Seth Kurkowski

Last Monday North America got to witness the most unique solar event that can ever happen, a total solar eclipse. If you didn’t get to travel to, or be lucky and just live in, the path of totality, you most likely missed out on the fun. So if you are determined to not miss the next one, where do you have to be and when is the next total solar eclipse?

Friday evening SpaceX launched a Starlink mission that while not newsworthy anymore, the booster it launched on was. B1062, first launched in 2020, has now reached the big 20 mission milestone.

After a short nap in a Walmart parking lot, a wildlife refuge, and then a quick realization our planned viewing location would be closed, we witnessed something most people never get to see, a total solar eclipse. However, time continues to move forward and what is done is done. For those that witnessed it, what do we do next?

After some delay due to technical issue, ULA is back to attempting to get its final Delta IV Heavy off the ground and firmly into retirement. Russia is also launching a decade old rocket that is still in development for some reason.

Later today we expect to see the Delta IV launch its final mission. About two weeks ago ULA was forced to scrub its last attempt after issues with a pumping system arose in the final minutes of the countdown. A question I’ve seen popping up in a few groups was “Why is ULA retiring the Delta IV?” It’s a valid question, the large capable rocket seems like it should have a long life ahead still but alas, ULA has other plans.

This afternoon for most Americans there will be a partial solar eclipse. For a small part of the country, the Moon will completely blocks out the Sun from view, forming a total eclipse. If you’re in the area hoping to see it (like myself), here’s the best tool to see if clouds will ruin depending on where you are.

On Thursday, April 8 the Moon will block out the Sun across a large part of Central and Eastern United States. For many of us it will be your first total solar eclipse and you probably don’t know what to do or how to enjoy it. Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts has a few key tips for what to do during next week’s eclipse.

We’ve seen a lot of changes to the space launch market over the last decade, from hopeful underdogs to defacto monopolies. Now we’re going through another large shift in the companies launching rockets, not launching rockets. Payload spoke with the top executives about the change and here’s what they said.

This week SpaceX will be launching as many as four Falcon 9s, mostly for its internal programs like Starlink. One, however, will be for its rideshare program with a new name, Bandwagon. Although Monday’s Starlink mission out of California has potential to be an amazing twilight launch for local residents.

The Original Big Orange Rocket, ULA‘s Delta IV Heavy, is set to have its final mission as soon as this week if weather holds. Along side ULA’s second launch of the year, SpaceX has four missions scheduled with Chinese and Russian rockets launching to give us a launch every day except Sunday.

If you have ever been interested in seeing Earth from the upper reaches of our atmosphere but can’t afford it, then you should be keeping Halo Space on your radar. The company, similar to other new space tourism companies, have been working on a high altitude balloon system to ferry customers up to the jar dropping views of “almost space.”

The catch is, on each flight they will send someone up there for free!

On Thursday of this week we have a total of four planned launches from around the world from the biggest players in the space launch market. They include Rocket Lab’s first LC-2 mission in 2024, a crew rotation to the ISS by Russia, and a cargo resupply mission to the ISS by SpaceX.

After being faced with a decision to be taken private or face bankruptcy, Astra Space‘s board decided to accept the co-founder’s proposal to purchase the remaining shares at a extreme discount to its original SPAC valuation. After years of struggles, its fate is still unknown.

SpaceX completed its third Starship test flight early Thursday morning which ended as an almost 100% successful missions, meeting almost all of its goals. While the booster was lost prior to ocean splashdown, the more important part, the second stage, reached space and conducted several in-space tests.

Thursday morning SpaceX will be attempting its third Starship test launch. This has the biggest hope of being a 100% successful flight but how do you watch it? Here are the details below.

It really doesn’t matter what else is happening this week as SpaceX will be attempting its third Starship launch as soon as Thursday morning. This will feature a new trajectory and hopefully be the first successful flight of the world’s most powerful rocket.

Sunday night into Monday morning SpaceX successfully delivered the next crew rotation for NASA to the International Space Station. This was another flawless human spaceflight mission for SpaceX, its 14th overall and second of 2024.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been following the travels of Intuitive Machine‘s IM-1 mission. The first of its kind lander made several firsts, the biggest being bringing the commercial market to the lunar surface for the first time. While the mission has ended for now, there’s a lot to talk about good old Odysseus.

While it’s a rather slow week for rocket launches, SpaceX makes up for it with one big exciting mission. For the first launch of March, by just a few minutes, SpaceX will be launching Crew-8 for NASA to the ISS for a six month stay in space.

Over the last week there has been a lot going on around SpaceX‘s biggest and baddest rocket in development. While the action has returned down in Starbase for pre-IFT-3 flight tests, action might come in the future to the Space Force side of Florida’s Space Coast, according to the Department of the Air Force.