technical updates

Researchers found that the common blood pressure drug telmisartan can significantly improve the performance of the cancer drug olaparib, potentially expanding its benefits beyond patients with BRCA-related tumors. The combination is already being tested in human clinical trials after showing strong immune-boosting and anticancer effects in preclinical studies. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/gIeirvU

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has been appointed as the head of a new White House group to study unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP, a new catch-all term for UFOs that might appear not just in the air but also in space or underwater. Loeb says the group is focused on evidence, instrumentation, data analysis and collection standards. The move follows recent Trump administration initiatives to bring more transparency to the topic of UFOs, or UAP. The UAP Science Advisory Council , Loeb explains, was established by the White House, the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other members of the Intelligence Community. Loeb co-founded and leads the Galileo Project, designed to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of extraterrestrial technological...

A SpaceX rocket just inched closer to the record books. A Falcon 9 vehicle lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California tonight (July 10) at 11:01 p.m. EDT (8:01 p.m. local time; 0301 GMT on July 11), carrying 29 of SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO). It was the 35th flight for this rocket's first stage, a booster designated B1071. The SpaceX record is 36, set just a few days ago by B1067 on another Starlink mission. Previous Booster B1071 launches NROL-87 | NROL-85 | SARah-1 | SWOT | Transporter-8 | Transporter-9 | NROL-146 | Bandwagon-2 | NROL-153 | NROL-192 | Transporter-14 | Transporter-15 | CAS500-2 | 21 Starlink missions And, there will likely be more flights for B1071 down the road. The booster came back to Earth for a touchdown tonight as planned, landing in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course ...

A supermassive black hole at the heart of a nearby galaxy is behaving similarly to black holes that existed just after the Big Bang, voraciously feeding on copious amounts of matter. The relatively close cosmic titan could therefore provide insight into the much more distant universe. Indeed, the intense accretion behavior demonstrated by the supermassive black hole , which sits at the center of the galaxy SDSS J110546.07+145202.4 located 1.8 billion light-years away, is something scientists have only ever seen in the earliest supermassive black holes. SDSS J110546.07+145202.4 has been shining brightly in radio waves for many years, and these waves were the smoking gun that pointed to the feeding habits of the galaxy's central black hole. "Such high-energy events can provide astronomers with a wealth of insights," Kovi Rose from the University of Sydney’s Sydney Institute for Astron...

German company Isar Aerospace is expanding its operations overseas after signing an agreement with Canada's Maritime Launch Services for use of its Spaceport Nova Scotia. The deal allows Isar to design and operate the pad infrastructure based on the company's needs, in order to launch its Spectrum rocket. In return, Maritime Launch Services (MLS) will provide the pad and surrounding facilities for vehicle stage and payload integration, testing and a mission control hub for launch operations. The agreement grants Isar a $150 million, 10-year lease for the MLS launch site, with the option to extend up to an additional 10 years. Development of the facility is scheduled to begin later this year, with Isar targeting 2028 for its first orbital launches from the new site. "Canada is the next step in our roadmap to bring full end-to-end launch capability to sovereign nations," Alexandre...

Wally Funk, who flew to space at 82 after a lifetime of flying and fighting for women in aviation and aerospace, has passed away at age 87. Born in Texas in 1939, Funk was determined to take to the skies, flying as a teenager and becoming a professional aviator at the tender age of 20. Her dreams extended even beyond Earth , and in 1961 she joined the " Mercury 13 " group of women who completed the testing given to NASA's male Apollo astronauts. But Funk was the only Mercury 13 alum to ever reach space. After a lifetime of flying, in July 2021, the then 82-year-old Funk launched to suborbital space aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard vehicle, a trip that she described as "incredible." "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Wally Funk ," Blue Origin shared in a statement on X on Thursday (July 9). "Wally was a pioneer in every sense of the word … On NS-16...