Space Explored

With New Years coming up at the end of the week, we now know what will end up being the final rocket launches of 2023. SpaceX‘s Falcon Heavy is also set to return this week after a lengthly delay. Meanwhile, China is back with a flurry of more launches, but India looks to be taking the crown as the final launch of 2023.

Starship testing is back this week with both the first stage Super Heavy booster and second stage Starship on their respective test/launch stands. Both vehicles either attempted or completed static fires this week.

At a meeting of the National Space Council in Washington, DC, Vice President Kamala Harris announced an international astronaut will land on the Moon through Artemis before the end of the decade.

After a one day delay to fix a technical issue, Blue Origin successfully launched its NS-24 mission Tuesday morning. This marked the company’s first flight in over 15 months after NS-23 suffered an anomaly mid-flight.

SpaceX launched a batch of its “Gen 2 mini” Starlink satellites from Florida last night, breaking a week long drought of launches from the company. While usually Starlink missions aren’t something to talk about, the long lull means the company will likely miss its 100 launch goal.

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.

Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket late Thursday evening after a couple months break after suffering a failure in September. The successful launch deployed a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, iQPS.

What was suppose to be a week full of SpaceX launches has turned into well, not much. Between weather and lengthly technical delays, SpaceX’s chances of a 100 launch year might have just slipped their grasps.

NASA announced Wednesday that Voyager 1, its furthest operating spacecraft, is no longer able to send usable data back to Earth. The issue has been happening since November and teams on the ground are still working on a solution that could take weeks more to solve.

The FCC reaffirmed its rejection of a nearly $900 million subsidy to SpaceX‘s Starlink program after it determined it failed to meet certain technical and financial requirements. However, some opinions share there could be an outside motive to the way the Commission voted.

SpaceX plans to launch about 50 rockets from Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2024 with a chance of 100 launches in the year 2025. This comes to a spaceport that has historically seem launches in the single digits. Now, it could soon see a launch for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket in the next few years.

With a post on social media, Blue Origin announced its return to flight for the New Shepard rocket. Flying science equipment and postcards from its charity Club for the Future, launch is set for no earlier than December 18.

Another packed week between SpaceX and China launching almost every day this week. The expected Falcon Heavy launch from this weekend is now today (Monday) but that’s not the only RTLS mission this week. This Friday a Falcon 9 will fly and have its booster return to LZ-1 as well.

Hidden in the bunch will be the return to flight of Rocket Lab‘s Electron rocket!

In a post on social media, ULA CEO Tory Bruno shared that the launch date for the company’s new rocket, Vulcan, has been delayed to NET January 8. This comes after a wet dress rehearsal that wasn’t completed in full due to ground system faults. Another dress rehearsal will be required before launch.

According to Bloomberg, an offer to purchase shares of Elon Musk‘s rocket company, SpaceX, show a valuation of $175 billion. This is an increase of $25 billion from its last valuation this summer.

Since launching in October, NASA has begun turning on Psyche‘s scientific instruments and perform early test to ensure everything is working correctly. This lead to the spacecraft capturing its first photo in space on Monday.

According to NASA, Starship‘s third flight test will feature a major demonstration needed for the overall success of landing humans on the Moon with the Artemis program. In a meeting, slides showed Starship Flight 3 being the first mission to demonstrate in-orbit propellent transfer. However, the schedule is still up in the air.

Avio, the company that builds ESA‘s Vega launcher, lost a pair of tanks for the AVUM fourth stage. While the company eventually found them, they were no longer useable, leading to a scramble to save the final Vega launch.

This week we are tracking the possibility of seeing seven launches from both the United States and China. On the US side, all of those launches will be coming from SpaceX with three being Starlink and one being a Falcon Heavy for the Space Force.

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.