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Elon Musk isn't convinced that aliens have ever visited Earth.

The SpaceX CEO and founder sat down for a panel titled "How to save the human race and other light topics" at the 2024 Milken Institute Global Conference held in Los Angeles on Tuesday (May 7). During the conversation, the institute's chairman, financier Michael Milken, began by asking Musk how he feels about the well-known opening monologue to many "Star Trek" series, in which it is stated that the starship Enterprise's mission is to "seek out new life forms and new civilizations." Musk replied, "Yeah, that's the idea."

Musk elaborated, stating that if we send probes out into the universe, we might find "remains of long-dead alien civilizations." He then launched into an explanation about why he doesn't feel aliens have ever visited our planet.

Related: SpaceX's Starship will go interstellar someday, Elon Musk says

Musk told Milken that he is frequently asked if he believes aliens are among us here on Earth, acknowledging how widespread that belief is. "And for some reason, a lot of the same people who think there are aliens among us don't think we went to the moon, which, I'm like: 'Think about that for a second,'" Musk said to laughter from the audience.

Musk elaborated on why he doesn't believe aliens have visited our planet, stating that, even with the thousands of broadband spacecraft that SpaceX operates in low Earth orbit, he hasn't once seen any compelling evidence of either extraterrestrial life or any potential craft operated by non-human intelligence.

"I've not seen any evidence of aliens," Musk said. "And SpaceX, with the Starlink constellation, has roughly 6,000 satellites, and not once have we had to maneuver around a UFO. [...] Never. So I'm like, okay, I don't see any evidence of aliens."

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

But, like many people, Musk said that he's open to considering the possibility of alien visitation, if indeed there is any compelling proof. "If somebody has evidence of aliens, you know, that's not just a fuzzy blob, then I'd love to see it, love to hear about it," Musk said. "But I don't think there is."

The SpaceX CEO then pointed out how concerning the lack of any evidence of alien civilizations is for the future of humanity, opining that, even if an ancient civilization managed to last a million years, it should have easily been able to explore and settle the entire Milky Way galaxy.

"So, they haven't, so why not?" Musk asked.

"I think the answer might be, probably, is that that civilization is precarious, and rare. And that we should really think of human civilization as being like a tiny candle in a vast darkness. And we should do everything possible to ensure that that candle does not go out."

Despite having never had to move out of the way of a UFO, Starlink satellites do, in fact, regularly make avoidance maneuvers to dodge debris or other spacecraft. Between June 1, 2023, and Nov. 30, 2023, Starlink satellites performed 24,410 collision avoidance maneuvers, equivalent to six maneuvers per spacecraft, according to data collected by SpaceX reported to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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'I don't see any evidence of aliens.' SpaceX's Elon Musk says Starlink satellites have never dodged UFOs - Space.com

SpaceX's next private astronaut launch is slated for this summer, and a major component crucial to its success has finally been revealed.

The mission, Polaris Dawn, is poised to involve the first extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks to be performed by private astronauts, which means SpaceX needed to build its own spacesuit capable of protecting wearers from the harsh environment of space. Now, we've finally gotten our first look at the design.

The new suit was unveiled on SpaceX's website and social media channels Saturday (May 4). The announcement was accompanied that afternoon by a "spaces" discussion with SpaceX engineers and Polaris Dawn crew members on X, formerly Twitter, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought in 2022.

Related: Polaris Dawn crew prepares for world's 1st private spacewalk with SpaceX

SpaceX's EVA suit looks much like the company's IVA suit (intravehicular activity), which was designed to be worn within spacecraft during launches and landings, but not in the vacuum of space. The new EVA suits contain material enhancements and joint improvements aimed at increasing astronauts' mobility while also protecting them from the cold, airless void outside their spacecraft.

"There was a lot of work on both the materials of the suit developing a whole new layer that we needed to add for thermal management as well as looking at the thermal condition for the crew members themselves, and making sure that they were at a comfortable temperature inside the suit," said the manager of SpaceX's spacesuit team Chris Trigg during the discussion on X.

The suits also incorporate technology used in other parts of SpaceX's manufacturing gamut. "We have a lot of different resources at our disposal here," Trigg said. "There's some thermal material that we ended up using on the boot, which was developed actually for Falcon and Dragon, and is used on the interstage on Falcon, and on the trunk of Dragon."

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Trigg also described a new heads-up display in the helmet design, allowing astronauts to view data about their suits' internal temperature, humidity and pressure; the display also exhibits a mission clock to monitor the durations of particular EVA tasks. "Aesthetically, it may look similar to the IVA, but what they did under the hood is extraordinary," said Jared Isaacman, mission commander for Polaris Dawn, during the discussion. In collaboration with SpaceX, Isaacman is also funding the mission.

