Space Explored

The crew of FRAM2, the first crewed spaceflight to fly over Earth’s poles, is set and ready to launch as soon as a week from today. The four crew members completed their training at SpaceX‘s Hawthorne offices and are now off to Cape Canaveral to enter quarantine before launch.

For the last couple of years, SpaceX has been shaving hours off its booster turnaround timelines. This has turned months-long turnarounds into weeks; last week, SpaceX finally got that timeline down to just nine days! The company also just recently broke a launch pad turnaround timeline as well.

We’re soon closing the chapter on the first quarter of 2025, and so far the only companies in the headlines for launches have been SpaceX and Rocket Lab, with other companies like Firefly soon to follow. However, SpaceX’s supposed competitor has been nowhere, still waiting on final work from the Space Force that its Vulcan rocket is cleared to launch the missions it was contracted to do. So when might ULA, Vulcan, or Atlas finally launch next?

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the space tourism company after it retired its VSS Unity spaceplane last year. 2025 will be the year of building for Virgin Galactic; the company announced recently that work is already underway on its first Delta spaceplane.

Over the weekend and yesterday, NASA and SpaceX successfully rotated out Crew-9 for Crew-10 at the International Space Station. The crew members included former Starliner crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

Early Friday morning, if you were brave enough to stay up late or wake up early to see it, the Moon passed through Earth’s shadow, turning the surface a reddish-orange tint. This is known as a lunar eclipse or “blood moon.” These happen about as often as solar eclipses but can cover much larger parts of the Earth, so when is the next one?

In case you’re going to be up late tonight, you might want to take a chance to look up at the Moon as it will be turning colors, to red! Tonight will be a rare moment to witness a total lunar eclipse. While not as rare as a solar eclipse, it is still not something you see often.

Last night, SpaceX attempted to launch its Crew-10 mission from LC-39A; however, it ran into a snag about 40 minutes before liftoff, scrubbing the launch. NASA and SpaceX will reattempt to launch the international crew of four on Friday, March 14 at 7:03 P.M. ET.

After being first reported over two years ago, Blue Origin has finally released details on its first all-female New Shepard mission, commanded by helicopter pilot, entrepreneur, and girlfriend of Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez.

Last week featured a rare zero-launch week for SpaceX’s Falcon rocket as the company jumps back after a failed booster on March 2. SpaceX is expected to return to Falcon launches this week with the launch of two NASA payloads: SPHEREx and PUNCH.

Last week was a big week for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as it saw two landings by two different companies. The hope was that the agency would end up with two successful providers of NASA science to the Moon’s surface; instead, it saw one, with the other falling over once again.

During the live coverage of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8, the company laid out an update to its plan to launch the massive vehicle from Florida. Some of the plans we’ve seen starting to take shape already were finally confirmed by SpaceX, such as the massive expansion of Roberts Road.

SpaceX was able to get its Starship Flight 8 off the ground after a scrub Monday afternoon; its goal was to repeat the Flight 7 objectives. However, Flight 8 ended in a similar spot, with Ship 34’s ascent into space being cut short due to an unknown issue.

Later this afternoon, SpaceX will make its second attempt to launch its Starship Flight 8 mission from Starbase, Texas. The launch will largely be a repeat of Flight 7, which concluded early before much of its testing could be done. Below is everything SpaceX wanted to test on Flight 7 but will now be testing on Flight 8, plus other tidbits on the launch!

SpaceX is planning to launch its Starship Flight 8 later this afternoon from its launch site in South Texas. The flight will mostly be a rehash of Flight 7, focusing on testing the changes to Starship Block 2, new heat shield modifications, and deploying its first dummy satellites into space.

SpaceX X Livestream: https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1lPKqMQbAWLKb

SpaceX scrubbed its Starship Flight 8 launch attempt on Monday afternoon. The cause for the scrub was not entirely shared, but it seemed to have shown up in the late stages of the count and involved the Super Heavy Booster.

SpaceX is cleared for its rescheduled launch attempt of Starship Flight 8 this Monday afternoon. However, we still await the final part of the rocket to make its way to the launch site for final assembly and testing.

Monday night into Tuesday morning, SpaceX teams down at its Starbase facility moved Booster 15 from the production site to its launch pad. The booster is now stacked on Pad A’s mount as it gets ready for its potential Starship Flight 8 launch date on Friday.

SpaceX shared its recap video of the Starship Flight 7 launch on its YouTube channel Monday evening. The company also shared a blog post detailing the cause of the failure. This usually takes place once the team finishes the data review of the mission and is ready to launch its next Starship, which will be Flight 8 no earlier than Friday.

According to SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the company will be attempting to launch Starship Flight 8 no earlier than Friday, February 28. There are still a few hurdles SpaceX will have to overcome before Starship can launch again.

Earlier this month, SpaceX launched a Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base out in California. The mission resulted in a successful deployment of its satellites but a failed deorbit burn of the second stage. That failure has led to debris being found in Poland and farmers wishing for SpaceX to cover the damages.

Drama has once again emerged regarding the Starliner crew. The crew has become the subject of political debate, despite the mission’s apolitical nature. This controversy follows Elon Musk’s insults toward a former ISS commander after comments about an interview between Musk and President Donald Trump.

Yesterday, NASA’s Exploration Ground System (EGS) completed stacking the final component for Artemis 2’s SLS boosters, including the nosecone. This marks the completion of stacking the two Solid Rocket Boosters, which will provide most of the thrust to lift the Artemis 2 crew off the pad.

Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has announced a 10% reduction in its workforce, affecting approximately 1,400 employees across its Florida, Texas, and Washington facilities. The layoffs, disclosed February 13, signal a strategic shift for the company as it moves away from heavy research and development and focuses on scaling up production of its New Glenn rocket and other key projects.