SpaceX’s first Starship high-altitude flight test this week was quite a spectacle. Starship serial number 8 slowly lifted off its test stand in Boca Chica, Texas. These are some of the best views from SpaceX and our Space Explored team who captured the event on location — collected in one place for you to enjoy.
Expand Expanding Close
Today the U.S. Space Force is competing against other branches of the U.S. military as well as the British Army, Air Force, and Navy in a Call of Duty tournament for charity presented by ADAA.
Expand Expanding Close
China conducted its third successful lunar landing and is now working towards a lunar sample return mission slated to come back to Earth with in the next couple weeks. Although that in itself can take over social media feeds, China’s social media has blown up over one the commanders helping to lead the effort.
Expand Expanding Close
The Space Development Agency announced in October that SpaceX and L3Harris would each build four missile tracking satellites. These satellites would build out the Tranche 0 part of the tracking layer for the National Defense Space Architecture, but both Raytheon and Airbus have filed several protests that have brought finishing the contracts to a halt.
Expand Expanding Close
The Planetary Society has a new podcast called “A Political History of Apollo” that explores why we decided to go to the Moon and how this turned into a full fledge space race to land a human on the surface.
Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday SpaceX and NASA successfully docked the Dragon 2 capsule for CRS-21 to the International Space Station in part of the phase 2 Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
Expand Expanding Close
Interns at NASA’s Gardard Space Flight and Glenn Research Centers developed a new protocol for how internet connectivity can operate in deep space.
Expand Expanding Close
United Launch Alliance has published a video of the fuel and oxygen tanks joining together for their next generation rocket called Vulcan.
Expand Expanding Close
The new variant of Arianespace’s Vega rocket called the Vega C that has an updated first and second stage just received another payload contract. Vega C is planning on its launch debut in mid-2021, but Arianespace is unsure if we’ll see this pushed back after another failed launch attempt last month.
Expand Expanding Close
The second season of For All Mankind on Apple TV+ doesn’t even launch until February 19, 2021, and Apple has already renewed the alternative history science fiction series for a third season.
Expand Expanding Close
After launching from LC-39A on top a Falcon 9 yesterday, SpaceX and NASA successfully guided the Dragon 2 to docking on the International Space Station.
Expand Expanding Close
While Blue Origin and ULA are competitors who will be launching payloads into space, they have been partners in the development of a new engine used to power both of their newest rockets.
Expand Expanding Close
Last week we saw China land its Chang’e 5 lander on the surface from the Moon with the goal to gather lunar samples and launch to the return vehicles in orbit above the lander. This had to happen within just one lunar day (2 earth weeks). We saw them complete the mission in just a couple days based on state-run media coverage. Now NASA has captured a photo of the lander using cameras on its own orbiter around the Moon.
Expand Expanding Close
After the launch of SpaceX’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, SpaceX published a unique point-of-view of the rocket launch being tracked on video from mid-air in a helicopter.
Expand Expanding Close
Originally slated to liftoff today, SpaceX’s CRS-21 mission for NASA is now targeting Sunday, December 6, at 11:17 a.m. EST.
Expand Expanding Close
Zac Hall and Seth Kurkowski talk about planned SpaceX Starship flight tests, SpaceX’s CRS-21 launch for NASA, what’s happening with the first Space Launch System core stage at Stennis Space Center, and more.
A team has started applying the “Launch America” logo onto the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The new art celebrates NASA’s now-operational Commercial Crew Program and return to crewed flight from U.S. soil after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
Expand Expanding Close
NASA conducted a readiness review from the teams at Stennis Space Center before the long-awaited Green Run Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) for Space Launch System’s core stage. The teams are all “Go” to begin the seventh and final test before teams ignite the four RS-25 engines (former Space Shuttle main engines) for a full duration burn strapped into the B-2 test stand in South Mississippi near Interstate-10 and the Louisiana state line.
Ultimately, the Wet Dress Rehearsal marks one of a few preliminary steps remaining before NASA launches its Artemis I mission in November 2021. Artemis I will be the first flight of Space Launch System, in which NASA’s new rocket sends its Orion spacecraft around the Moon for a lunar flyby mission. Artemis II will introduce astronauts to the lunar flyby route, and Artemis III will deliver the first woman and next man to the Moon.
Expand Expanding Close
Shane Kimbrough serves as commander for the next SpaceX crewed mission called Crew-2, and this week the NASA astronaut revealed their official mission patch. The international crew that consists of Kimbrough (NASA), Megan McArthur (NASA), Akihiko Hoshide (JAXA), and Thomas Pesquet (ESA) will launch from LC-39A no earlier than March 30, 2021.
The vibrant patch design includes the last names of each crew member, a fiery red dragon affixed to a starry background, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launching upward. “The determined expression of the dragon in the patch reflects the strength of the team and their contribution to the exploration of space,” says Kimbrough.
Expand Expanding Close
Space Force has had the goal of building up a branch that is different than the rest of the military. A branch that is more agile and faster than the rest, something needed to be successful in the space domain. Space Force is continuing with that ideology with the new acquisitions command, bringing a fresh look to how contracts are awarded.
Expand Expanding Close
Live from their hangar in Jacksonville, Aevum unveiled its RAVN X autonomous air-launch vehicle to the world today. Aevum has been operating under the radar before today while developing a new system for affordable and easy access to low Earth orbit.
Founded in 2016, Aevum is a company built on the dream of its founder and CEO Jay Skylus to improve logistics and technology to give everyone access to space. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, the company designed and developed an autonomous air-launch vehicle called RAVN X initially to launch payloads for the U.S. Space Force from the Cecil Spaceport in Florida.
Expand Expanding Close
Back in September, a mysterious object became trapped temporarily in Earth’s orbit. The object was initially classified as an asteroid, but some weren’t convinced the classification was correct. Now those suspicions have been proven correct…
Expand Expanding Close
December 3, 2020: Updated with drone footage of the collapse provided by NSF.
The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico sadly met its ultimate demise overnight when the observatory collapsed. It was already going to be permanently closed due to damage sustained in August. A beating from Hurricane Maria three years prior originally put the observatory in bad shape. Then an auxiliary cable that supported the 900-ton instrument platform snapped and damaged the reflector dish underneath earlier this year.
Expand Expanding Close
The Phoenix lander was sent by NASA to uncover the mysteries of Mars’ north pole ice capes back in 2007 as a part of the agency’s Mars Scout Program. The Scout Program was a campaign within the Mars Exploration Program that would send small, low-cost missions to the Red Planet. This program also gave us the MAVEN orbiter and InSight lander in future missions.
Expand Expanding Close