NASA’s newest X-ray telescope launches

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. » NASA’s newest X-ray observatory rocketed into orbit Thursday to shed light on exploded stars, black holes and other violent high-energy events unfolding in the universe.

SpaceX launched the spacecraft on its $188 million mission from Kennedy Space Center. It’s called IXPE, short for Imaging Xray Polarization Explorer.

Scientists said the observatory — actually three telescopes in one — will unveil the most dramatic and extreme

Training center for civilians marks next step in space tourism

Not all companies getting into space tourism are transporting travelers on flight missions. There’s Orbite, a company building what it says will be the first commercial equivalent of a NASA training center. The “Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Complex” is targeting a 2024 opening in a yet-to-be-disclosed U.S. location. In the meantime, the company has smaller programs up and running in Florida and France.

In 2019, after noticing a gap in the market for a company that would train private citizens to become commercial astronauts, Orbite cofounders Jason Andrews and Nicolas Gaume decided to step in to create a boot camp for space tourists. Orbite likens its services to pilot’s license courses for hobbyists.

“If you did go to space camp as a kid, you can now come back what may be many decades later and have the adult version,” said Andrews, who co-founded the aerospace company Spaceflight Industries. parts of the universe as never before.

“IXPE is going to open a new window on the X-ray sky,” Brian Ramsey, NASA’s deputy principal scientist, said this week.

Operations should begin next month. NASA is partnering with the Italian Space Agency on the project.