This week on Rapid Unscheduled Discussions Seth and Daryl discuss Wally Funk going to space, Europa Clipper moving to Falcon Heavy, Elon meme page on TikTok, and sports got brought up more than it should.
Today
Check out this animation showing NASA Ingenuity’s 9th flight [Video]
At the beginning of this month, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made a daring flight that would trek over 600 meters, at speeds of up to 5 m/s for just under 3 minutes. A user created an animation of the Ingenuity’s flight so you can see it from any angle.
Update: A new weather report is out for Starliner’s OFT-2 from SLD 45 but it does not show any significant changes to the forecast.
After the missed opportunity to dock with the International Space Station due to a timer issue on its first flight a second test flight was needed. Boeing will be performing their second orbital flight test for their Starliner crew capsule as soon as Friday to dock with the ISS. This will also serve as the final test before NASA puts crew onboard to determine if it’s ready.
Date: Friday, July 30th at 2:53 p.m. EDT
Yesterday
This week on the Space Explored Podcast Seth and Derek discuss what it means for Jeff Bezos to go to space, new Super Heavy boosters, Europa Clipper getting a new ride to Jupiter, and more.
Subscribe
July 25
This week, the focus has been on Blue Origin. On Tuesday, they completed the first crewed flight of New Shepard, flying the oldest and youngest person to ever visit space.
While the news this week primarily focused on Blue Origin’s flight to space on Tuesday, SpaceX has continued to work towards the first flight of Starship Super Heavy. This week, Super Heavy had its first static fire, while Starship may see some slight design changes moving forward.
On July 21st, a new module to join the International Space Station launched on a Proton rocket into orbit. Since then numerous issues with the Nauka module have cropped up, but recently, it seems to be trending well.
July 24
SpaceX’s winning streak continued Friday with NASA’s announcement that it has selected Falcon Heavy to launch the agency’s long-awaited Europa Clipper mission in 2024.
July 23
NASA shares video celebrating the final shuttle flight and what’s to come
Yesterday NASA shared a video to their YouTube channel celebrating the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. In it, they discuss how far we’ve come since then and what is to come after.
July 22
Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA and Boeing will attempt to launch the Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission on July 30th at 2:53 PM EDT. This comes after a successful Flight Readiness Review today.
