This morning, the spaceflight and science communities held their breath as Arianespace launched the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope. But, while the launch is now done, Webb has a long trip to go and many more obstacles to face.
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This weekend Arianespace will be entrusted to launch NASA’s most expensive and new flagship space telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope launch will be one of the biggest butt-puckering events of Webb’s deployment. The feeling will stay for the following months as the rest of the systems come online and parts of the telescope attempt to deploy. Learn everything about the launch below.
Launch Date: Saturday, December 25, 7:20 a.m. EST
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SpaceX has launched 31 Falcon 9s this year, beating 2020 by five launches. Post-launch, the company stated it is now done for 2021, making its CRS-24 mission for NASA its final launch until January.
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This week SpaceX is preparing for its next mission to space, this time a cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s CRS-24 will launch the company’s Dragon 2 spacecraft to the ISS and take additional food, experiments, and other supplies to the current crew. Two notable studies will be a protein crystal growth study for possible future cancer treatments drugs and a handheld bioprinter that could one day heal wounds.
Date: Tuesday, December 21, 5:06 a.m. EST
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In a full week of news, NASA is looking at LC-49 for Starship launches, Parker Solar Probe touched the Sun, and more claims of sexual harassment surfaced in the industry. Catch up on last week’s news this Monday below.
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Early Saturday morning, we watched SpaceX launch its most flown booster out of Vandenberg Space Force Base with 52 Starlink satellites. This evening we watched SpaceX launch just one communication satellite to geostationary transfer orbit out of Florida.
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Less than 24 hours since its most recent launch, SpaceX is preparing to launch Türksat 5B from one of its launch sites in Florida. Operated by Türksat A.Ş., the satellite will sit in geostationary orbit and service parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa with direct TV and telecommunications. This will mark SpaceX’s 30th launch of 2021.
Launch Date: Saturday, December 18, 10:58 p.m. EST
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This morning, SpaceX launched its Starlink Group 4-4 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was the first time SpaceX launched a booster for the eleventh time, further proving the reliability of its Falcon 9 first stage.
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Early Friday morning SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of Starlink satellites into a polar orbit. This will be the second operational Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base and could be one of the final missions from SpaceX in 2021.
Launch Date: Saturday, December 18, 7:41 a.m. EST
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The continued troubles of Boeing’s second Orbital Flight Test keep coming as the company has confirmed it will replace the service module on the OFT-2 Starliner, also stating the next available launch window is in May.
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The Consumer Electronics Show is coming up in January, and while most of the company’s there will be for consumer products, some space industry companies will showcase their projects. One of those companies is Sierra Space.
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A new year means a new theme for Kennedy Space Center’s most prominent building. So we say goodbye to the “Launch America” campaign this year and hello to the Artemis Program.
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This year’s TIME “Person of the Year” title goes to the man who led the space industry to a new era of affordability and reusability, built an electric vehicle empire, and tweets about pooping in his spare time. Of course, we are talking about Elon Musk.
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On Saturday morning, the crew of Blue Origin’s NS-19 launched just past the boundary of space. This time the New Shepard capsule was full.
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Watch Alan Shepard’s eldest daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and Good Morning American co-anchor Michael Strahan launch to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
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It’s crazy to think it’s already been one year since SpaceX‘s first high-altitude Starship flight, but here we are. Starship SN8 might not have landed in one piece, but the baby step led to SN15’s landing several months later.
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Starting Wednesday morning, we saw three launches from three different continents within 24 hours. It all started in Russia with a launch to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket.
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In just a few weeks, decades of hard work will start its journey to space and begin paying dividends as NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope finally becomes operational. Google and NASA partnered up to celebrate the launch.
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NASA‘s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will launch this week on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Initially, it was assigned to fly on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket, but it was moved to SpaceX to save on launch costs. IXPE’s three identical telescopes will study the polarization of cosmic X-rays. Its mission will be to map out the magnetic fields of black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, supernova remnants, magnetars, quasars, and active galactic nuclei. The total cost of IXPE and its two-year planned mission is $188 million.
Launch Date: Thursday, December 9, 1:00 – 2:30 a.m. EST
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Early Tuesday morning United Launch Alliance launched its fourth and final Atlas V rocket of 2021. For STP-3, it was ULA’s largest variant with five solid rocket motors.
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Over the weekend, we got to witness a planetary gem, a total solar eclipse. Unfortunately, it took place over Antarctica, meaning the vast majority of us couldn’t see it in person, but the best view ended up coming from above.
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On Monday, NASA announced the newest class of astronaut candidates. Ten candidates were selected by NASA, including a SpaceX employee, military test pilots, and engineers.
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This week we saw new contracts from NASA, Rocket Lab’s groundbreaking design for Neutron, SpaceX pizza, and oh yeah there was an email from Elon Musk about Starship. Catch up on this week’s top stories below.
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With Boeing’s Starliner taking a few years longer than planned to get off the ground, NASA intends to purchase three more Crew Dragon flights to the ISS from SpaceX.
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