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The Inspiration4 hype train is full steam ahead, and the team at Space Explored is all aboard. The newest piece of awesome to come out of the first all-civilian mission to orbit is the Inspiration4 Miler, a virtual walk or run to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Participation raises money for a phenomenal effort and the swag bag includes must-have Inspiration4 merch.

NASA has been working on a new generation of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU), the big white space suits you see on spacewalks, for their Artemis Program. Elon Musk offered his help with xEMU development to make sure it would hit its 2024 deadline.

A photo was shared in a Facebook Group that appears to show 2 vessels in the midst of being outfitted. The post shared a tip that SpaceX purchased these two ships for operations on the east coast. One of the vessels clearly brands a SpaceX logo, while the other is being worked on and sharing the same color scheme. So we looked into it…

The team at Space Explored is tremendously pumped for the upcoming Inspiration4 SpaceX mission happening as soon as next month, and a new TIME feature published this month explains why.

NASA recently conducted an important 8-minute RS-25 single-engine hot fire test at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. Space Launch System (SLS) relies on four RS-25 engines (and two solid rocket boosters) to leave the planet for destinations like the Moon and beyond as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover reached the Red Planet in February, and weeks of never-before-attempted Ingenuity helicopter flights followed. Now Perseverance is ready to knock out a major mission of its own: collect Mars samples.

Last week Boeing paused its second Starliner orbital flight test mission to the ISS after discovering propulsion issues with the spacecraft at the launch pad. The company has released a new update today on the latest status of the mission.

This week SpaceX has made massive progress towards launching their Super Heavy rocket. Last week the booster was a mere tube in the build site, but now it has had the engines installed and been stacked with Starship 20; now laden with tiles.

According to forms filed with the FCC, SpaceX has acquired Swarm technologies. Swarm uses their pico-satellites to provide low-cost data plans for internet of things devices, so the acquisition by SpaceX could be beneficial for both SpaceX and Swarm customers.

After a full week of immense progress toward SpaceX’s first orbital Starship vehicles. The SpaceX teams down at Starbase finally stacked their first Starship launch vehicle.

SpaceX continues to push hard towards the first stack of a Starship and Super Heavy vehicle. Super Heavy Booster 4 is currently positioned on the launch pad and SpaceX is working towards the stacking of Starship 20 as soon as today.

Update: Booster 4 has rolled to the launch site and is now awaiting integration with Starship 20, which has been stacked in the High Bay.

This morning Elon Musk showed off what appears to be a full complement of 29 Raptor engines in place on Starship Super Heavy Booster 4. The stunning overnight installation is the latest feat in a breathtaking surge of activity around SpaceX’s Starbase facilities as the company pushes hard toward a maiden orbital flight test for the fully stacked vehicle.

Inspiration4 is easily the coolest spaceflight mission of the year, and Netflix will soon have a documentary detailing the incredible experience for the four private citizens traveling to space for three days.

After a year and a half of focusing on software issues, Boeing has paused its Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission to the International Space Station today. The launch was scheduled for this afternoon but scrubbed hours before liftoff due to a propulsion system issue with the spacecraft.

Boeing’s mission is to have its uncrewed Starliner spacecraft reach the International Space Station and return safely before it can be rated for human spaceflight. Boeing is one of two providers for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (along with SpaceX) to transport astronauts to and from the space station.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Chirag Parikh to serve as the executive secretary of the National Space Council. Parikh most recently worked as senior director of Microsoft’s Azure Space division. As executive secretary of the National Space Council, Parikh is well-positioned to influence space policy across the government.

This week on the Space Explored Podcast Seth and Jared discuss Blue Origin’s protest being denied by the GAO, SpaceX hustling to get Starship Booster 4 and Ship 20 built, the troubles Nauka caused the ISS, and more.

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This week, SpaceX has added the final section to the orbital Starship launch tower, integrated the orbital launch table, and completed a great deal of work on their first Superheavy booster slated for flight, booster 4.