[ad_1]
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space! First, I’d like to highlight some stories we didn’t get to: First, Inversion Space raised a $44 million Series A to further develop an ultra-fine cargo delivery service from orbit to Earth. The company has already garnered a lot of attention from the Department of Defense for its technology, which has fairly obvious military applications, so I thought we’d see some new funding soon.
Second: Kudos to Blue Origin, which flew the New Glenn suborbital vehicle twice within a period of one month. The latest flight, which took place on Friday, included engineer, science TV host, and former TechCrunch contributing writer Emily Calandrelli!
Finally, I hope all American readers have a great Thanksgiving. May it be filled with friends, family and good cheer.
Do you want to contact Advice? Email Arya at aria.techcrunch@gmail.com Or send a message on Signal to 512-937-3988. You can also send a note to the TechCrunch staff at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure connectionsClick here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions and links to encrypted messaging apps.
SpaceX’s sixth flight test of the Starship rocket probably wasn’t the most exciting of the bunch, but it did come with a momentous event: The upper stage (also called Starship) briefly restarted one of the Raptor’s six engines while traveling halfway around the world from Order to launch the Starship rocket. The first time. Demonstrating this capability means SpaceX will soon be able to test fly the upper stage a full loop around the world and return it to the launch site, where it can eventually be quickly refurbished and reused.
I had the pleasure of chatting with one of the founders Raven Space Systemsa Midwest-based startup that has developed a new process to enable the first scalable 3D printing of commercial, off-the-shelf thermoplastic composite components. These components are widely used in aerospace and defense, including reentry vehicles and hypersonic vehicles.
“We’re opening up the whole spectrum of production-scale 3D printing,” Raven co-founder and CEO Blake Herren said in a recent interview. “We are taking these off-the-shelf materials that have proven effective in both structures and thermal protection applications, and automating the production of near-network shapes by 3D printing them for the first time.”
The first astronauts to celebrate Thanksgiving in space did so in 1973. Since then, a few dozen Thanksgiving meals have been shared on the International Space Station. What do astronauts eat? Why, the same things you and I do, except freeze-dried: turkey, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, candy. Click the link above for more photos of Thanksgiving over the years aboard the International Space Station.
[ad_2]