Space Explored

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster, B1023, arrived at the new exhibit building, Gateway, for permanent display. This booster previously launched the Thaicom 8 satellite and then was converted to a Falcon Heavy side booster for the demo flight.

Founded in 2019, the Space Force came from the Air Force Space Command. With the reorganization, many airmen became Space Force Guardians. Now, the Space Force has selected over 900 new personnel to transfer into the branch.

Roscosmos is preparing to launch two private citizens and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station for a week and a half to film scenes for a movie called Challenge. NASA will provide live coverage of the launch.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration wasn’t built in a day. Ever since the launch of Sputnik hearings and meetings began about the formation of a new agency. The creation of NASA may have been signed into law on July 29, 1958; but on October 1, NASA officially opened for business.

Jeff Bezos launched into space on a New Shepard rocket back in July. That was a record-breaking flight in multiple regards, but now Guinness World Records made it official.

Alexandra Abrams, Former Head of Blue Origin Employee Communications, and 20 other former and current employees at Jeff Bezos’ space company penned a letter calling out the company for ignoring claims of sexual harassment, blatant sexism, and compromising flight safety.

NASA has just completed modal testing with the mass simulator on the SLS rocket for Artemis I. With this testing complete, operations can move forward in preparation for rollout to SLC-39B.

Orbit Fab is putting up the investment to place the geostationary satellite gas station in orbit for future military, intelligence, and commercial assets.

SpaceX and NASA’s next crew mission is now targeting October 30, at 2:43 a.m. EDT. There is a backup date available on October 31 at 2:21 a.m. EDT.

Today the FAA released the Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for Starship/Super Heavy operations out of Boca Chica, Texas. These documents provide insight into what the future holds for SpaceX in South Texas.

Virgin Galactic was in some hot water after deviating from the original flight plan and flying outside of the approved airspace during Richard Branson’s spaceflight in July. The FAA has finished its investigation into the mishap by Virgin Galactic.

Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery took flight on this day in 1988. It was the first flight of the Space Shuttle following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986.

The powerhouse commercial launch provider we know today has come a long way since it opened its doors in 2002. On this day back in 2008, on its fourth attempt, SpaceX launched Ratsat into space on its Falcon 1 rocket.

The Thermal Protection System on SpaceX’s Starship has been the topic of much discussion. Ship 20 had its thermal protection installed, but the quality of those tiles has come into question. Now, with the vent of the Ship 20’s header tank, many tiles on Ship 20 flew off and hit the ground.

DARPA announced the successful flight of a hypersonic air-breathing weapon concept. The test brings the project one step closer to expanding U.S. military capabilities.

NASA will launch their Landsat 9 Earth-imaging satellite to continue the longest-running Earth-imaging satellite program, which began in the 1970s. Landsat 9 will launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket from their west coast launch facilities. The mission will replace Landsat 7, which launched back in 1999. Follow along with live updates on the Landsat 9 launch below.

Date: Monday, September 27 2:12 p.m. EDT

This week, the Space Force gained a new look, NASA human spaceflight leadership has been divided, and preparations continue for Artemis I.

For decades, NASA has used mostly modified motorhomes to transport astronauts to the launch pad. Now, NASA is requesting proposals for the Agency’s next Astrovan.

Shortly after the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission returned to Earth, associate administrator of Space Operations Mission Directorate Kathy Lueders announced that Axiom will be launching its private mission to the ISS on February 21, 2022.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is getting ready to launch to space from French Guiana in early December. NASA announced a STEAM Day for students and educators to get ready for the big day ahead of the launch.

A federal court released a redacted copy of Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s Human Landing System selection. In it, we get our first glimpse at what Blue Origin is basing this lawsuit over.

Aerojet Rocketdyne will design the main engine for NASA’s Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions 6-14.

Roscosmos is preparing to relocate the MS-18 Soyuz spacecraft next Tuesday to make room for the crew of MS-19 arriving next month.