Space Explored

Last night Japan attempted to launch its H3 rocket carrying the Advanced Land Observing Satellites 3 (ALOS 3). However, while the first stage and solid rocket boosters performed nominally, the second stage failed to light.

Friday, Arianespace released its findings from its independent review commission’s investigation into December’s Vega-C failure, blaming a Ukrainian supplier. Now, it looks like Ukraine disagrees with the commission’s findings.

With humanity on the cusp of returning astronauts to deep space, one organization is attempting to garner support to give the Moon a time zone.

Spearheading this is the European Space Agency, which says space organizations agree “a common lunar reference time” for timekeeping is important for all lunar systems to reference, be they robotic missions or human surface stays.

This week is gearing up to be an exciting spectacle of launches. While not the most packed we’ve seen in the past, we could see the debut of two new rockets.

I really hope this isn’t your first time learning about the three Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) currently on orbit Earth at their nation’s space station. However, earlier this week, two taikonauts performed a spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station but to no fan fair from its space agency.

The highly anticipated sequel to one of the most popular space simulation games, Kerbal Space Program 2, is now available in early access after experiencing a few years of delays. While you can pick up this game for $50, the biggest question people have had so far is “should I?” There are a lot of factors that will play into this decision, and we will discuss some of them below. Ultimately, we can’t make the decision for you and it will require work on your end to make the final call.

On December 22, Arianespace launched its second-ever Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in South America. However, the launch failed shortly after the second stage ignition, and now we know why.

While you may have thought that Crew-6’s takeoff to the International Space Station was the biggest bang this week, the Sun decided to go out with a superpowerful X-class flare, and NASA got it all on video.

Probably the two biggest things Rocket Lab is currently working on perfecting this year and in the coming years are tasks its CEO said would never happen. One of those is recovering the Electron’s first stage booster, something that might have a detour from its original idea.

In the wee hours of the night, SpaceX’s Crew-6 and Endeavour Crew Dragon completed its rendezvous with the International Space Station. After following the slow and safe process, Endeavour docked with the ISS and the crew is now onboard.

Last June Astra launched its final Rocket 3 mission, which was a pair of satellites for NASA. Sadly that mission did not end well with a failure in the second stage. The company has now released its report detailing what went wrong.

Ars Technica’s Eric Berger reports that United Launch Alliance has informed interested parties that it is up for sale, potentially throwing the entire industry upside down.

After aborting during an issue with loading Falcon 9’s ignition fluid, SpaceX successfully lifted off from historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the sixth crew rotation in part of the Commercial Crew Program. This mission is unique, as it carries the first long-duration mission of a UAE astronaut, thanks to a partnership with Axiom.

After scrubbing Monday morning’s attempt to launch the next crew rotation to the ISS due to an issue with the Falcon 9’s ignition fluid, both the company and agency are ready to try again tonight.

Virgin Galactic has been in an idle mode for the past year and a half as it worked through an FAA investigation and refurbishment of its aircrafts. Now the company sounds ready to pick up the pace, with flights returning soon.

In a short statement, Japan’s space agency, JAXA, announced it has selected two astronauts to join its corp to continue supporting the ISS and future Artemis missions.

Apple already invested early half a billion dollars into its satellite communications partner Globalstar, and now the iPhone maker is upping its payout. This time there are more strings attached, however, as the $252 million investment comes in the form of a loan.

SpaceX successfully launched 21 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket flying out of SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch was the first to carry SpaceX’s larger and more capable V2 Mini satellites, further expanding the capability of their satellite internet constellation

Over the weekend, an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the ISS to take the spot of MS-22, which sprang a leak last December. MS-23 will be the return spacecraft for two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut in the fall.

It was a relatively quiet countdown last night, with SpaceX showing that they know what they’re doing and hitting all the milestones early during Crew-6’s launch preparations. Unfortunately, however, no good deed goes unpunished because the company ran into an issue when loading a rather nasty part of the propellant for Falcon 9’s launch.

United Launch Alliance is targeting May 4 for the inaugural launch of its highly-anticipated Vulcan Centaur rocket.

The company has a planned window of four days to execute the launch once additional testing of the rocket and its main engines are satisfactory.

These final tests will occur at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. According to CEO Tory Bruno, the mega rocket will roll to the launch pad “a few days from now” for a wet dress rehearsal, as well as additional tanking tests.

According to a public YouTube stream (and now a tweet from the company), Relativity will launch its first Terran 1 rocket in the coming weeks out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news around Phobos and Deimos, SpaceX’s retired oil rigs being converted into sea platforms for Starship. It turns out that’s because SpaceX quietly abandoned plans to turn either of its rigs into launchpads at sea.