delayed

The return to the Moon is delayed again and now helium is to blame

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If at this point someone tells you that NASA has delayed the mission again Artemis IIthe most logical thing is to think that they are playing a joke on you, since the list of accumulated postponements begins to border on comedy. And the last one is not for less, since after announcing that the last tests had been a success, hours later we knew that the mission scheduled in the window that opened on March 6 has been postponed again and the rocket returns to its ‘garage’. The new culprit. If one of the great enemies was hydrogen, which already forced delay the first date that we had for 2026, now the focus has been on helium. And, after the second general test with fuel that we saw last fridayengineers have detected a new technical problem in the propulsion system of the SLS superrocket. Specifically, it is an interruption in the flow of helium in the intermediate cryogenic stage. AND it’s not a minor mattersince this gas is absolutely essential to purge the engines and pressurize the cryogenic fuel tanks in order to ensure mission safety. And although everything worked well in the previous tests, during the post-test the system said “enough.” To the starting box. As confirmed by NASA itself on its official blog this February 21, as well as Jared Isaacman, current administrator of the agency, via Xthe team is evaluating the situation, but the decision has already been made: rollback. Repairs cannot be done outdoors on the launch pad, forcing the behemoth SLS to be returned to its garage, technically known as the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The possible causes of this failure range from a blocked filter to a failure in the umbilical interface or the check valve, which are technical ghosts that are dangerously reminiscent of the problems that already tortured Artemis I in 2022 and that generated a situation of constant delays that took away all the seriousness of the mission. The new window. With March completely off the calendar, everything points to April, if it resolves quickly enough and passes the next general test. Although, given what we have seen, fixing one problem causes a completely different problem to arise, so saying a date is real nonsense. The chronology. Making a list of all the critical points in the mission that was to put four humans back into lunar orbit is almost a titanic and memory challenge, but we are going to illustrate it to make clear the context of delays that we have seen in this mission that has been going on for years. It all starts in November 2024, which was the original launch date. Throughout 2024, the mission was scheduled from September 2025 to April 2026 after discovering severe damage in the heat shield of the Orion capsule during Artemis I. In March 2025, a little light was seen when it was pointed out that the mission could be brought forward until February 2026. January 2026: a winter storm delay transfer to the launch pad. February 2, 2026: the first dress rehearsal is aborted with 5 minutes left due to a hydrogen leak liquid. February 21, 2026: After fixing the leak, the second rehearsal is a success and announces the date of March 6 with great fanfare… and in the end the helium fails, throwing March overboard. Doubts about the future. The bad experience with Artemis I and II already makes us doubt everything that NASA has planned in the future. Artemis III is the next major space project that aims to land at the south pole of the Moon and for man to set foot on lunar soil again. A mission that has already been delayed until 2027 in order to further perfect the capsule and the suits space. But the real focus is on Mars with the goal of humans setting foot on the red planet for the first time. A much more complex mission as it involves a much greater distance and a mission time that requires the astronauts to travel for many more days, with all the security implications that this entails. China. The great competitor of the United States in this space race, which has a great political component behind it. And while NASA turns its calendars into wet paper, on the other side of the world the Chinese space program follows a methodical rhythm, opaque in its crises, but at the moment relentless in its dates. Right now the goal is to put taikonauts on the lunar surface by 2030, and although the United States there is still room for temporary advantagethe image contrast is brutal: while the SLS suffocates between hydrogen leaks and helium failures under the spotlights around the planet, the Chinese space agency (CNSA) continues to chain millimeter successes with its Chang’e robotic missions. Images | POT In Xataka | Two Spanish space giants have joined forces to take 5G defense satellites into space: PLD Space and Sateliot

Three Chinese astronauts have delayed their return to Earth due to an impact on the ship. The suspect: space junk

