After hopes were squashed due to the scrub of a duel static fire and flight day Friday. SpaceX is hoping to regroup and try again this coming Monday for the next attempt to fly Starship SN11 and more importantly bring it back in one piece.
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The man-made Suez Canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea has been blocked by a massive 1,300 feet long cargo ship. This happened earlier this week and has brought the entire shipping lane to a halt. Now with the power of Earth-observing satellite constellations, you can see the stuck ship from space.
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SpaceX is planning on flying their newest Starship vehicle today but first, they needed to get a third static fire out of the way. All the necessary closures have been scheduled with the FAA and Cameron County to allow SpaceX to fly their vehicle up to 10 km today.
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This week join Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Zac Hall as we discuss Apple TV+’s For All Mankind series so far, a month’s worth of Ingenuity flights is coming, a new podcast from ULA, ships stuck in a canal, and lots of SpaceX news.
Early last night, those in the Pacific North West were treated to a shocking display of lights across the sky. At about 9pm PT (12am ET) the Falcon 9 second stage from March 4th’s Starlink mission reentered in a fiery cascade of lights.
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SpaceX’s 4th flight-ready Starship vehicle, SN11, is nearing the final phase of being ready to fly up to 10 km down at SpaceX’s private spaceport near Boca Chica, Texas. We could see the next flight of a Starship vehicle as soon as today.
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On the success of Rocket Lab’s most recent mission “They Go Up So Fast” the California-based launch provider announced that it will launch more global monitoring satellites for BlackSky. This is the biggest number of satellites the company has committed to launching to a single provider so far.
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United Launch Alliance (ULA), the defense contractor that has provided the rockets for some of the most important scientific and strategic missions for the US Government released a 7-part podcast for their new rocket.
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After a week-long hiatus of launches, SpaceX is planning to launch another batch of 60 satellites for their Starlink internet constellation. This will use up to 12,000 satellites to provide high-speed internet service around the globe with zero interruption. If launched by the end of the month, this will tie SpaceX’s record of 4 launches in a single calendar month.
Date: Wednesday, March 24th, 4:28 AM EDT
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The New York start-up Launcher is unlike most other rocket companies. With a small team of 8 people, Launcher is working to create the highest performance rocket for small sat launches.
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On this day in 1965, Ranger 9 impacted the Moon at 14:08:19 UTC with a relative speed of 2.67 km/s (5,972 mph). This impact concluded the 3-day mission of Ranger 9 and the overall Ranger program. This mission gathered important data needed for the later Surveyor program, and ultimately the Apollo program.
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While the Falcon 9 continues to smash launch cadence records with already 9 flights this year, its bigger sibling the Falcon Heavy still hasn’t been seen since 2019. SpaceX plans to launch 1 maybe even 2 this year if schedules can hold, the first of which is getting closer to being ready for flight.
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HoppAR was developed by Josef Grunig, a freelance developer and passionate space fan. The app was his passion project during quarantine and a gift to all fans of space exploration. Free to download on both iOS and Android, this is as close as you can get to viewing a launch in person without actually being there — you can also get far closer than you ever could to a real thing.
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Today, during a press briefing on the first flight of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, new information was revealed for the upcoming flight of Ingenuity. This first flight is currently targeting April 8th. When Perseverance first touched down, they determined that it landed right on the edge of an acceptable flight zone for Ingenuity.
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The Visitor Complex at Kennedy Space Center has reopened one of its must-see exhibits and just unveiled the Delta II display! With the Coronavirus still very much a hazard, the KSC Visitor Complex has implemented new procedures to keep you safe while still being able to see the amazing Saturn V. Additionally, the latest addition to the Rocket Garden was officially unveiled today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
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Rocket Lab is preparing for the 19th Mission of their Electron later today, at 6:30 pm Eastern time. This rideshare launch, “They Go Up So Fast”, will deliver 7 satellites into orbit for customers including BlackSky, the University of New South Wales, and the US Army’s Space and Missile Defense command.
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Eric Berger, the author of the new book “Liftoff” which tells the story of the early days of SpaceX, will be hosting a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread today at 6 PM EDT alongside SpaceX’s first launch director Tim Buzza.
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Update: LEGO’s new 2,300-piece NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set is now available for purchase.
Today, The LEGO Group is expanding its collection of out-of-this-world creations with a new NASA-inspired model. Bringing the iconic Space Shuttle Discovery into brick-built form for only the second time, this massive 2,354-piece model is the largest recreation to date measuring over 21 inches long. Complete with plenty of authentic details, you’ll also find an included Hubble telescope build, accurate crew cabin, and much more. Head below for all of the details on the new LEGO Space Shuttle Discovery set.
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Unistellar is a start-up building the most powerful digital telescopes that allow the average user to not only enjoy the beauty of the night sky but also contribute to scientific research and discoveries using nothing but the iPhone or iPad. We reviewed Unistellar’s eVscope a few months back, and today the company announced its new digital telescope tailored towards the scientific community: the eQuinox.
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Yesterday, NASA’s Perseverance rover released the debris shield which protected the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity. This marks the beginning of the deployment for Ingenuity; which is expected to take 10 Martian days (sols). The next major step in the process will be Perseverance driving to the center of the helipad which has been selected.
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This is a commonly asked question about SpaceX Booster Recovery. Why would SpaceX waste fuel igniting the engines and trying to land vertically rather than using parachutes like the Space Shuttle SRB’s did? There are a number of reasons a propulsively landing system is ideal, but they all tie back to SpaceX’s goal of rapid reusability.
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Today Elon Musk restated the goal of having an active city on Mars within the decade. Development of SpaceX’s Mars rocket, Starship, is underway in Boca Chica, Texas.
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This week join Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Derek Wise as we discuss President Biden’s nomination for NASA, what happened to SLS during its second Green Run test, a week’s worth of SpaceX news, and what’s happening with Starship SN11.
While the rocket boosters and drone ships get all the fame on live streams there’s a fleet of hard-working support ships that follow along to make sure SpaceX’s missions go on without any issues. These ships all with unique roles during each mission support SpaceX’s goal to make rides to space cheaper.
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