Connect with us

Published

on

Decades after burnishing his reputation as a wealthy daredevil mogul in a series of boating and hot-air balloon expeditions, Richard Branson is poised to promote his burgeoning astro-tourism venture by launching himself to the final frontier.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic is due on Sunday to send the company’s passenger rocket plane, the VSS Unity, on its first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space, with the British billionaire founder among the six individuals strapping in for the ride.

The gleaming white spaceplane will be borne by a twin-fuselage carrier jet dubbed VMS Eve (named for Branson’s mother) to an altitude of 50,000 feet, where Unity will be released and soar by rocket power in an almost vertical climb through the outer fringe of Earth’s atmosphere.

At the apex of its flight some 55 miles (89km) above the New Mexico desert, the crew will experience a few minutes of weightlessness before making a gliding descent back to Earth.

If all goes according to plan, the flight will last about 90 minutes and end where it began – on a runway at Spaceport America near the aptly named town of Truth or Consequences.

Virgin’s Unity 22 mission marks the 22nd test flight of the spacecraft, and the company’s fourth crewed mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

But it will be the first to carry a full complement of space travelers – two pilots and four “mission specialists,” Branson among them.

Milestone and publicity

Although the mission is seen as a potential milestone in helping transform citizen rocket travel into a mainstream commercial venture, spaceflight remains an inherently hazardous endeavor.

An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over California’s Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

If successful, Sunday’s flight will also give Branson bragging rights to besting rival Jeff Bezos and his space company, Blue Origin, in what has been popularised as a “billionaire space race.” Bezos, founder of online retail giant Amazon.com, is slated to fly aboard Blue Origin’s suborbital rocketship, the New Shepard, later this month.

Branson’s official job on his flight is to “evaluate the private astronaut experience,” and his observations will be used to “enhance the journey for all future astronaut customers,” according to Virgin’s press materials.

But Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for the Virginia-based consulting firm Teal Group, said the Branson and Bezos ride-alongs were each “a bit of a publicity stunt.”

“If they succeed, their ventures will be taken more seriously,” Caceres said. “There’s plenty of multimillionaires in the world that would like to go up on an adventure, so long as they see it as relatively safe.”

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, along with fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are competing head-to-head in the emerging business of space tourism, though Musk has a big head start.

SpaceX, which plans to send its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September, has already launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station.

Branson, 70, insists there is plenty of demand from wealthy would-be citizen astronauts to go around, and that he had no intention of trying to upstage Bezos.

‘Not a race’

“It’s honestly not a race,” Branson told Reuters in an interview earlier this week. “If it’s a race, it’s a race to produce wonderful spaceships that can make many more people be able to access space. And I think that’s both of our aims.”

The spaceplane’s two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, will control the ignition and shutoff of the ship’s rocket engine, and activate the vehicle’s “feathered” tail maneuver for re-entry.

The three other mission specialists are Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Virgin Galactic’s lead operations engineer Colin Bennett; and Sirisha Bandla, a research operations and government affairs vice president.

The Virgin brand, including Branson’s airline and former record label, has long been associated with exploits of derring-do by its flamboyant founder. Branson set a new record for the fastest boat crossing of the Atlantic in 1986, a year after his initial attempt ended with a Royal Air Force helicopter rescue when his vessel capsized.

In 1987 he made a record-breaking Atlantic crossing by hot-air balloon, though again he had to be rescued from the sea. He went on to break at least two other air-balloon speed records but failed to complete any of three bids to circumnavigate the globe by balloon.

As for Sunday’s flight, Branson said this week that he is excited, “and I really don’t think there’s anything there to be scared about.”

Assuming the mission goes well, Virgin has said it plans two further test flights of the spaceplane before beginning commercial service next year.

The company has said it has received more than 600 flight reservations, priced at around $250,000 (roughly Rs. 1.9 crores) per ticket, but hopes eventually to slash the cost of each seat to $40,000 (roughly Rs. 29.8 lakhs).

© Thomson Reuters 2021


Continue Reading

Science

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Dead Star That Exploded Twice in Rare Supernova Event

Published

on

By

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Dead Star That Exploded Twice in Rare Supernova Event

For the first time, a team of astronomers has captured a clear image of a white dwarf star that exploded not just once, but twice, as a Type Ia supernova — a “double-detonation” that scientists hadn’t thought possible until now. The extraordinary observation could revise our long-held notions of how stars die, suggesting that some stars can explode as supernovas without ever crossing the Chandrasekhar limit, the minimum mass normally thought necessary for such an explosion. The astronomers employed the Very Large Telescope’s MUSE instrument to zoom in on the four-century-old supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5, which sits 60,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado, revealing evidence of two separate blasting catastrophes in its construction.

First Visual Proof Shows White Dwarfs Can Explode Twice Without Reaching Chandrasekhar Limit

As the researchers report on July 2 in Nature Astronomy, the team found a distinctive “fingerprint” in the debris of SNR 0509-67.5 in the Large Magellanic Cloud that the models predicted. White dwarfs—which are the dead stage of sun-like stars—usually blow up into Type Ia supernovas after they hit the Chandrasekhar limit by stealing matter from a neighbouring star.

However, this finding shows that the detonation can be launched at an earlier time. The explosion is likely to have a two-step origin, the team argues, with the initial blast being generated when an unstable layer of helium that the star had acquired exploded on its surface; the resulting shock wave then drove a second and main detonation.