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The crew of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, which was scheduled to land this Wednesday in Inner Mongolia, has been forced to postpone its return to Earth. The cause is not bad weather, as is usual in manned flights, but the most feared enemy of modern space exploration: a probable impact of space debris. Evaluating risks. China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) broke the news this morning: The return of the three astronauts aboard Shenzhou-20 has been delayed indefinitely following suspicions that the ship may have been hit by a small piece of space debris. The ship is still docked at the Chinese Tiangong space station, where the crew are safe. The crew and engineers on the ground are analyzing the impact on the ship to try to determine the extent of the damage and assess the risks of the return journey. The problem is reentry. Three people traveled to the Chinese space station in April aboard the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft: Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie. The problem is not his immediate survival, but the viability of his ship surviving the atmospheric re-entry maneuver after the impact. In low orbit, objects travel at hypersonic speeds of up to 28,000 km/h. At that speed, even a tiny fragment of metal or paint can release devastating kinetic energy, especially if it hits critical components like the ship’s heat shield or its parachutes. What do we know for now? The CMSA has not specified where it believes the impact occurred or what data alerted them to the event. Now, engineers on the ground and the crew in orbit will perform telemetry checks, check for possible leaks, and analyze the guidance and propulsion systems. They will most likely use the Tiangong station’s 10-meter robotic arm to conduct a detailed visual inspection of Shenzhou-20. If necessary, an extravehicular activity (EVA) or spacewalk is not ruled out to assess the damage closely. A problem that China was trying to avoid. The irony of this incident is that the Shenzhou-20 crew itself is fully aware of the danger. In fact, part of its six-month mission in orbit focused on mitigating this risk. Two of the astronauts six hours passed in September by installing additional protective shields against orbital fragments outside the Tiangong station. Although they reinforced the station, the impact seems to have occurred in the way that would bring them back. Image | CMSA In Xataka | Three large pieces of space debris reenter every day: “one day our luck will run out and they will fall on someone”

Asturias and Cantabria travel on trains that are more than 40 years old and their renewal has been delayed again

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Year 2020. Renfe awards CAF the delivery of 31 trains to operate on the Cercanías services of Asturias and Cantabria. The reason was as simple as it was understandable: the average age of the fleet was already 28 years. Four years later, the renewal of the promised trains is once again delayed. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “In principle”. This is what Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, has confirmed, who a few days ago assured that the promised trains for Asturias and Cantabria will not arrive until 2027 in an interview with the specialized media. Trenvista. If the plans are fulfilled, of course. And these same trains should arrive next year. In 2024, Transport reiterated its intention that the first tests would be carried out in the first half of 2026 and it was assured that we would see them on the roads that same year. Last September, yes in 2025, was still expected that the trains would make an appearance in a few months. Now, Fernández Heredia says that “in principle, these trains will be in service in 2027.” A statement that leaves fear of new future delays floating. The trains. What Renfe awarded to CAF was the delivery of 31 new trains to be distributed between the Cercanías services of Cantabria and Asturias. When said award was announced It was mentioned that the intention was to renew a fleet that was already an average of 28 years old. It was 2020 and the contract was valued at 258 million euros. Five years later, the residents of Asturias and Cantabria will continue traveling on trains with more than four decades behind them in some cases. At the moment, there is no trace of the 31 Metric Gauge trains (25 electric and six hybrid) that should be able to circulate at a maximum of 100 km/h and have space to transport bicycles. The tunnels. It was the great scandal of this award. In 2023, when CAF began building the trains, it found that something strange was happening with the order. The trains ordered They didn’t enter through the tunnels… more or less. The trains that were intended to be launched are too wide for the Asturian and Cantabrian infrastructure. Order FOM/1630/2015established new measures for gauges on newly built roads. These new measures aim to leave more space between the train and the walls of the tunnels to facilitate evacuations in case of breakdown and were the ones that were sent from Adif to CAFwithout taking into account the infrastructure prior to 2015. Hence it was said that the new trains for Asturias and Cantabria They did not enter through the tunnels. Faced with this situation, there was no choice but to ask: is it better to change the trains or change the infrastructure? Given the cost of the second intervention, the first was chosen. Yes, sure. Despite everything, the intention was the same: to maintain the plans that the trains would arrive in 2026. Now we know that this will not be the case and that they will do so in 2027… “in principle”, in the words of the president of Renfe himself. In The Commerce They review all the occasions in which Renfe has maintained its intention to have the trains ready next year. In addition to the cases already mentioned, the Government reiterated its intentions in February 2024 and July 2024. Since then, silence. “It rains in the wet”. This is what the Cantabrian Government complains about when asked by The Confidential. The regional Executive focuses on the fact that this latest delay is just one more of all the drifts that the case has had and the constant problems that citizens experience. The Association of Rail and Mobility Users (Affecom) highlights that from “Luarca to Oviedo there are about 90 kilometers and it takes almost three hours. (…) It takes us the same time to go to Madrid as it does to travel 90 kilometers through the Principality of Asturias.” And they highlight another detail: there are many breakdowns in stations where there is no coverage of any kind. This is a problem because, first of all, the passenger has no way to communicate by mobile phone to notify of a delay. It would not be (so) serious if it were exceptional but this summer, between July and August, the Asturian PP assures that 800 incidents were recorded that affected 1,000 services. Photo | André Marques 432 In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and Spain’s drama with the train

