In August, Boeing attempted to launch its second Orbital Flight Test mission to the International Space Station but was plagued by valve malfunctions. Since then, Boeing and NASA have been giving updates on where they are with returning to launch.
Since 2000 humanity has had a constant presence of individuals orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station. With the rise of commercial opportunities to reach for the stars, and other nations begin their crew launch programs, when is the next crewed launch?
Over the weekend, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy undocked his MS-18 Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station. Along for the ride were Russian actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko finishing their short stay in space.
The new flagship telescope for NASA and its partnering nations is preparing to launch beyond the Moon from French Guiana. The James Webb telescope is now seen at Arianespace’s clean room getting ready for launch vehicle integration.
In a blog post on NASA’s Lucy website, the teams announced that the spacecraft is healthy, but they are looking into an issue with one of Lucy’s giant solar arrays.
NASA and United Launch Alliance launched the Lucy spacecraft in an early morning liftoff beginning its journey the Trojan asteroids.
Early Thursday morning, Arianespace launched Russia’s Soyuz rocket carrying 36 OneWeb satellites. This launch brought OneWeb’s constellation over the halfway point to completion.
NASA’s Lucy mission is preparing to launch a daring mission to visit both sets of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. These asteroids lead and follow the gas giant in its orbit, and experts believe they will help answer how planets are formed. Read below for updates on the launch of NASA’s Lucy mission.
Date: Saturday, October 16, 5:34 a.m. EDT
For the first time in the history of the Joint Chiefs, they have modified their identification badge to represent the addition of the Space Force.
This week on the Space Explored Podcast, Seth and Derek discuss the concerns around Blue Origin’s workplace environment and the safety of their rockets. As well they discuss William Shatner’s then-upcoming launch, which was launched this morning, and more.
Blue Origin launched their second human spaceflight today, marking the fifth New Shepard launch this year. On this flight of New Shepard, it carried a very special guest.
Blue Origin is preparing to launch NS-18 from their West Texas facility with a crew of four on Wednesday. NS-18 will be the company’s second crewed flight, with the most notable member being William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk from Star Trek. The launch will be a short hop above 100 km to give the crew about 4 minutes of weightlessness. Check below for updates on the launch of NS-18.
Date: Wednesday, October 13 at 10:50 a.m. EDT
Blue Origin is preparing to launch William Shatner and three more crew members to space Wednesday; here is how to watch NS-18.
Rocket Lab announced launch windows for their upcoming back-to-back launches for BlackSky. The missions will both launch from LC-1, one of their launch facilities in New Zealand.
China‘s national space agency rolled a Long March 2F rocket with a Shenzhou spacecraft on top to their launch site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. We expect this to be preparation for the Shenzhou-13 mission launching this week.
Today marks the day when the Outer Space Treaty, signed by the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union in January of that same year, was enacted, calming fears of space-based nuclear weapon systems.
Today Facebook and its accompanying apps have experienced a global outage leaving users unable to use their services. The Canadian Space Agency joined in on poking fun at Facebook with a meme about the outage.
Blue Origin is preparing to launch their second crewed New Shepard in less than ten days. After a TMZ report stated he had a ticket, Blue Origin confirms Star Trek actor William Shatner will be on this next flight.
It’s tradition for space travelers to receive wings when they return from their trip. Whether military, civilian, or private, if you fly to space, a shiny pair of wings will most likely await you upon your return from some organization. This now includes private SpaceX passengers, as the Inspiration4 crew were the first to receive new Dragon wings.
Orbit Fab is putting up the investment to place the geostationary satellite gas station in orbit for future military, intelligence, and commercial assets.
The long wait is over for anyone wanting to see what TIME has in store with their Netflix documentary Countdown, available now on Netflix.
Virgin Galactic was in some hot water after deviating from the original flight plan and flying outside of the approved airspace during Richard Branson’s spaceflight in July. The FAA has finished its investigation into the mishap by Virgin Galactic.
The powerhouse commercial launch provider we know today has come a long way since it opened its doors in 2002. On this day back in 2008, on its fourth attempt, SpaceX launched Ratsat into space on its Falcon 1 rocket.
NASA will launch their Landsat 9 Earth-imaging satellite to continue the longest-running Earth-imaging satellite program, which began in the 1970s. Landsat 9 will launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket from their west coast launch facilities. The mission will replace Landsat 7, which launched back in 1999. Follow along with live updates on the Landsat 9 launch below.
Date: Monday, September 27 2:12 p.m. EDT
A federal court released a redacted copy of Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s Human Landing System selection. In it, we get our first glimpse at what Blue Origin is basing this lawsuit over.