The billionaire previously funded and commanded SpaceX's commercial Inspiration4 mission in 2021, which was the first all-civilian spaceflight. For Inspiration4, beyond in-flight research, Isaacman was motivated to charter the flight in an effort to raise money for pediatric cancer research center St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Polaris Dawn, the first of three possible missions for Isaacman's Polaris Program, is also raising money for St. Jude's, and aims take human spaceflight to a new level. "The Polaris program contemplates up to three missions," Isaacman said Saturday, "culminating with the first crewed flight of Starship."

Related: Meet the four private Polaris Dawn astronauts SpaceX will launch into orbit this year

Isaacman will be joined on Polaris Dawn by retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott "Kidd" Poteet, who will serve as the mission pilot, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both lead operations engineers at SpaceX. The quartet hopes to push the boundaries of space travel with this flight, which will take them higher than any human has flown since the final Apollo moon landing mission more than 50 years ago.

Menon described the mission's flight profile and timeline during the May 4 discussion on X:

"We will be essentially launching into a highly elliptical orbit where our perigee is at about 190 kilometers, but our apogee is at about 1,200 kilometers. We will then, after a number of orbits, be raising our apogee up to about 1,400 kilometers The benefit of being at this high altitude is that we can better understand the impacts of that environment that higher radiation environment, for example on both the human body as well as on the spacecraft. After a number of orbits there, we will complete all the research that we were intending to do, and then we will lower our apogee back down to a nice coasting orbit around 700 kilometers, where we will complete the rest of our mission objectives including the spacewalk."

Polaris Dawn will last five days, during which time the crew plans to complete up to 40 experiments. For instance, the team intends to capture X-ray images of radiation in the Van Allen Belts ring-shaped zones of energetic charged particles around Earth investigate the mechanisms that cause motion sickness in space and test hardware, including the new EVA suit and the Crew Dragon capsule itself.

Because the original Crew Dragon design doesn't feature an airlock, the entire cabin must be depressurized in order for the crew to conduct EVA tasks. This has led to major modifications that allowed the capsule's interior to withstand the hard vacuum. SpaceX also added a nitrogen repressurization system for the conclusion of the mission's EVA duties. Further, hand rails and footholds were installed inside the spacecraft, and a ladder interface at the hatch's opening was implemented to facilitate astronaut egress.

Rather than fit each Polaris Dawn astronaut with an IVA flight suit as well as a new EVA suit, the crew will don SpaceX's EVA spacesuit for both launch and landing, as well as during the mission EVA.

"We'll vent the cabin down to vacuum and then we will undertake an EVA operation where we hope to learn an awful lot about our suits and the operation associated with it," Isaacman said, adding "It's the first commercial EVA. It's the first time you don't have government astronauts undertaking such a mission. And that's important because we are going to get to the moon or Mars someday. We're going to have to get out of our vehicles, out of the safety of a habitat and explore, and build and repair things.

"And that means the knowledge for spacewalks and EVAs has to go beyond just the the few that it exists with today."

Link:

SpaceX reveals new EVA suit for 1st private spacewalk on upcoming Polaris Dawn spaceflight (video) - Space.com

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SpaceX successfully launched its Starlink 6-56 mission Wednesday afternoon.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A, carryingmore than 20 Starlink satellites,stated SpaceX.SpaceX owns the Starlink company.

The window was originally set to open at 11 a.m. ET and was pushed back to 1:34 p.m. ET and then to 2:10 p.m. ET. No reason was given for the delays.

The 45th Weather Squadron gave a90% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule.

This might also be the first launch for SpaceX today. It plans on launching the Starlink 8-2 mission fromVandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday evening.

The Falcon 9's first-stage booster, B1083, for this mission is quite young. It only has two launches to its unique name.

After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket will land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitasthat will be in the Atlantic Ocean.

The23satellites will head to low-Earth orbit, where the rest of them are parked.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Dr. Jonathan McDowell documents Starlink satellites.

Before this launch,McDowell recorded the following:

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SpaceX successfully launches its Starlink 6-56 mission - News 13 Orlando

If you see a streak in the sky on the evening of May 9, don't worry. It's probably the launch of the SpaceX rocket from California.

PHOENIX Keep your cameras handy tonight. Another Starlink mission launch is scheduled for the evening of May 9.

According to the SpaceX website, the launch is expected to happen around 9:30 p.m. PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The launch was originally scheduled for 7:37 p.m. on May 8.