Elon Musk needs to launch Starship from Florida to accelerate his plans. The problem: up to 13,200 delayed flights

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The airplanes will have to get used to sharing airspace with the largest rocket in the world. Especially when Elon Musk’s starship disembark in Florida in a few months. Starship’s double landing. The arrival of Starship to Cabo Cañaveral promises to revolutionize a region that, although it is accustomed to rocket launches, has not lived anything the same. The key is the planned launch frequency and the double landing of the system: first that of the Super Heavy propeller, more than 70 meters high, and then that of the ship itself, more than 50 meters. Although the public debate has focused so far In the sonic boom That produces each of these rockets when returning from space, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States has put on the table the possibility that Spacex’s plans to launch 120 starship a year delay between 8,800 and 13,200 commercial flights a year. Where those figures come from. According to him FAA reportthe launches and landings of the two stages of the rocket would force to divert the airplanes from the south of Florida to avoid the rocket trajectory. This could suppose delays for airports as important as those of Orlando, Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. Each launch would require the closure of airspace in periods ranging from 40 minutes to two hours, which in times of traffic could affect between 133 and 400 flights. The landing of the Starship ship, which would happen hours later, would cause a new closure of the airspace between 40 minutes and one hour, affecting another 400 or 600 commercial airplanes. Spacex’s posture. Spacex insists that these estimates are too conservative. The company has published A statement in which he affirms that the areas of danger for the planes defined in FAA studies “are extremely conservative by nature and are destined to capture a compound of the entire range of the worst possible scenarios, not an operation in the real world.” Spacex argues that, as happened with their Falcon 9 rockets, the areas of aerial and sea exclusion will be reduced as data of the launches accumulate and the reliability of Starship is demonstrated. In fact, the airspace that Falcon 9 forces to close for Starlink missions have been reduced by 66% since 2022. A future of shared skies. Although Starship is a special case, it is only the last new generation rocket that reaches the Florida space coast. Other companies like Blue Origin and ULA have already launched His new New Glenn rockets and Vulcan From Cabo Cañaveral. According to a Ornaldo Sentinel analysisFlorida could approach the 400 rocket releases a year by the end of the decade. But that democratized access to space may require patience at the airport terminal. Image | Spacex In Xataka | There is already a date for the last flight of the Megacohete Starship as we know it: v3, heat what you go out