“This physical proof of a double-detonation not only helps solve a long-standing mystery of what causes these explosions, but it represents the most visually compelling evidence for this origin.” Priyam Das, University of New South Wales, team leader and author.

Something is happening to Type Ia supernovas, the “standard candles” used to measure cosmic distances, because their brightness doesn’t fluctuate. But they have long mystified scientists with how they explode. Until this discovery, an explosion white dwarf that didn’t surpass the Chandrasekhar limit was only considered in theory.

This fresh visual evidence for the double detonation model further informs our knowledge of stellar evolution and also informs how we should interpret light from distant supernovas. More than its scientific implications, its discovery adds a colourful new page to the story of dying stars — stars that, as it now appears, will not go gently into that night but will light up the sky twice over in fantastic fireworks before vanishing from the cosmos.

Continue Reading

Science

Climate Satellite MethaneSAT Fails After Just One Year in Orbit

Published

on

By

Climate Satellite MethaneSAT Fails After Just One Year in Orbit

One of the world’s most advanced satellites for detecting methane and other gases that contribute to the warming of the planet has gone dark and stopped communicating with ground-based controllers just over a year after being launched into orbit. Created by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the satellite — estimated to cost as much as $88 million — hitched a ride into space on a SpaceX rocket in March 2024. It was charged with monitoring methane leaks from oil and gas operations, and then making the data available to policymakers and scientists through open access. But on June 20, contact with the satellite was lost, and attempts to recover it have failed. EDF officially reported on July 1 that MethaneSAT has lost power and appears unlikely to recover.

MethaneSAT Failure Marks Setback for Climate Transparency Despite Data Gains and Global Support

As per a statement released by EDF, MethaneSAT’s failure came despite multiple recovery attempts. The satellite was constructed to lift the veil off methane’s invisible, weighty impact on global warming. It is nowhere near as common as carbon dioxide, but over a timescale of, say, a century, it is 20 to 30 times more efficient at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. That makes its emissions a prime target in the effort to minimize the risks of global warming. MethaneSAT was developed to independently corroborate industrial methane reports, especially those from fossil fuel extraction. The loss of the satellite is a remarkable setback for transparency in climate science and monitoring of emissions worldwide.

Yet mission operators are hopeful that data already collected will have far-reaching effects. EDF emphasized that insights from MethaneSAT’s year in orbit will continue to be processed and made public in the coming months. The mission included backing from 10 partners such as Harvard University, the New Zealand Space Agency, BAE Systems, Google, and the Bezos Earth Fund.

Officials called MethaneSAT a bold and needed move to hold our climate accountable. Although the mission was cut short, it signaled one of the largest joint efforts between science, advocacy, and technology to battle climate change. “To succeed in meeting the climate challenge, we need bold action and fearless innovation,” EDF mentioned, describing the satellite as “at the vanguard of science.”
MethaneSAT’s brief history highlights the difficulty — and importance — of deploying space-based instruments to try and combat climate change. As other missions get ready to blaze the same trail, the data and experience this little spacecraft provided will influence the future of Earth observation.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


Microsoft Says Xbox Chief Phil Spencer Not Retiring ‘Anytime Soon’ After Rumour Surfaces Amid Layoffs

Continue Reading

Science

New Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Speeds Through Solar System

Published

on

By

New Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Speeds Through Solar System

A newly confirmed interstellar comet is making a rare passage through our solar system — and skywatchers can catch it live online tonight. The object, now called 3I/ATLAS, is just the third interstellar visitor ever detected after the well-known ‘Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). The comet was so fresh when first detected on July 1 by the ATLAS telescope in Chile that it hadn’t even been given a name yet; the Minor Planet Center has it listed as “3I,” the “I” standing for interstellar. Tonight’s webcast will kick off at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) from the Virtual Telescope Project’s virtual observing facilities in Italy.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Speeds Toward Sun at 68 km/s, Offers Rare Study Opportunity

As per a report by Space.com, 3I/ATLAS was detected as a faint object displaying subtle cometary features, including a marginal coma and a short tail. Currently located 4.5 astronomical units (AU) from the sun — about 670 million kilometers (416 million miles) — the comet is faint at magnitude 18.8, making it invisible to amateur telescopes. The interstellar object is traveling at an astonishing pace of 68 kilometers per second (152,000 mph) relative to the sun, but NASA officials say it poses no danger to Earth.

It was imaged by the Virtual Telescope Project on July 2, showing the comet as a point of light within the trailing background stars — a sure indication that it is indeed moving through space. 3I/ATLAS should brighten a little as it approaches the sun, particularly when it gets closest, or its perihelion, on Oct. 30, when it swings within 1.4 astronomical units of the sun or Mars’ orbit.

The close pass by this interstellar visitor is a rare chance for astronomers to study the materials and dynamics outside our solar system. 3I/ATLAS, which is racing along at a frenetic pace on an elliptical orbit, may also support research into how these objects change as they sit in different stellar environments.

After disappearing behind the sun in late fall, 3I/ATLAS is projected to return to observational reach in early December. Researchers anticipate further analysis then, expanding our understanding of these rare visitors that traverse the galaxy — and occasionally, pass through our celestial neighborhood.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


The Hunt: Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Now Available For Streaming on SonyLIV

Continue Reading

Trending