Derek Wise

NASA has just completed modal testing with the mass simulator on the SLS rocket for Artemis I. With this testing complete, operations can move forward in preparation for rollout to SLC-39B.

SpaceX and NASA’s next crew mission is now targeting October 30, at 2:43 a.m. EDT. There is a backup date available on October 31 at 2:21 a.m. EDT.

Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery took flight on this day in 1988. It was the first flight of the Space Shuttle following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986.

The Thermal Protection System on SpaceX’s Starship has been the topic of much discussion. Ship 20 had its thermal protection installed, but the quality of those tiles has come into question. Now, with the vent of the Ship 20’s header tank, many tiles on Ship 20 flew off and hit the ground.

This week, the Space Force gained a new look, NASA human spaceflight leadership has been divided, and preparations continue for Artemis I.

Shortly after the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission returned to Earth, associate administrator of Space Operations Mission Directorate Kathy Lueders announced that Axiom will be launching its private mission to the ISS on February 21, 2022.

To put it bluntly, Boeing’s attempts at an Orbital Flight Test of their CST-100 Starliner capsule have been a complete wreck. The success of Starliner is imperative so NASA will have redundant systems for access to the ISS, but a delay to 2022 is unsurprising.

Rocket Lab, an American small sat launcher, won a contract to launch a demonstration mission for Astroscale. The mission will demonstrate Astroscales active debris removal for phase one of JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project.

This week Inspiration4 launched into orbit and returned to Earth, SpaceX launched polar Starlink satellites from the West Cost, and a Falcon Heavy side booster will be put on display.

Beyond sharing a photo of his new dog Floki, talking about UFOs, and stressing the importance of reusable rockets on Twitter this week, Elon has also shared new features, including Starlink, that will be coming to the Crew Dragon capsule.

The Inspiration4 crew successfully splashed down in the Atlantic following their nearly three days orbiting the Earth. In a great conclusion to the mission, Elon Musk shared that he would be donating $50 million dollars to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—pushing the fundraising campaign past its $200 million goal.

The name of ‘Unistellar’ spread across the web when they launched their eVscope on Kickstarter in 2017. They released their second product the eVscope Equinox earlier this year, and now, they have announced the successor to their original telescope, the eVscope 2.

In a brief tweet yesterday, Steve Wozniak announced he is co-founding a new private space company.

This week, the target launch date for the James Webb Space telescope was announced, SpaceX released a new render of Starship Super Heavy, and Inspiration4 works toward launch.

Inspiration4 announced today that a number of objects set to fly on the first all-civilian mission to space will be auctioned in support of St. Jude.

SpaceX has won a contract to launch Al Yah Satellite (Yahsat) Communications Company’s latest communication satellite.

Late last month Nanoracks announced the launch of a new company, StarLab Oasis. The company is aimed at addressing desertification, climate change, water scarcity, and food security.