The Iranian nuclear program has only delayed a few months

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If the images do not lie, and everything indicates that They do notin the days before the American air operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the satellite captured and revealed unusual movements in the Fordow uranium enrichment complex, one of the three objectives of The hammer operation. Not just that. The United States has just been part of the victorious proclamation with A report which puts the result of the mission in serious. Anticipation. According to him Visual analysis Of the photographs taken by Maxar Technologies between June 19 and 20, a series of cargo trucks, bulldozers and heavy machinery were positioned in accesses to the main tunnel of the underground complex. The registered activity suggests deliberate work in the entrances with land. In other words, snapshots indicate that they will go He sealted clearly The accesses to its underground nuclear installation of Fordow days before US bombings, suggesting that I was looking to protect her of possible Israeli terrestrial incursions. Implications Although the United States claims to have destroyed key capabilities, Analysts held until yesterday that the previous seal, together with the possibility that nuclear material has been dispersed, raised doubts about the real impact of the attack. In addition, the Blocked inputs They hinder the evaluation of damage, and there are indications of other non -inspected nuclear facilities, which feed the uncertainty about the future of the Iranian atomic program. The report. Plus: In the last hours triumphalism in the White House has given way to silence. The attack labeled as a devastating military operation that “volatilized” Tehran’s nuclear capacity has encountered A report of the defense intelligence agency (day) that directly contradicts that narrative, estimating that the bombings have barely delayed the Iranian nuclear program by less than six months. This preliminary evaluation, released by means Like CNN or the New York Timeshas triggered a hard cross between intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, the presidency of the United States and both national and international political leaders, opening a new front of dispute over the veracity, utility and legitimacy of the aerial offensive. Foreground of a June 20 image where additional vehicles and coatings are appreciated Narrative in front of evaluation. According to the daymultiple bombardment with B-2 and missile He failed to destroy Iranian nuclear infrastructure definitively. This conclusion reinforces the Previous statement of American intelligence agencies, which argued that Iran were not at that time building a nuclear bomb. However, Trump has rejected both valuations and the new leaks, qualifying them of “fake news” disseminated by the media and reaffirming that the whites were “completely destroyed.” The President published in Truth Social that the operation was “one of the most successful in military history” and that any dissonant voice was nothing more than a maneuver to “undermine” its leadership. Rows closure. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, back The presidential position. Alleged that fourteen 13,000 kg pumps Employees impacted with surgical precision on all objectives and that the effects were “buried under mountains of debris.” He also described as malicious The leaks of the Dia Report and defended that the attack “annihilated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.” In line, the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, He dismissed validity From the filtered report, he attacked his alleged author as “a low -level loser within the intelligence community” and emphasized that the bombing results were “a total obliteration.” Despite these statements, the government postponed without explanation Detailed the informative session classified in Congress that had to analyze the results of the attack, which further ignited criticism. International reactions. From Tehran, Iranian President Masoud fishshkian minimized the impact Of the bombings, ensuring that “the aggressor enemy failed in his goal of destroying facilities, reducing nuclear knowledge or causing social instability.” Also He affirmed thatdespite the human losses suffered during the twelve days of war with Israel, the damage caused to the counterpart was “beyond the imaginable.” This statement challenges frontally Trump’s statements and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who backed the US version without reservations. Netanyahu said that joint bombing campaigns had taken the Iranian nuclear program “to ruin” and warned that they would replicate the offensive if Tehran tries to rebuild it. Perception vs real scope. The Financial Times counted That, in strategic terms, the operation does not seem to have reached the structural deterrent effect proclaimed by the Trump administration. The intelligence report suggests that damaged infrastructure may be repaired or replacedand that the offensive has only produced a limited tactical interruption over time. In addition, the American political reaction reflects deep divisions among those who see in the attack a act of firmness in front of Tehran and those who fear that more than one propaganda maneuver has been treated than of military action with lasting effects. Plus: The fact that Iran’s scientific and technical complexes have not been permanently neutralized by doubt the Effectiveness of bombing As a deterrent mechanism and leaves the door open to a new phase of the nuclear conflict. Limited impact. So things, so much Satellite images like him Intelligence report They suppose a jug of cold water for the rhetoric of the operation, conceived as a demonstration of strength and resolution, but that over the days has become a marked episode by internal tensionsstrategic and narrative doubts. While the bombing evidenced the American capacity To hit deeply protected facilities, it doesn’t seem like there eradicated the threat Potential represented by the Iranian nuclear program. The controversy generated not only weakens the communicative position of the Trump administration, but also reveals the growing distance between political rhetoric and Technical valuations In international security issues. If you want also, the story of the Hammer operation It is a faithful reflection of a conflict that, far from having resolved, could now enter an even more complex and volatile phase. Image | Maxar In Xataka | No one has seen Israel’s atomic arsenal. And that is because Israel has an infallible trick: it appears that it does not exist In Xataka | Ukraine was … Read more

