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August 1
After only 27 days since the failure of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket to reach orbit. The California based smallsat launch company announced today that the FAA has approved them to resume launch operations. With the company saying they are preparing to launch their 14th mission come no earlier than August from Launch Complex 1 Pad A on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.
July 28
Today NASA announced the crew who will ride on SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission slated to take off spring 2021. This will be SpaceX’s second operational crewed mission.
The third SpaceX launch with astronauts onboard in the company’s history will follow the pending completion of DM-2 and the upcoming Crew-1 mission. The latter mission is set to launch in mid-September.
The team for Crew-2 include these four experienced astronauts:
July 23
Update July 24: Starlink 9 mission liftoff now targeted for Friday, July 31, at 3:45 a.m. EDT, less than 24 hours after the scheduled Mars 2020 mission launch.
According to a NOTAM issued for falling debris from the second stage of a Falcon 9. SpaceX plans to launch its next batch of Starlink satellites on July 29th, mission named Starlink 9. This will be their 10th batch of roughly 60 Starlink satellites to support their growing global internet service. The Falcon 9 booster for this mission has been flown four other times. Its past missions were NASA DM-1, RADARSAT, Starlink 3, and Starlink 6. The booster will land on one of SpaceX’s drone ships out in the Atlantic ocean.
July 22
On the heels of the return to human space flight from American soil, NASA is launching another historic mission this year. Perseverance, the newest of NASA’s Mars rovers, plans to launch as soon as July 30, and the mission is packed full of new science experiments to learn more about the Red Planet. The new Mars rover will be launching on top of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
What makes Perseverance special? For starters, it’s the result of previous Mars missions dating back to the mid ’90s, and the state-of-the-art rover will be accompanied by the first-ever space helicopter…
