Last month, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a small commercial lunar lander toward the Moon. Among its payloads is a retroreflector designed to enable precise measurements of the distance to Earth’s nearest celestial body while also testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
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Oh AI, you love it or you hate it. It, alongside being the local weatherman, is the only thing that can be completely wrong and everyone gives it a break. Last year Apple rolled out its version of AI called “Apple Intelligence.” One of its features is to summarize notifications so you don’t have to. Unless it gets it wrong, which it does a lot.
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Early Wednesday morning, SpaceX launched two commercial lunar landers on a single Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. Both landers will now coast their way to the Moon over the next month or more, with hopefully one taking the crown for the first soft landing on the Moon.
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Later tonight, SpaceX plans to launch not one but two lunar landers to the Moon using only one rocket. The primary lander, Firefly’s Blue Ghost, is contracted under NASA. Meanwhile, the secondary payload is a lunar lander for Japan’s i-space called Hakuto-R.
As we wind down launches for 2024, we’re looking at what is to come in 2025. January looks to be a rather exciting time if you’re a Moon fan, as three companies will be starting their journey for their shot to land on the Moon, hopefully softly.
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Satellite-based mineral exploration company Fleet Space Technologies, located in Adelaide, South Australia, recently secured $100 million in Series D funding. The funding round was led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, a division of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
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This is a press released shared to Space Explored but written by the company/agency in question, not the Space Explored team. It has been slightly edited for better reading.
CEDAR PARK, Texas, Nov. 25, 2024 – Firefly Aerospace, the leader in end-to-end responsive space services, today announced it successfully completed environmental testing on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander ahead of its first mission to the Moon supporting NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Firefly is now preparing to ship the lander to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in mid-December for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a six-day window that opens no earlier than mid-January 2025.
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On this quiet holiday week, China will actually be launching more than SpaceX, and even on Fourth of July (how rude). However, we do finally get to see Firefly return to the launch site after December’s partial failure of its Alpha rocket – scheduled for late Monday evening.
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Firefly announced this week that it will expand its launch sites to two new locations, including one international location. This comes as the company is hoping to get another successful launch under its belt to bolster it as a viable competitor to SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other larger launch companies.
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This week, two rockets returning to the launch pad after over six months. First will be SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, launching NOAA’s GOES-U weather satellite, and Firefly’s Alpha, launching CatSat, and many others, a 6U CubeSat built by students from the University of Arizona.
An honorable mention, Japan’s H3 rocket will launch for the third time, its second of the year.
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Just before the Christmas weekend Firefly launched its fourth Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. While the booster and first burn of the second stage perform normally, the second burn failed to place Lockheed Martin‘s tech demonstrator into its intended orbit.
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After an abnormal lull in SpaceX launches last week due to weather and technical delays, that could change this week with a handful of Falcon 9 missions before the Christmas weekend. Firefly is back with another launch of its Alpha rocket this week, following the success of its VICTUS NOX mission in September.
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This week Seth and Jared go over the top stories from the last week but for the main topic they piggy back off of @smartereveryday‘s video about Apollo versus Artemis. A mandatory watch for everyone.
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Last week Firefly completed a test fire of its Miranda engine that will be used on its Medium Launch Vehicle and Northrop Grumman‘s Antares 330 rocket. This was a first for the company and a quick one as the company only signed the contract from Northrop just over one year ago.
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Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space Systems have come together to showcase a demonstration mission called Victus Nox with the aim of setting a new industry standard for rapid satellite deployment. Last year, the two companies were chosen to conduct this mission, designed to demonstrate a 24-hour rapid-response capability for launching satellites into low Earth orbit for the U.S. Space Force.
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We’re coming up on one year since we’ve last seen Firefly launch its Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. That wait will soon be over as the company announced it’s currently waiting on word from the US Space Force for its third launch, sometime within the next six months.
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During Tuesday’s Q1 earnings call, Rocket Lab announced it was getting another NASA launch contract, taking it from another SmallSat launcher due to long delays. That mission is NASA’s first satellite swarm and will test technology for a future constellation.
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This week Seth and Jared dive into Astra Space receiving a delisting warning from the NASDAQ and what that means if you own shares of the company. Also, they catch you up on all the rockets that launched last (eight in seven days!!!), Elon Musk’s peace idea for Ukraine and Taiwan, oh and what’s the deal with that Crew-5 Meatball?
This week Seth and Jared discuss the Artemis I mission as it nears closer and closer to launching. The two also talk about other current events in the space industry and look at the newest images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, we have been following how it will affect Northrop Grumman’s capability to launch its Antares rocket. Northrop Grumman has finally announced its solution to unavailable components in a partnership with Firefly Aerospace to supply engines and a new first stage to the Antares 330 rocket.
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Firefly will attempt to launch its second Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base as soon as May. This comes after securing funding after one of its investors was forced to sell his stake.
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Firefly Aerospace has released an update video after a prolonged period of silence. Both the first and second stages for their Flight 2 vehicle have passed acceptance testing. There is no launch date currently.
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Firefly has been a promising startup with a (failed) launch under its belt and hard at work on its Alpha launch vehicle. The time at the company recently has been rather dramatic, as the US Government has been attempting to oust one of the company’s founders, Max Polyakov, citing national security concerns with his Ukrainian origins.
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This week, SpaceX’s new ships arrived in Florida while Firefly had their first launch that ended in failure. Virgin Galactic has been grounded by the FAA along with more Top stories this week.
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