Smiocs

ITER: the world’s largest Tokamak (courtesy ITER)

I have been a proponent of nuclear power, both fission and fusion, since I was very young. I became fascinated with nuclear energy’s potential around age nine when I began to read about physics. Science fiction was the medium that peaked my interest in these subjects. My parents came of age in the 1950s and 60s, and therefore had a mixed view of…

Launch Date and Time of X-ray Astronomy Satellite (ASTRO-H) by H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 30

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. National Research and Development Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) decided to conduct the launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No.30 with the X-ray Astronomy Satellite (ASTRO-H) onboard from the Tanegashima Space Center as follows.

Scheduled date of launch:  …

Aerojet Rocketdyne Awarded Contract to Mature Development of a High-Powered Nested Hall Thruster System

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), has been awarded a contract valued at more than $2.5 million from NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division to develop and demonstrate a high-power electric propulsion system. Once fully developed, the technology will help reduce trip times and the cost of human spaceflight to cislunar space and beyond to Mars.