Lifeboat Foundation

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson could fly to space just a bit earlier than Blue Origin and SpaceX’s founders.

Amazon founder’s brother, Mark, and one other person will join Bezos onboard Blue Origin vessel on 20 July.

The Amazon CEO looks set to beat his SpaceX rival on an important milestone — being the first rocket billionaire to space aboard a Blue Origin capsule.

Jeff Bezos plans to travel to space next month as one of the first passengers carried by Blue Origin, the Amazon.com Inc. founder’s space company.

Mr. Bezos said in an Instagram post Monday that he will be one of the inaugural passengers on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, during its first crewed flight scheduled for launch from West Texas on July 20. Mr. Bezos said that his brother, Mark Bezos, will also be on board.

“I want to go on this flight because it’s a thing I’ve wanted to do all my life,” Mr. Bezos said in a video posted to Instagram. “It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”

## JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY • JUN 4, 2021.

# *A lovely single step bio-inspired process with some interesting complex benefits particularly for humans on Mars.*

*by holly ober, university of california — riverside*

Continue reading “A catalyst that destroys perchlorate in water could clean Martian soil” »

Article I just wrote about how going to Mars is actually good for protecting life on Earth, too.

People often lump going to Mars or the Moon into a this/that fight when it comes to bettering the life of the Earth and its inhabitants. But, it’s not that simple.

The technology we master in the pursuit of space colonization (starti n g at the Moon and Mars / space stations) will serve to advance that on Earth. The things we learn will help provide a guide for what to do on this future planet, and not just life beyond it. Sure, in-situ resource utilization/production will generate rocket fuel on extraterrestrial bodies. But, things like the NASA Kilopower nuclear reactor can lay the groundwork for alternative energies deployed on Earth at scale. I imagine thorium reactors will follow suit while we still try to deploy fusion at a consumer scale and not just a research basis.

Continue reading “How Going to Mars Could Save Earth” »

The citizen astronauts flying to space with Inspiration4 this September are hard at work training for their mission at SpaceX HQ.

On Wednesday, the Houston-based firm organizing the mission announced it had reached an agreement with SpaceX to fly three additional private crew missions to the International Space Station. The missions will run through to 2023.

It’s an exciting chance for regular people to go to space. But beyond expanding space tourism, Axiom Space’s missions could serve another ambitious idea — to develop a successor to the International Space Station.

Elon Musk plans to unveil a spaceport in the ocean. Here’s what you need to know.