Airbus’s hydrogen plane was going to reach the market in 2035. It has now been delayed in the midst of “great” challenges

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Airbus wanted to take the me. First commercial plane of the world propelled by hydrogen In 2035. The ambitious initiative continues to exist, only that it is not clear when it will end up materializing. The European aerospace giant has recognized that the project is progressing at a slower pace than expected. As Reuters collects He said that “the development of a hydrogen ecosystem, which includes infrastructure, production, distribution and regulatory frameworks, is a great challenge that requires global collaboration and investment.” One of the most important obstacles has to do with obtaining renewable hydrogen. An ambitious project, multiple challenges The main objective of the hydrogen plane is to reduce air transport emissions, and at this point the Hydrogen production: Obtaining large quantities using renewable energy is still complicated. Green hydrogen needs a lot of investment And a long way to go to be widely profitable. Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus, has said in the past that there is a doubt that there is sufficient green hydrogen in the future to boost a large number of commercial airplanes, but the company has continued to boost its plans to reduce emissions, which also include the use of Sustainable aviation fuel (SFA). Airbus has not yet given a new calendar for the project, but the signs are not optimistic. According to the Force Ouvrière union, workers were informed this week that technology has a delay between five and ten years with respect to the necessary rhythm. With this panorama, the objective of 2035 seems increasingly complicated. The aforementioned organization has indicated that the European firm is also evaluating the completion of “Certain subprojects” It is not clear if in addition to the aforementioned challenges related to the alternative fuel supply there are other disadvantages in the development of proposed aircraft. Airbus presented three concepts in 2020. The first, a turbofán with capacity for about 200 passengers and a range of 3,704 kilometers. The second, a more content turbohyl, designed for about 100 passengers and with 1,852 kilometers of reach. And the third, a mixed wing model, also turbophah, with the same figures as the first. The company also contemplated two propulsion systems. On the one hand, the Hydrogen combustionwith gas turbines with modified fuel injectors. On the other hand, a completely electrical propulsion system with hydrogen fuel batteries, which feed electric motors that turn the propellers or plane turbines. Images | Airbus In Xataka | A report has revealed that US air traffic control technology is obsolete. There are pieces that are no longer achieved

The 17 deaths from the Eaton fire occurred in areas where the evacuation alert was delayed

