Zac Hall

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley received the green light to conduct the final step of their test flight demonstration mission for SpaceX on Saturday.

The crew will soon begin undocking the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station as they begin their journey back to Earth. The spacecraft will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere before deploying parachutes and splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.

A recovery helicopter will land on a helicopter pad on a ship near the splashdown site. The capsule will be recovered by a crane arm attached to another ship in the gulf.

NASA chose Pensacola, Florida, for the site of the historic astronaut splashdown after determining seven potential splashdown sites. The splashdown site in the Gulf of Mexico is the furthest west of where Tropical Storm Isaias is predicted to make landfall on Sunday. Panama City will be the backup site location if required.

Space Time is a new podcast from Space Explored, part of the 9to5Mac Network.

In this Mars 2020 edition of Space Time, Zac Hall speaks with Dr. Lori Glaze (Planetary Science Division Director) and Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen (Associate Administrator, Science) of NASA, and Scott Messer (Program Manager for NASA’s Launch Service Program missions) of ULA.

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SpaceX was days away from sending astronauts to orbit for the first time in the company’s history last May, but the one thing everyone wanted to talk about was the sleek new spacesuit.

The design is polarizing. A white and gray two-piece flight suit is worn by astronauts who travel to space in a SpaceX vehicle. It’s a bold departure from the orange and blue flight suits traditionally worn by NASA astronauts.

In a new video published by SpaceX, Space Suits and Crew Equipment Manager Chris Trigg describes how the flight suits are also extensions of the Crew Dragon spacecraft by design.

“For All Mankind,” a premiere series on the Apple TV+ video service, first put Ronald Moore’s vision of an alternative space race timeline in the living room.

The sci-fi drama reveals a world in which Russia beat the U.S. to putting humans on the moon first. The premise goes on to imagine how that single event could affect what came next in space history. Season one ended with an ocean-based rocket launching from under the sea, a concept that was once considered (and may be returning for Elon Musk).

As revealed in a new teaser trailer shown off at Comic-Con At Home, a virtual version of the annual celebration of all things imaginative, director Ronald D. Moore envisions an 80s space war unfolding between the Americans and the U.S.S.R.

The next several days will be extraordinarily busy for NASA and the spaceflight industry.

United Launch Alliance and NASA are targeting Thursday, July 30, for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter launch. Mission objectives include searching for evidence of ancient life on Mars and demonstrating helicopter flight on another planet.

Less than 24 hours later, SpaceX plans to launch its Starlink 9 mission. SpaceX routinely launches up to 60 internet satellites to build out its growing constellation for an upcoming global broadband service.

Then the two NASA astronauts who were the first humans to go to space in a SpaceX spacecraft will come home. Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will leave the International Space Station as soon as Saturday, August 1, and splashdown off the coast of Florida as soon as Sunday, August 2.

NASA today shared new details about how to watch the return of the astronauts currently planned for Sunday afternoon.

Space Time is a new podcast from Space Explored, part of the 9to5Mac Network.

Zac Hall and Seth Kurkowski are joined by Jaakko Karras of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to unpack the work behind ingenuity, NASA’s new Mars helicopter launching next week to conduct a flight test in February.

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SpaceX made company history on Monday when it successfully caught both halves of the Falcon 9 nosecone after successfully launching a South Korean military satellite to space. SpaceX has previously managed to catch a single fairing half, but not the full nosecone.

NASA is hard at work on a historic mission to send the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024 under the Artemis program. Prior to the ambitious Artemis 3 mission, astronauts will conduct a lunar flyby mission called Artemis 2.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, the company tasked with building the motors and engines used to transport crew to lunar orbit, now says it has completed manufacturing and testing of the hardware that will be used on the second Artemis mission.

Update: SpaceX targeting 5:30 p.m. EDT due to local weather in Florida.

SpaceX will attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida today at 5 p.m. EDT. The launch window will be open for 3 hours 55 minutes. SpaceX is sending a communications satellite called ANASIS 2 to space for the South Korean military.

The first stage of the two-staged rocket was previously used to send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station for the historic SpaceX Demo-2 mission. Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to land for a second time 8 minutes 31 seconds after liftoff. The ANASIS 2 satellite will be deployed 32 minutes 29 seconds after launch.

Neil Armstrong made history 51 years ago today when the American astronaut became the first human to step foot on the Moon. Space Exploration Day on July 20 honors the Apollo 11 mission and all advances made in space.