If the launch gets delayed, backup opportunities are available until 10:18 p.m. PT. People will be able to watch a stream of the launch from the company's website. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Friday, May 10 starting at 8:21 p.m. PT.

This is the fourth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched USSF-62, and two Starlink missions.

Starlink is "the world's first and largest satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls and more," according to the service's website.

The "constellation" of satellites consists of thousands of satellites that orbit Earth at an altitude of about 550 km, or 341 3/4 miles.

The satellites connect to antennas that users set up at their home to provide internet access.

Launches happen regularly out of California and create a light display over Arizona.

Dr. Vishnu Reddy, a scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, studies space situational awareness and basically ... knows a lot about space.

He told 12News the reason the SpaceX rockets light up the sky is not because the engines burn brightly (although they do), it's because of something called the Twilight Phenomenon.

"The sun might have set for us here in Arizona, but it hasn't set in California," Reddy said. "So it's catching that sunlight and reflecting off."

In short, the rocket launches far away, in California. but it goes so high that we can see it in Arizona. And when we see it, it's not in the shadow of nightfall, even though Arizona is. The "glow" is sunlight hitting the exhaust trail, even while we perceive the sky to be black.

"If you are at the top of a mountain, you can see the sunset much longer than people at the base of the mountain," Reddy said. So, think of the rocket as the top of the mountain while you're at the bottom.

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When is the next SpaceX launch happening? - 12news.com KPNX

Back in 2014, the United States held its own little internal space race. NASA chose two companies to bring us back to the International Space Station, providing them with funding to build a crewed space vehicle: One established, long-proven aerospace engineering firm, and one upstart run by a guy who names all his kids like theyre Warhammer figures. Ten years later, the race has a clear loser: Boeing.

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Boeing received $4.2 billion in federal funding to build its Starliner system, far more than the $2.6 billion allowance SpaceX got for its Dragon. Its far and away the more established competitor, with over a century of aeronautics experience, yet Starliner is only now preparing for its first crewed flight four years after Dragons, and $1.5 billion over budget. Ars Technica looked into what went wrong:

But at least SpaceX was in its natural environment. Boeings space division had never won a large fixed-price contract. Its leaders were used to operating in a cost-plus environment, in which Boeing could bill the government for all of its expenses and earn a fee. Cost overruns and delays were not the companys problemthey were NASAs. Now Boeing had to deliver a flyable spacecraft for a firm, fixed price.

Boeing struggled to adjust to this environment. When it came to complicated space projects, Boeing was used to spending other peoples money. Now, every penny spent on Starliner meant one less penny in profit (or, ultimately, greater losses). This meant that Boeing allocated fewer resources to Starliner than it needed to thrive.

...

In a fixed-price contract, a company gets paid when it achieves certain milestones. Complete a software review? Earn a payment. Prove to NASA that youve built a spacecraft component you said you would? Earn a payment. This kind of contract structure naturally incentivized managers to reach milestones.

The problem is that while a company might do something that unlocks a payment, the underlying work may not actually be complete. Its a bit like students copying homework assignments throughout the semester. They get good grades but havent done all of the learning necessary to understand the material. This is only discovered during a final exam, in class. Essentially, then, Boeing kept carrying technical debt forward so that additional work was lumped onto the final milestones.

Boeing, as weve all recently seen, is no longer an aeronautics company its a profit company, the kind of business you get when MBAs hellbent on efficiency take over from the engineers. That mindset didnt vibe well with a government contract, and the so-called efficiencies never showed up to help. Ars Technica continues:

There was no single flight software team at Boeing. The responsibilities were spread out. A team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida handled the ground systems software, which kept Starliner healthy during ground tests and the countdown until the final minutes before liftoff. Separately, a team at Boeings facilities in Houston near Johnson Space Center managed the flight software for when the vehicle took off.

Neither team trusted one another, however. When the ground software team would visit their colleagues in Texas, and vice versa, the interactions were limited. The two teams ended up operating mostly in silos, not really sharing their work with one another. The Florida software team came to believe that the Texas team working on flight software had fallen behind but didnt want to acknowledge it. (A Boeing spokesperson denied there was any such friction).

The full Ars Technica piece is worth a read, as it goes into the myriad ways that Boeing failed with the Starliner project. Cost fixations, siloed development, a lack of proper testing, even the companys lack of vertical integration all worked together to kneecap the project. Going to space is hard enough when you arent focused on doing it as cheaply as possible.

A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik.

Link:

How Boeing lost the space race to Elon Musk's SpaceX - Quartz