This week Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Derek Wise discuss the first all civilian mission to orbit, the shocking change to NASA’s leadership for human spaceflight, what Starship’s Draft Environmental Assessment means for the program, and more.
Artemis III landing on the Moon in 2024 has always been a lofty goal, but NASA officials stuck to the date even as the previous administration left. Today, they began to officially acknowledge the breakdown of the deadline.
The newest branch of the United States Armed Forces has slowly begun building its own brand. Following Monday’s Space Force unveiling of enlisted rank insignia, the service has shown off their dress and physical fitness uniform prototypes.
Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman announced the new rank insignias for enlisted Guardians Monday.
Wednesday night we witnessed the first all civilian crew launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. Over the next three days, they will perform research and enjoy the views of Earth from an altitude of 580 km. Learn how to track Inspiration4’s Dragon spacecraft throughout their flight.
Earlier this week SpaceX launched their first operational Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission featured the first droneship landing on the west coast since early 2019, which means the stunning booster returns to California have also returned.
SpaceX launched their first non-NASA crewed mission, Inspiration4, to orbit using their Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday night. The crew members are not professional astronauts, but average citizens. They were not selected based on the strict requirements of previous astronauts, but instead for their ability to represent and inspire the world.
The long-awaited Inspiration4 mission will launch this week from the historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The flight, paid for by Shift4 founder and CEO Jared Issacman, will carry Issacman along with 3 other civilians.
Over the months we have come to know Issacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. This week a new era of spaceflight begins as these four take to the sky inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule as the company’s first commercial astronaut mission.
Date: Wednesday, September 15th, 8:02 p.m. EDT
NASA announced contract awards to five companies for further development of lunar lander concepts for its Artemis Program on Tuesday.
Tonight SpaceX plans to launch its first privately crewed mission to space. Here is how to watch the all-civilian crew of Inspiration4 launch from historic LC-39A on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
With Tropical Storm Nicholas moving up the Texas coastline, NASA’s facilities in Houston have prepared themselves for the storm.
On Monday, SpaceX plans to launch their first operational batch of Starlink satellites from their launch complex out of Vandenberg Space Force Base. While the official name of this mission is Starlink 2-1 the launch will not carry the 2.0 variants we’ve been waiting for. Instead, these will be 1.5 version satellites and the 2 refers to the “group 2” of Starlink satellites.
This will be the first SpaceX launch from the west coast since Sentinel 6 in November 2020. This will also be the first full batch of Starlink satellites to launch into a polar orbit. Starlink 2-1 will host the first use of the droneship Of Course I Still Love you on the west coast.
Date: Monday, September 13th, 11:55 p.m. EDT
Inspiration4 has been pushing towards its $200 million fundraising goal for St. Jude. A part of the cause is an NFT auction, which today announced what will be up to buy, including pieces from Inspiration4 pilot Dr. Sian Proctor.
On Wednesday Netflix released the first trailer for “Don’t Look Up”, a comedy about an end of the world scenario where a comet threatens to hit Earth.
Who doesn’t love LEGOs? For just shy of 90 years LEGO bricks have been a favorite of children and adults to both pass the time and express creativity. For some, that means houses or cars maybe but for the best builders in the community, they blow us away with complex creations like a LEGO orrery on their Ideas page.
Monday morning Netflix released the first two episodes of their Inspiration4 documentary series. The series will cover the crew’s journey to and from space onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This week we got to see the first part of their journey, the selection of the Inspiration4 crew.
Last month Netflix announced that a docuseries about the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission would be coming to their platform. Today the first 2 episodes became available to stream for those that have a subscription.
Thursday afternoon Firefly Aerospace attempted to launch their first Alpha rocket. Firefly’s first Alpha rocket, while the liftoff was nominal, suffered a failure a few minutes into launch.
Firefly is working towards the first launch of their Alpha rocket, as well as the company’s first launch at all. While this is a test flight FireFly will have real payloads on board this rocket. The smallsats come from a variety of education and research programs that competed for a free spot on the maiden flight. The goal of this mission is to validate the design of the Alpha rocket and its subsystems.
Date: Thursday, September 2nd, 9:59 p.m. (Window closes September 3rd at 12:00 a.m. EDT)
During July’s Unity 22 spaceflight of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, The New Yorker reports that the pilots deviated off their approved course. In the report, they state the FAA has begun an investigation; Virgin Galactic replies.
This week on the Space Explored podcast Seth and Derek talk about SpaceX’s recent and upcoming launches, the newest members of SpaceX’s fleet, Astra’s failed launch attempt, and more.
Update: In a reply to the images SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed the tread is for a new crane they purchased.
There is something exciting about seeing that SpaceX “X” painted on the side of some sort of machinery. Again we have another social media post showing possible new SpaceX hardware but this time much further away from the US.
