SPACE reported that SpaceX Dragon “has set multiple American spaceflight records during its latest mission, a robotic resupply run to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA that lifted off on Monday (June 5) and arrived at the orbiting lab Tuesday morning (June 6).” This is the 38th mission “to the ISS to date for a SpaceX capsule, besting the 37 such flights that NASA’s space shuttle orbiters racked up, SpaceX noted on Twitter Wednesday (June 7).” SpaceX’s Dragon 2 “is the latest iteration of the reusable capsule, which SpaceX began flying in 2020.” Crew Dragon “has now flown 10 astronaut missions, most of them six-month trips to the ISS for NASA.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Tag: Breaks Records
Startup Breaks Records with Hydrogen-Powered Flight
The San Jose Mercury News reports, “Hydrogen fuel cells increasingly are looking like feasible options to help the aviation sector clean up its act.” Universal Hydrogen completed a 15-minute demonstration flight in which a 40-passenger turboprop jet had its right turbine engine replaced “with a 1-megawatt powertrain fueled entirely by a hydrogen fuel cell.” The flight broke the records for the largest plane to ever take to the skies and to cruise primarily on hydrogen. However, challenges to flights fueled only by clean hydrogen fuel cells include making sure the fuel is “genuinely clean” and not produced via carbon-emitting means, designing aircraft to handle hydrogen fuel cell systems, and getting hydrogen from where it’s produced to airports.
Full Story (San Jose Mercury News)
Video
Universal Hydrogen First Flight Mini-Documentary (March 2, 2023)
Lightning McClean, a 40-passenger regional airliner powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
(Universal Hydrogen, Co.; YouTube)
Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Breaks Speed, Altitude Records
CBS News reports on Sunday, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter based on Mars flew 14.5 miles per hours at an altitude of 52.5 feet, both of which are records that broke the previous highs of 13.4 miles per hour and 46 feet of altitude, respectively. Ingenuity was brought “to Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover,” and in the past two years, the helicopter “has performed a series of tests and is currently conducting an operations demonstration phase that NASA says ‘looks to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together.’”
Full Story (CBS News)