Space Explored

SpaceX successfully launched its fourth Starship flight from its launch site in Starbase, Texas. Unlike Flight 3, Flight 4 made two successful splashdowns in both the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean. Although, the jury is still out on what exactly we did and didn’t see during today’s flight.

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.

Yes I know we just had a big mission yesterday but this week is not for the weary. This morning SpaceX is attempting Starship Flight 4 from its launch facility down in Starbase, Texas.

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.

The FAA has approved Starship to launch once again, but this time it seems to have been written to give SpaceX the ability to launch again without another FAA investigation (if there’s a failure somewhere). The company is now making final preparations for launch on Thursday, June 6.

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.

Spoiler alert: This is looking to be a very busy week for rocket launches and not a single one is coming from a company outside the US (Rocket Lab is an exception). Starship, Starliner, and Virgin Galactic all have big missions this week.

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.

Announced late Friday evening here in the US, the dearMoon mission to launch a team of artists and athletes around the Moon is no more. Its creator canceled the mission due to no near-term schedule certainty.

At 2:30 P.M. PT SpaceX plans to launch the ESA and JAXA mission called EarthCARE from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from SLC-4E with the booster making a landing at LZ-4 just a few hundred feet from the launch pad.

EarthCARE will study Earth’s clouds and aerosols to better understand global warming and the changing climate of our planet.

You can watch live coverage from ESA already live on their YouTube channel. SpaceX’s coverage will begin closer to launch over on X.

Alongside possibly two other missions, SpaceX is launching a science mission co-sponsored by ESA and JAXA, beating both agencies home-built rockets. This week we’ll also see a resupply mission to the ISS by Russia and two mysterious launches from a Chinese company within a few days of each other.

For the fourth time, Boeing’s Starliner CFT makes an appearance as it struggles with leakage and propellent issues in the spacecraft’s service module.

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.

SpaceX has been cooking up Starlink-backed satellite cell service for a while now, and the company just demoed a major milestone.

This week will be the third week in a row the headline launch is supposed to be Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test. SpaceX is also planning another banger of a week with three launches and Rocket Lab shows up again.

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.

After flying for over 50 years, NASA’s DC-8 aircraft was flown to Idaho State University with preparation to decommission it and hand it over to the university. The long serving research aircraft has served many roles for NASA but is most known for its Earth science missions.

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.

ULA announced last week that it will be building a second cargo ship capable of transporting its Vulcan rocket hardware from its factory in Decatur, Alabama and its launch sites on both the East and West Coasts. The press release also emphasizes the importance Amazon‘s Kuiper satellite constellation plays in Vulcan’s launch services.

Following a long delay in flights, Blue Origin is returning to crewed spaceflight missions for its New Shepard rocket, with a launch date scheduled for May 19. The missions will carry six customers to an altitude just above the Karman Line.

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.

Once again the big story this week will be the reattempt of Boeing’s CFT mission to the International Space Station. After a week of analysis, ULA is changing out a valve on the rockets upper stage which is what caused the abort last week.

As the sun began to set Friday evening, I sat on the quad in front of our library playing with friends and observing the sparse clouds glow with an incredible orange bloom. The moon, only a small crescent, began to appear above a large tree. It was cold, but a nice Friday evening after a long week of classes and projects. Throughout the day I posted to Instagram and Twitter, sharing the hope that we, in Exeter, New Hampshire, would see the aurora borealis tonight. Only a few friends took interest as I showed them photos from across Europe. Some took an interest in the science and asked how and when we could see them.