You can follow Jared’s work on Twitter: @baserunner0723, Instagram: @jared_base, and Facebook: Jared-Base Photography
For tips, errors, or questions, you can reach me at base@spaceexplored.com
Over the last month, we’ve seen a lot of changes in SpaceX’s recovery fleet. New members to the fleet are being added, and some being moved around. Here is an update on what has happened recently.
Expand Expanding Close
On SpaceX’s CRS-22, the first pair of new solar panels were sent up to the ISS to give the station a little boost. Tomorrow two astronauts will conduct a third spacewalk to continue installing the station’s newest addition.
Expand Expanding Close
The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (S-ISAC) is a private-sector group with federal support to monitor and analyze both cyber and physical threats to space assets and their operators. Microsoft has joined as a founding member to bring their experience to the table.
Expand Expanding Close
United Launch Alliance loaded an Atlas V Booster and Dual Engine Centaur onto their Rocketship boat over the weekend. Its destination? Florida. This isn’t just any ordinary Atlas V though, this will be the first one to carry crew to space. The Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) is still expected NET late 2021. However, a second Orbital Flight Test is needed.
UPDATE: ULA Begins OFT-2 Booster Stacking
UPDATE: RL-10C not to be used for upcoming Atlas missions
Expand Expanding Close
Rocket Lab is continuing progress on their latest launch pad located at their New Zealand facility, LC-1B, with the installation of the strongback. The Electron launch vehicle has been grounded since an in-flight failure of the second stage engine. The anomaly investigation is still underway, but the FAA has cleared Electron for flight.
Expand Expanding Close
An Atlas V booster and Dual Engine Centaur have arrived at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) after being offloaded from the Rocketship transport vessel. Spaceflight media was invited to attend the event to provide coverage. This is the third human-rated Atlas V rocket to be delivered to the Cape, with the first being stacked ahead of the Orbital Flight Test 2.
Expand Expanding Close
We’ve all been waiting on the debut of United Launch Alliance’s brand new Vulcan rocket, the rightful successor to the Atlas V and Delta IV. But we might have to wait a little long for a payload to be ready to fly on the first mission.
Expand Expanding Close
Pegasus XL is an air-launched rocket capable of launching ~443kg to Low Earth Orbit. Northrop Grumman conducted a launch of this vehicle over the weekend on a mission for the Space Force. The satellite was named Odyssey and was designed to be a “Space Domain Awareness” Technology Demonstration.
Expand Expanding Close
Stacking of the SLS Core Stage is well underway at this time with operations beginning on June 10th. This is a major milestone for the Artemis and SLS programs. The launch of Artemis 1 is currently NET November 2021, but this timeframe assumes no complications.
Expand Expanding Close
Relativity Space just announced the successor to the Terran 1 smallsat launch vehicle, Terran R. Coming in at 216 feet tall and producing 2.1 million pounds of thrust, Terran R will be the world’s first fully reusable, 3D printed rocket. The first launch is expected NET 2024 out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Expand Expanding Close
Axiom Space and SpaceX announced a 3 flight deal to carry private astronauts to the International Space Station on June 2nd. These 3 additional flights will occur through 2023 and will utilize the SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule.
Expand Expanding Close
In a closed permit application, Blue Origin proposed modifications to Grouper Road, a road on the north side of Port Canaveral, that would allow their New Glenn booster transporter to enter and leave the port.
Expand Expanding Close
The secretive company founded by Jeff Bezos has been in and out of the news a lot in recent years. Below is an overview of the facilities they have built up across Florida to support their mission to break into the commercial launch industry.
Expand Expanding Close
Located just north of the Visitor Complex at KSC is SpaceX’s newest facility. The Roberts Road site has been in development for around 2 to 3 years at this point, and construction is continuing to ramp up. Hangar X is the main building of the site that will support Falcon 9 booster refurbishment and house administration offices.
Expand Expanding Close
Axiom Space announced the commander and pilot for their upcoming Ax-2 mission this morning, expected to launch NET Fall 2022. The Ax-2 Commander will be Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut with a lot of firsts to her name. Ax-2 Pilot will be John Shoffner, a pilot, motorsport racer, and a life science activist.
