SpaceX launched their first non-NASA crewed mission, Inspiration4, to orbit using their Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday night. The crew members are not professional astronauts, but average citizens. They were not selected based on the strict requirements of previous astronauts, but instead for their ability to represent and inspire the world.

The long-awaited Inspiration4 mission will launch this week from the historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The flight, paid for by Shift4 founder and CEO Jared Issacman, will carry Issacman along with 3 other civilians.

Over the months we have come to know Issacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. This week a new era of spaceflight begins as these four take to the sky inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule as the company’s first commercial astronaut mission.

Date: Wednesday, September 15th, 8:02 p.m. EDT

NASA announced contract awards to five companies for further development of lunar lander concepts for its Artemis Program on Tuesday.

Tonight SpaceX plans to launch its first privately crewed mission to space. Here is how to watch the all-civilian crew of Inspiration4 launch from historic LC-39A on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

On Monday, SpaceX plans to launch their first operational batch of Starlink satellites from their launch complex out of Vandenberg Space Force Base. While the official name of this mission is Starlink 2-1 the launch will not carry the 2.0 variants we’ve been waiting for. Instead, these will be 1.5 version satellites and the 2 refers to the “group 2” of Starlink satellites.

This will be the first SpaceX launch from the west coast since Sentinel 6 in November 2020. This will also be the first full batch of Starlink satellites to launch into a polar orbit. Starlink 2-1 will host the first use of the droneship Of Course I Still Love you on the west coast.

Date: Monday, September 13th, 11:55 p.m. EDT

In a brief tweet yesterday, Steve Wozniak announced he is co-founding a new private space company.

Inspiration4 has been pushing towards its $200 million fundraising goal for St. Jude. A part of the cause is an NFT auction, which today announced what will be up to buy, including pieces from Inspiration4 pilot Dr. Sian Proctor.

Inspiration4 announced today that a number of objects set to fly on the first all-civilian mission to space will be auctioned in support of St. Jude.

SpaceX has won a contract to launch Al Yah Satellite (Yahsat) Communications Company’s latest communication satellite.

The California-based smallsat launcher, Rocket Lab, announced Wednesday that they will be launching 5 missions for Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity provider Kinéis. This will make Rocket Lab the exclusive launcher of Kinéis’

Last Friday, cargo ship MN Toucan arrived in French Guiana carrying the upper stage and fairing of the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch the James Webb Space Telescope later this year.

SpaceX’s latest render of their Starship vehicle reflects many of the changes Elon has recently been talking about.

A press release from China’s National Space Science Center provided a first look at a prototype for their new Martian Helicopter.

Monday morning Netflix released the first two episodes of their Inspiration4 documentary series. The series will cover the crew’s journey to and from space onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This week we got to see the first part of their journey, the selection of the Inspiration4 crew.

Virgin Orbit announced a partnership with the Texas-based nonprofit Southwest Research Institute to work on future research missions.

Ingenuity recently completed its 13th flight on Mars. Mars helicopter campaign extended from the initially planned 5 flights and is now serving as a valuable tool to assist with route planning for the Perseverance rover.

Just 3 days after their first launch, Firefly Aerospace provides some insight into what occurred during the first stage boost phase. Along with the statement was a video showcasing some different angles of Firefly’s first Alpha launch and tracking footage.

With the continued goal of crewed landings on the Moon in 2024, NASA is in need of more flight hardware for lunar exploration. The next big part will be a rover, NASA put out a request for information regarding proposed Artemis rovers.

The second of SpaceX’s new support ships, Bob, arrived in the Port of Tampa Saturday. Leaving Port Fourchon after it sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Ida last weekend.

SpaceX is flying four private citizens to orbit on a three-day mission called Inspiration4, and Apple hardware will be key in a first-of-its-kind research study happening during the flight. These products include Apple Watch Series 6, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPad mini 4, as selected by SpaceX.

Thursday afternoon Firefly Aerospace attempted to launch their first Alpha rocket. Firefly’s first Alpha rocket, while the liftoff was nominal, suffered a failure a few minutes into launch.

Firefly is working towards the first launch of their Alpha rocket, as well as the company’s first launch at all. While this is a test flight FireFly will have real payloads on board this rocket. The smallsats come from a variety of education and research programs that competed for a free spot on the maiden flight. The goal of this mission is to validate the design of the Alpha rocket and its subsystems.

Date: Thursday, September 2nd, 9:59 p.m. (Window closes September 3rd at 12:00 a.m. EDT)