Zac Hall

Carriers around the United States are racing to deploy 5G as newer smartphones like the iPhone 12 start to include radios for the next-generation wireless service. Meanwhile in China, the country is said to have launched the first-ever 6G satellite into space.

NASA astronaut Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space in 1992. Dr. Mae Jemison spent seven days aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour as a mission specialist five years after joining the astronaut corps in 1987.

28 years after breaking the glass ceiling for Black women in space, Jemison shares her excitement for Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris becoming the first woman and Black woman to win a national office:

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program for sending astronauts from the U.S. to the International Space Station includes two partners: SpaceX and Boeing. SpaceX completed its first crewed demonstration flight with its Crew Dragon capsule this summer, and the first rotational crew flight called Crew-1 is scheduled to take four astronauts to the ISS for six months on Saturday.

Boeing’s spacecraft Starliner has been much further behind schedule due to some unfortunate mishaps during testing. Starliner failed to rendezvous with the ISS after reaching orbit during an uncrewed flight in December 2019. Now we have a new idea of how soon Boeing will be able to reattempt its uncrewed orbital test flight.

President-Elect Joe Biden has named which members are serving on the NASA agency review team as part of the incoming administration’s transition efforts from the Trump administration.

Today the Senate Appropriations Committee published a draft bill authorizing the 2021 budget for the U.S. government including NASA. If the bill becomes law, NASA is set to receive $23.5 billion in funding for the next fiscal year.

That’s an $866 million increase year-over-year, but the amount allocated to developing a human landing system for NASA’s Artemis program to send astronauts to the Moon by 2024 is underfunded by $2 billion.

Space policy expert and entrepreneur Greg Autry of California was nominated by the Trump administration on July 29 to fill the role of Chief Financial Officer at NASA. Fast-forward to today and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is moving at the speed of government to initiate Mr. Autry’s confirmation hearing.

Jim Bridenstine was an unconventional choice for NASA administrator in September 2017. The former Republican congressman from Oklahoma was nominated by the Trump administration despite a lack of experience in the space industry.

A hard right voting record and an ethics investigation while serving in congress resulted in a 50-49 party-line vote between Republicans and Democrats in April 2018. The Republican-controlled Senate confirmed the former member of the House of Representatives to lead America’s space agency despite complete opposition from Democrats.

Two and a half years later, Bridenstine has solidified his place in history as a beloved NASA administrator with the political chops to advance NASA’s Artemis program through Congress. Government space programs require funding to get results, and Congress is in charge of NASA’s budget.

NASA’s funding is a fraction of a percent of the government’s overall budget, and space exploration tends to be a bipartisan issue, but spending on space is constantly scrutinized and viewed as an area of cost-cutting regardless. It’s no small ask for members of Congress to support increased spending on space programs without direct benefits to constituents in their districts.

Despite his reputation for being an effective administrator, Bridenstine’s days at NASA appear numbered as President-Elect Joe Biden prepares to take office on January 20, 2021 — 72 days, in fact.

SpaceX will attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station this evening at 6:24 p.m. EST. SpaceX is sending the GPS III Space Vehicle 4 to space to join a constellation of over 30 existing global positioning system satellites operated by the United States.

Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to land on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean 8 minutes 35 seconds after liftoff. The GPS III satellite payload will be deployed in space 1 hour and 29 minutes after liftoff. 

Watch the launch, landing, and deployment below.

A titanium garden gnome from Half-Life won’t be the only thing unique about Rocket Lab’s upcoming Electron launch. The 16th launch of Electron will also mark the first mission in which Rocket Lab attempts to recover a first stage booster SpaceX style.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft will soon complete years of development and be used on the first Artemis mission around the Moon. Orion will lift off with NASA’s Space Launch System rocket as soon as next year for an uncrewed lunar flyby mission that certifies SLS and Orion for future astronaut flights to the lunar surface. The space agency has shared a new close-up video look at the first Orion spacecraft as the production process accelerates in time for NASA’s Artemis I mission set for later next year.

NASA is developing an all-electric experimental plane called the X-57 Maxwell as part of an effort to share insight with regulators before EV planes establish a market. Propellers for the electric X-plane recently completed wind tunnel testing at the Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Voters in Arizona have elected former astronaut Mark Kelly to the United States Senate in the 2020. election. Kelly will serve a six-year term in Congress, representing the people of Arizona as a Democrat. The astronaut-politician joins the likes of John Glenn and Harrison Schmitt, who found space in the Senate after first serving NASA.

American actor Tom Cruise isn’t the only star planning to film a movie aboard the International Space Station. Russian space agency Roscosmos is holding a contest to make a star out of one of its citizens with its own feature film.

Harry Stranger is a great friend to the space community — and in particular the Space Coast — all from the other side of the planet in Queensland, Australia. The research Harry shares on Twitter and YouTube is invaluable for anyone who craves space insight and knowledge. Harry’s latest deep dive is a remarkable look at NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building from conception through today based on restored images from Kennedy Space Center’s archive.

SpaceX debuted its “Better Than Nothing Beta” for Starlink internet service last week ahead of wider availability in the U.S. and Canada this year. If you registered interest in testing Starlink but didn’t receive an invite yet, Elon Musk may have good news for you.

Rocket Lab’s 16th Electron mission will be a must-watch event when the small-sat launcher lifts off later this month. Gabe Newell, co-founder of game development company Valve, is donating $1 to charity for every viewer who watches the launch stream. What’s the Valve connection? Rocket Lab can explain:

SpaceX is fast at work on developing its next-generation launch system called Starship, and people can’t wait to see the deep space rocket take flight. Space designers Erc X (@ErcXspace) and smallstars (@smvllstvrs) co-created a powerful new animation that shows a full flight simulation of Starship and even earned Elon Musk’s seal of approval.

We learned earlier this week that Vice President Joe Biden, if elected U.S. President, plans to appoint the first female NASA administrator. Now Reuters has published its own look at space policy of a possible Biden administration and what it could mean for SpaceX, Boeing, and other industry players.

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

We had the chance to sit down with Amy Shira Teitel from The Vintage Space a few weeks ago to discuss her latest book Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight. The historical deep dive follows Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb, two female pilot pioneers who came up in the 1950s when NASA was turning test pilots into the first astronauts.

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While so many of us have been staying close to home during the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA’s new Perseverance rover has been zooming away from our planet in search of its new home on Mars. Percy officially reached the halfway point between Earth and Mars this week as it closes in on its search for signs of ancient life.

The International Space Station will reach a new milestone on Monday, November 2: 20 years of hosting a continuous human presence in space. In celebration, Space Foundation board member Jeanne Meserve is interviewing the original three-person crew of Expedition 1, the first long-duration mission on ISS.