Important Innovations Collection

Future of Cheap Satellite Launches Source:  LinkSpace Chinese Startup LinkSpace For the third time in five months, Chinese startup LinkSpace has successfully tested a reusable rocket.  Today, the rocket reached nearly 1000 feet and returned to its launchpad in fifty seconds.  China is clearly upping its game for cheap satellite launches by deploying reusable rockets.  It will cost about $4million to buy space on the LinkSpace rocket as opposed to approximately $30 million on a non-reusable Northrup Grumman rocket. Lots of Satellites The reusable rocket technology is key to getting a piece of what's expected to be a boom in satellite deployments. Services to be provided via satellite include high speed internet for rural areas and airplanes in flight.  Elon Musk's SpaceX started the reusable rocket race in 2017 when he began deploying recoverable rockets.  Now companies in China, Russia, the US and Europe are trying to develop their own reusable ...

Successful New Round of Funding Source:  Boring Company CEO Alon Musk Plans for LA, Chicago, Baltimore and More Elon Musk's Boring Company has raised $117 million in its latest round of funding.  The money came from 20, unnamed investors in return for $120 million in equity in the company.  Entrepreneur/CEO Elon Musk has big plans for the company and the investment money to develop the hyperloop and loop. Networks of Underground Vacuum Tubes for Very Fast Transit Musk's hyperloop, which are passenger transit pods travelling inside vacuum tubes, has the potential to travel at speeds up to 760 mph.  The system would carry passengers 350 miles in 35 minutes.  He has completed testing his Loop project Test Tunnel, which transports cars through underground tunnels, parks them underground and then retrieves them for drivers.  The purpose of Loop is to reduce the number of cars on the road. Loop and Hyperloop Projects Musk has a number of projects u...

Win for SpaceX's Elon Musk Source:  Space X Starhopper Next Generation Spacecraft "Water towers can fly!"  That's what an elated Space X CEO Elon Musk had to say as his next generation spacecraft Starhopper successfully tested at a SpaceX facility in Texas.  Starhopper is a prototype meant for takeoff and landing tests.  It's the first in what's expected to be a long line of vehicles in the Starship program for trips to the Moon and Mars. Starship Source:  Space X Starship artist image Musk has big plans for Starship.  In 2023 he plans to fly a group of artists in it for a trip around the Moon.  He also expects to fly humans to Mars using the spacecraft.  In the 7/26/19 test, prototype Starhopper took its first untethered launch, climbing 65 feet.  Within a week, Musk says he'll test launch it again, targeting a height of 650 feet.  He hopes to test an orbital version by the end of this year.  For a free Kindle bor...

Space X Will Rocket NASA Telescopes to Detail The Most "Exotic Objects" in Space Source:  NASA IXPE Mission Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Pulsars Space X keeps scoring big contract wins.  It just was awarded its sixth launch contract by NASA.  This latest one is to launch NASA's $50.3 million IXPE mission - the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer with three of the most advanced telescopes in the world. IXPE Mission This is a big win for Space X.  It also will prove to be very exciting astronomy.  NASA says this mission will allow astronomers to discover details on some of the "most exotic astronomical objects in our universe".  The IXPE mission will measure polarized X-rays from objects like black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. Falcon 9 Rocket The Space X Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the NASA spacecraft with the telescopes onboard into orbit over the Equator 335 miles above the Earth.  The launch will happen in April 2021.  And, the...