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The 17 deaths in the Eaton fire occurred in an area where evacuation orders took hours to arrive Los Angeles County officials are calling for an independent review of emergency notification systems, after some residents argued that Earlier warnings could have saved livesas reported by NBC News. Within a half hour of the fire starting on a hillside in Eaton Canyon on the afternoon of Jan. 7, the phones of thousands of east Altadena residents rang with a warning from Los Angeles County: “BE CAREFUL.” Within 40 minutes, a dire alert followed: “LEAVE NOW.” But western Altadena neighborhoods didn’t see the same urgency, as evacuation orders didn’t come until the next morning, more than nine hours after the Eaton Fire began. By then it was too late. The 17 people who died in the wind-fed fire were west of Lake Avenue, a major corridor that crosses north and south through Altadena. Among them were an 83-year-old retired Lockheed Martin project manager, a 95-year-old actress in Old Hollywood and a 67-year-old wheelchair-using amputee who died with his adult son, who had cerebral palsy. Fifteen of the deaths occurred in an area where the first evacuation order was not sent until 3:25 a.m. on January 8; the other two occurred in an area where the order came at 5:42 a.m., according to a review of alerts as well as data compiled by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. They ask to review notification systems According to NBC News, the discrepancy between west and east Altadena is raising questions among local officials and residents about the timing of the emergency alerts, and whether earlier warnings could have saved lives. “There wasn’t much time to do anything, but our notification system should have been up and running long before they did it,” Altadena City Council member Connor Cipolla told the aforementioned media. “It’s obvious from the destruction. “It failed half of our city.”. On Tuesday, two Los Angeles County supervisors filed a motion calling for an independent review of emergency notification systems. As the county evaluates its response after any disaster, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Wednesday she wants to accelerate an analysis of the wildfires that have killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 15,000 structures throughout the region. “I know on the west side, the older part of Altadena, it’s a lot more concentrated, there’s a lot of houses,” Barger told NBC Los Angeles. “We need to find out what happened, but I know the fire was spreading fast”. He warned that the additional notifications may not have saved lives, but said “the victims of this disaster deserve our transparency and accountability.” His motion, which will be voted on at the county supervisors’ meeting next Tuesday, followed a Los Angeles Times report about delayed evacuation notices in the Eaton fire. In a statement, the county’s Joint Coordinated Information Center said it could not immediately comment on factors that may have led to the deaths in the fires, and that A thorough review “will take months because it will require reviewing and validating call histories from the fire.”interview first responders on scene, interview incident commanders, and search and review our 911 records, among other essential steps, including obtaining feedback from all relevant sources. That work may also require an outside entity to ensure the integrity of the investigation.” Evacuation order arrived at dawn Electronic alerts are one method of warning residents, but the county added it also uses door knocks, loudspeaker patrols that canvas neighborhoods and media coordination. Jill Fogel said none of that happened in her part of west Altadena. She was huddled with her two young children and her father on Olive Avenue on Jan. 8 when she received a text message after 3 a.m. from a close friend north of Altadena saying there were flames in his backyard. Fogel, 43, said he checked the Watch Duty app, which provides real-time updates taken from emergency crews’ radio transmissions, but there were no warnings that his neighborhood might have to evacuate. He then looked outside his rental home and saw flames. A few minutes later, he received an alert ordering an evacuation. He told his landlord and then his family got into a car and drove away. As they left the neighborhood, joining a stream of cars, Fogel said he saw no fire vehicles or police cars and heard no sirens. Fogel added that he realized the fire was moving very quickly in the hours before the evacuation order was issued. But he believes authorities should have sent alerts much sooner. “I thought it was strange that the flames were so close and we had not received a warning”Fogel commented. “I thought they would have warned us much sooner.” Joe Ten Eyck, former head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said it can be difficult to get the timing of fire evacuation alerts right: If you issue them too soon, you risk mass panic, congested roads and more danger, but if you issue them too late, you run the risk of people being trapped in burning neighborhoods. Those decisions often must be made in an instant, Ten Eyck said, based on rapidly evolving conditions. Many of the victims of the Eaton fire were elderly and probably couldn’t evacuate quickly, added Cipolla, the city councilman. “In everyone’s defense, it was a rapidly spreading fire and a very fluid situation,” he said. “But when you consider that 17 people lost their lives, many of them disabled and elderly, it seems as if something went wrong.” More than two weeks after it started, the Eaton fire is 91% contained, firefighters said Wednesday, while the cause remains under investigation. Investigators have focused on a high-voltage electrical tower in Eaton Canyon as the potential source, as strong Santa Ana winds approaching 100 mph drove the flames toward Altadena and Pasadena. Keep reading:– Relatives of victims who died in the California fires tell their stories.– Rayuela School intends … Read more

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