Rotating Space Elevator Propels its Own Load

(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea of the space elevator just got a little crazier. While the “traditional” concept involved using rocket propulsion or laser light pressure to propel loads up a cable anchored to Earth, a new study ...

Virgin 'ignored' space safety warnings: expert (Update 3)

Virgin Galactic "ignored" repeated warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, a rocket science safety expert said Sunday, as investigators hunted for clues to the accident.

New research key to revolutionary 'green' spacecraft propellant

In 2015, NASA, for the first time, will fly a space mission utilizing a radically different propellant—one which has reduced toxicity and is environmentally benign. This energetic ionic liquid, or EIL, is quite different ...

The spark of a new era

Seventy-five years ago this Halloween, at 9 a.m., a truck from the California Institute of Technology turned on to a road owned by the Pasadena Water Department and after heading down a small hill came to a stop. Its tired ...

Beaming rockets into space

Space launches have evoked the same image for decades: bright orange flames exploding beneath a rocket as it lifts, hovers and takes off into the sky. But an alternative propulsion system proposed by some researchers could ...

For NASA no easy answer for next space destination

(AP) -- Where to next? It's a simple question that NASA can't answer so easily anymore. The veteran space shuttle fleet is months from being mothballed and the White House has nixed a previous plan to fly to the moon.

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