NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy of 2024 Tuesday afternoon on a spectacular clear day for all to see. On top was NOAA’s final GOES-R series of weather satellites, GOES-U (here’s an explainer on the names).

Six months into the year and SpaceX has launched 62 rockets, two Starships and the rest Falcon 9s. So far, the company has yet to launch its biggest operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy. In one week that will change with the launch of NASA/NOAA’s GOES-U spacecraft on June 25.

Over a 24 hour process, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft inched their way to rendezvous with the International Space Station Thursday. In typical Starliner fashion, it wasn’t perfect, but the crew arrived to the station safe and are ready to get some work done.

NASA and Boeing teams are targeting a 12:15 P.M. ET docking of Starliner with the International Space Station after a successful liftoff Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning Boeing, ULA, and NASA once again convened to attempt to launch the Starliner CFT mission with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard. With a clean countdown, ULA’s Atlas V successfully delivered Starliner to space, however, two additional helium leaks have been found while in orbit, but docking is planned to continue unchanged.

After about a month of delays due to a helium leak and review of its propulsion system, Boeing and NASA are ready to launch the final test flight of the Commercial Crew Program, Starliner Crewed Flight Test.

NASA held a conference today at 4:00 pm EST to report on the status of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). It recently went into Safe Mode due to an ongoing issue with the Telescope’s gyros. The telescope uses these gyros to maintain its orientation in space.

Over a week ago the Hubble Space Telescope went into sleep mode after one of its gyroscopes malfunctioned. NASA will lay out its plan for recovery at a press conference later tonight.

ULA has completed repairs to Atlas V‘s ground launch sequencer, which was the cause of Saturday’s last-minute abort to Boeing‘s first crewed liftoff. Starliner’s CFT mission has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at 10:52 A.M. ET.

It seems like this is again not Starliner’s week, as NASA and Boeing pushing the launch of the first crewed Starliner spaceflight back from the May 25th launch date. The new launch date is no earlier than June 1, one week later. However what is going on with Starliner is less than clear.

In 2022 NASA and representatives from SpaceX and the Polaris Program gave a press conference announcing a study to boost and service the aging Hubble Space Telescope. However, in an NPR report, NASA officials and study reviewers are not yet sold on the need for such a risky mission.

Whether you believe AI is the future of humanity’s next greatest step or it will slowly destroy the world, it is here to stay. NASA believes this too as this week they announced they have appointed one of their chief civil servants to the role of Chief AI Officer.

Boeing announced Tuesday morning that they, ULA, and NASA are now no longer targeting a launch for this Friday of Boeing‘s first crewed Starliner mission. Due to a helium leak on the Starliner’s service module, the launch is slated for no earlier than May 21.

After an extremely smooth countdown and crew egress, ULA controllers called a scrub Starliner’s Crewed Flight Test a few hours before planned liftoff due to a misbehaving valve. While the problem is a known issue by ULA, it will take a few days to trouble shoot, meaning the next launch attempt won’t be until at least Friday.

By the end of the week the International Space Station will be fully ready to support Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight with an opening on the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony Module. This will be completed with the reshuffling of two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Over the last few weeks NASA has announced a plethora of partnerships and contracts for lunar rovers that astronauts will eventually use on future Artemis missions. Those rovers will of course need a ride to the Moon, which will come in the like of cargo variants of NASA’s HLS landers, Starship and Blue Moon.

As humanity continues its relentless pursuit of the cosmos, engineers at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working on an ambitious concept for a journey to one of the most promising locales for extraterrestrial life within our solar system – Jupiter‘s moon Europa. A potential Europa lander would be designed to delve into the secrets hidden beneath its icy exterior. 

Last week Boeing and ULA rolled a Starliner spacecraft from the former’s facilities on Kennedy Space Center to the latter’s launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. With that, final checkouts are underway before two NASA astronauts climb inside and fly it to the ISS and back.

In what I’ve always viewed as a bold move by NASA, since 2021 Perseverance has been collecting Martian core samples for future return. The issue is a return plan wasn’t finalized or paid for before launch, which in recent years has been under attack by Congress who wants a lighter budget. On Monday NASA conceded to complaints that it’s too expensive.

NASA revealed its comprehensive Space Sustainability Strategy April 9, aiming to tackle the escalating threats posed by space debris in Earth’s orbit. This initiative, as detailed by NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy during the 39th Space Symposium, prioritizes understanding the complex nature of space sustainability and developing methods to mitigate associated risks.