Expand Expanding Close
May 16th, 8:44 PM: The Black Brant XII sounding rocket carrying the KiNET-X mission launched from Wallops Island in Virginia, images below.
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is set to launch a sounding rocket on May 8th late in the evening that could be easily seen across the east side of the US if weather conditions allow.
Expand Expanding Close
In cases where there is an emergency on the pad and the crew needs to get out of there in a hurry. Companies have designed Emergency Egress Systems (EES) to do just that job. SpaceX and ULA each have them, and in the past, NASA has as well. It looks like Artemis, NASA’s mission to the moon, is in the early stages of having her’s built.
Expand Expanding Close
It was announced today that Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems division would be splitting off into its own, independent company. This move comes shortly after SNC announced their future plans for space, including an inflatable space station.
SNC has a long history of working on space systems, and Sierra Space further emphasizes its commitment to achieving its goals. Moving the Space Systems division independent will likely result in these goals reaching fruition faster.
Expand Expanding Close
Rocket Crafters, based out of Cocoa, Florida, has rebranded to Vaya Space following a difficult year in 2020 and has new plans moving forward. Their new rocket is called Dauntless and is expected to be capable of launching 1000kg (2,200lbs) to Low Earth Orbit and 610kg (1,340lbs) to Sun Synchronous Orbit with the first launch expected in 2023. This launch vehicle is different than most because it uses a hybrid solid rocket motor rather than liquid propellants for thrust.
Expand Expanding Close
On this day in 1965, Ranger 9 impacted the Moon at 14:08:19 UTC with a relative speed of 2.67 km/s (5,972 mph). This impact concluded the 3-day mission of Ranger 9 and the overall Ranger program. This mission gathered important data needed for the later Surveyor program, and ultimately the Apollo program.
Expand Expanding Close
The Visitor Complex at Kennedy Space Center has reopened one of its must-see exhibits and just unveiled the Delta II display! With the Coronavirus still very much a hazard, the KSC Visitor Complex has implemented new procedures to keep you safe while still being able to see the amazing Saturn V. Additionally, the latest addition to the Rocket Garden was officially unveiled today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Expand Expanding Close
SpaceX is continuing work on their Boca Chica facilities to support further launches and tests. New plans released by the US Army Corps of Engineers show some new additions that could be coming to the Starship launch site in the very near future.
Expand Expanding Close
After 29 years and 155 flights, United Launch Alliance retired the Delta II rocket. The final flight took place on September 15, 2018, delivering the NASA ICESat-2 satellite to orbit. Some notable payloads of Delta II are the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers and most of the operational GPS satellites.
Expand Expanding Close
With the recent landing of Perseverance on the 18th and the first-of-its-kind video release on the 22nd, we are getting access to interplanetary imagery rivaled only by the Juno mission and its JunoCam. The website for the Perseverance rover will be the home for all the pictures, videos, and sounds taken by the rover for the public to view.
There are 2 picture sections on the site: Images and Raw Images. The Images section will contain all the NASA-created and edited content such as graphics and edited Perseverance pictures. The Raw Images section contains exactly what the name entails, raw images. You will find that most of these pictures are in black and white while some others may be in color but have a strange hue to them. This is to be expected as little to no editing should have been applied.
As of writing this, there are currently 4,796 total images in the Raw Images section. That’s a lot to go through. You may notice that there are some very small pictures along with normal-sized pictures. That is because they also put the thumbnail pictures they get from the rover up on the site too.
Thumbnail pictures are the low-resolution copies that they get from the rover first before getting the much larger normal resolution files downlinked. You can filter out these thumbnail images using the filters in the sidebar if you want to focus on the normal resolution images instead.
With these raw images, you can create your own edits of Perseverance pictures. I use Adobe Photoshop 2021 to create my edits but you can also create edits in GIMP, a free photoshop alternative. You will need to use the black and white frames that are individual color bands (Red, Green, and Blue) to construct a full-color image.
Here are some of the edits I have made using Photoshop, Astronomy Tools Action Set (For constructing the RGB image and contrast enhancement), and Topaz Labs GigaPixel AI (for AI image up-scaling)
Help others find us by following on Apple News and Google News. Be sure to check us out on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, join our Discord!