Artemis 1 is a historic mission, the first flight of the SLS rocket that will return humans to the Moon. For now, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft are uncrewed, as this test mission will fly around the Moon and prove the systems that will carry humans in a few years time.

After years of delays and several frustrating launch attempts, Artemis 1 has launched and is on its way to the Moon. Finally, the planets aligned for NASA and the SLS rocket to take flight and wow onlookers who have waited for this moment for a very long time.

It seems to be a news story that takes place every couple of years, but early Saturday morning, sonic booms were heard across Florida Space Coast. Those rather iconic booms could only mean one thing, the arrival of NASA’s Space Shuttle or the Space Force’s classified X37-B spaceplane. Since all of NASA’s shuttles have been collecting dust in museums for the past decade, it must be that pesky X37-B.

It sounds like SpaceX’s Starship program is getting another leadership change, and this time it’s a big one. SpaceX employee number 11, Gwynne Shotwell, the President and COO of the company, will now lead its development.

Early November 10, ULA launched an Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Station. The mission carried JPSS-2 and an inflatable decelerator to prove the systems to and gather data on this unique type of heat shield.

Early this morning, Northrop Grumman’s SS Sally Ride Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station carrying 8,200 pounds of supplies for the seven crewmembers. However, the Cygnus is missing one of its now iconic circular solar panels due to an unknown failure.

Currently, we’re at L-6 days to the next launch attempt of NASA’s maiden flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 1 mission. A critical test flight for the launch systems, however, Florida is yet again under threat from another tropical storm.

SpaceX’s high-speed satellite internet service, Starlink, has changed a great deal from when it first came out. Starlink has seen reduced real-world speeds for a while as a result of the large number of customers, but now Starlink has changed its expected download speeds to much lower targets. Additionally, the company has introduced soft data-caps and the ability to pay for more priority access.

Things have pretty quiet since SpaceX acquired the IOT company Swarm last year. SpaceX’s exact plans for the company weren’t clear and the company continued operating (now with basically free launch cost), but the company’s low-speed IOT focused satellite network seemed like a good companion to Starlink. Now, the Starlink website has added a new IOT link to the Swarm website, where customers can buy an evaluation kit, modem, or asset tracker.

Three years after its last flight, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has returned to flight on this cloudy Florida morning. The primary payload of this launch is the classified USSF-44 satellite, with two other satellites co-manifested. The launch occurred on November 1 at 9:41 a.m. Eastern Time, successfully delivering the satellites to their targeted geosynchronous orbit.

According to a report from The Information, SpaceX could be pushing its Starship production too fast, with safety concerns reported by employees during a recent full stack test. All this under the eyes of Starlink’s chief, now unofficially running the program.

Sometimes it’s good to be a competitor, and sometimes it’s nice to be a launch provider. SpaceX gets to be both and profit off its competitors. Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Limp said the company is also open to SpaceX’s capabilities to launch its Project Kuiper satellites.

When spacecraft reenter, they need a heat shield to protect them from the immense friction and heat of speeding through the atmosphere. Usually, these are rigid structures, but ULA plans to use an inflatable heat shield to protect the engines of their Vulcan rocket and recover them for reuse. They’ll be testing out that type of heat shield next month.

One of the options Starlink customers have been waiting on, for quite a while, is the ability to use Starlink terminals while in motion. With Starlink Maritime the company released the ability to use the high-speed internet while in motion out at sea, but at last, there is an official option for customers who want to mount a Starlink terminal on top of their RV or other vehicles for in-motion use.

It’s not often that we discuss the launch of a mega constellation other than Starlink, but over the weekend, OneWeb became the first commercial launch on India’s largest rocket. This was also the company’s return to launching since it broke ties with Russia over the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

On February 23, 2022, an OSHA Inspection was opened after a SpaceX employee was injured during a test of the Raptor V2 engine. The incident left the employee in a coma for months. Though the incident resulted in a rather disastrous outcome, these hazards are not unknown or unusual for spaceflight testing.

After roughly six months aboard the International Space Station, the Crew-4 astronauts have returned to Earth, splashing down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, October 14.

It’s already been about a month since Astra’s closing price on NASDAQ went below the $1 limit, which triggers some issues with the powers that be in New York. Since then, the stock price has continued to decrease in value as failed launches have led the company to shift to a new rocket design.

SpaceX is still a long way away from putting crew on their Starship rocket and launching it into space, but the company just announced the first two people who will be joining the company’s second spaceflight around the Moon.

Arianespace is making great strides in the push to launch the Ariane 6. In a recent blog post, they shared a video of a test firing of the second stage.

“‘Twas a dark and very stormy night, November 14-15, 1994…” is how the legal brief begins its description of events that led to the largest maritime salvage operation at the time. Space shuttle external tank 70 (ET-70) was aboard the barge Poseidon when Tropical Storm Gordon decided to make this trip from New Orleans to Cape Canaveral anything but ordinary.

Rocket Lab just completed its 8th successful launch of the year. “It Argos Up From Here” saw their Electron rocket put ARGOS-4 into orbit for the NOAA.