The White House released a presidential statement this year that recognizes the recent SpaceX launch with astronauts and the upcoming NASA Mars 2020 mission as current milestones:

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will depart from the International Space Center in August after becoming the first humans to ever go to space in a SpaceX spacecraft. A successful splashdown will conclude the SpaceX Demo-2 crewed flight test mission to certify the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft for operational missions.

In a moment when the nation is rethinking how we memorialize historical figures who represent different values than our society today, an important NASA facility located in Mississippi is receiving national attention over its name.

Stennis Space Center is a NASA engine test facility located just north of Interstate I-10 in Hancock County, Mississippi. The NASA site is 39 miles east of NASA’s neighboring Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. It’s not uncommon for engineers and project managers from nearby Slidell, Louisiana, to work at the Mississippi test facility.

The NASA site takes its name from the late Senator John Cornelius Stennis, a celebrated U.S. senator from Mississippi who served in Congress for over 41 years. Mr. Stennis can be described as a proponent of racial segregation based on the senator’s statements and voting record on civil rights policy while in office.

The issue of Stennis Space Center’s name has since been raised to NASA leadership. Today, the possibility of a new name is considered possible, but opposition from statewide and national leadership could be a roadblock.

Space Time is a new podcast from Space Explored, part of the 9to5Mac Network.

Our very first guest is Will Pomerantz, Vice President of Special Projects at Virgin Orbit. In this episode, Zac Hall and Will Pomerantz discuss the issue of NASA’s Stennis Space Center and the origins of its namesake.

Sponsored by the excellent Fantastical Premium by Flexibits: Go to flexibits.com/spacetime to save 20% off your first year!

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Quick programming note from Space Explored: I’m thrilled to announce that we’re launching an all-new podcast this week! Space Time will premiere here and on YouTube tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET. As we launch the new podcast, Space Time will appear in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Overcast for audio subscribers.

As we announce in our teaser episode below, our first episode includes a very special video interview with Will Pomerantz, Vice President of Special Projects at Virgin Orbit. Will recently brought national attention to roots of the Stennis Space Center name. We discuss the growing movement around efforts to revise NASA’s test facility name and much more.

Special thanks to our premiere sponsor Fantastical Premium by Flexibits for supporting Space Time.

Northrop Grumman’s 78-foot-tall Minotaur IV expendable launch system is lifting off from NASA’s Wallops Island flight facility in Virginia. The launch is the first Minotaur IV launch from Virginia’s Space Coast and the first National Reconnaissance Office launch using the Minotaur IV system.

Today’s Minotaur IV launch is also the first use of the expendable launch system since August 2017. The system has been used for a total of seven launches since April 2010, and one to two additional launches are already planned. NASA says the next launch from Wallops Flight Facility will be sometime in mid-August.

Minotaur rockets are created using decommissioned MX Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles created in the late 80s and early 90s.

Update on July 11: “Standing down from today’s launch of the tenth Starlink mission to allow more time for checkouts; team is working to identify the next launch opportunity. Will announce a new target date once confirmed with the Range,” SpaceX announced.

SpaceX will attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday at 10:54 a.m. EDT. SpaceX is sending its tenth batch of Starlink satellites to space. These satellites will be used for a new global broadband service that will focus on bringing internet connectivity to underserved areas.

The rocket launch is also a ridesharing mission that will include two BlackSky satellites. Today’s mission will mark the second ridesharing mission for SpaceX Starlink launches.

Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to land 8 minutes 24 seconds after liftoff. The 59 satellite payload will be deployed in space shortly after 1 hour from liftoff.

Watch the launch, landing, and deployment below.

Google Earth made global satellite imagery of the Earth widely accessible for free in 2005. This week, Google is celebrating a decade and a half of the 3D Earth imaging software with 15 impacts Google Earth has made so far.

SpaceX is scheduled to send its tenth batch of Starlink internet satellites to space on a Falcon 9 rocket in less than 24 hours. The payload will also include two Earth observation satellites from Seattle-based BlackSky Global.

The Starlink 9 mission follows the successful launch of a next generation GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force on June 30. Photographer Michael Cain, who has been shooting rocket launches for three years, decided to try a different camera for capturing SpaceX’s previous launch: the iPhone.

Virgin Galactic will host a video walkthrough of the crew cabin for private astronauts inside its SpaceShipTwo Unity later this month. The virtual event is expected to coincide with the launch of a new experience for learning about the upcoming suborbital commercial launch service.