find your location with pinpoint accuracy! Click here. (11/26)

Roscosmos Plans Date for Final Russian/Ukrainian Zenit Launch (Source: Tass)
Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos has named the date of liftoff of what appears to be the last Russian-Ukrainian launch vehicle in the Zenit family of launch systems. "The liftoff of the Zenit-2SB launch vehicle has been scheduled for 16:45:33 Moscow Standard Time on December 11, 2015." The launch will take place at the Baikonur space center. (11/26)

The Space Tourism Timeline (Source: Inverse)
During the 1960s, space tourism was viewed of as an industry that would one day balloon. Defunct U.S. airliner Pan-Am maintained a waiting list for eventual trips to the moon, while futurists forecasted that lunar colonies would be established by the year 2000. Here is a brief history of space tourism, including some of its successes, failures, and notable events. (11/25) https://www.inverse.com/article/8528-the-space-tourism-timeline

Phase Four Receives $1 Million DARPA Contract for CubeSat Thruster (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Phase Four LLC, a satellite propulsion company, has received a $1 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in support of the effort to deliver a fully-integrated flight unit of the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (“CAT”). The contract also includes options for long-duration orbital flight testing and design enhancements for microsatellite-class missions. (11/25)

Scientists Get First Glimpse of Black Hole Eating Star (Source: Phys.org)
An international team of astrophysicists has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light. The finding reported Thursday tracks the star—about the size of our sun—as it shifts from its customary path, slips into the gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole and is sucked in, said Sjoert van Velzen, a Hubble fellow at Johns Hopkins. Click here. (11/26)

China Launches Yaogan-29 Remote Sensing Satellite (Source: ECNS)
A Long March-4C rocket carrying the Yaogan-29 remote sensing satellite blasted off at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, on Nov. 27, 2015. The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief. (11/27)