Space Explored

Hurricane Ida first made landfall at Port Fourchon a port we know very well due to its connection to the SpaceX ships that have undergone there. The storm has been pounding the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines for the past 24 hours.

This week Astra launched their 5th test rocket which didn’t reach orbit again, both SpaceX and Blue Origin launched missions for NASA, and emails possibly leaked from ULA show their dark side.

After weather scrubbed SpaceX’s first attempt to launch CRS-23, they will be trying again tonight. This mission will feature a Falcon 9 rocket launching the company’s Dragon 2 cargo vehicle to the International Space Station. This will be SpaceX’s 23rd mission for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program and 3rd for the CRS-2 contract.

Date: Sunday, August 29th at 3:14 a.m. EDT

A surprise to those focused on Astra’s orbital launch attempt today, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the crew of Inspiration4 took to the skies for a flyover of Starbase this afternoon.

Saturday Astra attempted their 5th test flight of one of their smallsat launchers from Kodiak Island, Alaska. While Astra’s Rocket 3.3 did not make it to space this time, it did give watchers a show when it slightly recovered after an engine failure.

Astra plans to launch their first commercial mission on top of their Rocket 3 vehicle. While the rocket has yet to reach orbit, the issue that caused the shortcoming was very minor and Astra is confident it will make it to orbit this time on this 4th launch. The payload on this mission will be the first of 2 demonstration missions for the US Space Force named STP-27AD1. This mission will be the companies first launch of the year.

Date: Friday, August 28th at 6:35 p.m. EDT

The popular star-gazing app Sky Guide exclusively for iOS recently got the biggest update in its 8 year history, adding numerous new features and introducing a free entry-level version for the first time.

In the last two years, we have seen SpaceX go from building circular rings in a dirt patch to having a full rocket factory in South Texas. On this day 2 years ago their first creation, Starhopper, makes its famed 150-meter flight.

After the successful first crewed flight last month, Blue Origin launched 17th New Shepard mission full of scietific payloads for NASA and other researchers.

Several users of SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service, Starlink, have reported the service is not working, showing the possibility of a global outage. Starlink currently operates in beta, and SpaceX warns that outages are possible while the satellite constellation is built out.

Departing today, was SpaceX’s shiny new droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) ahead of their CRS-23 mission to resupply the International Space Station for NASA.

Six internal emails were leaked this week that share statements from United Launch Alliance Vice President Robbie Sabathier to a lobbyist about NASA’s “incompetent” leaders and favoritism towards SpaceX.

The emails leaked from the ULA employee also contain wild speculation that contracts awarded to SpaceX by NASA were tied to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s inferred support for former President Trump.

Ars Technica reported Tuesday that Blue Origin has rolled out the first test tank for their “Project Jarvis” New Glenn upper stage. Ars photographer Trevor Mahlmann captured photos showing the tank’s movement at Blue’s site on LC-36 in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

On this day 15 years ago, children across the world had to come up with a new way to remember the names of the planets in the solar system. No more pizzas were coming from our educated mothers, instead it would be… nachos?

This week Seth and Derek discuss the possibility Tesla Bots have with working with SpaceX here on Earth and in space. They also talk about Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s HLS contract and upcoming launches from the US.

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Updated as Starlink surpasses 100k user terminals shipped.

SpaceX has been launching so many Starlink missions they have become a regular occurrence on Florida’s Space Coast. With this many launches, it has become hard to keep track of all the important moments from the Starlink program. We have both a timeline of major events; and a table of every Starlink launch at the bottom of the article.

This week Seth and Daryl go on a banter about Tesla’s new AI-powered robot, SpaceX’s new ships being built in Port Fourchon, and end with a comprehensive review of Boeing’s Space store.

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The smallsat launcher owned by Richard Branson announced it will be joining the trend of other space companies and merging with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). This also comes with some new future plans for Virgin Orbit like turning LauncherOne into a reusable rocket and developing a new LauncherTwo vehicle.

Last week Tesla pulled a “One more thing” and announced they are working on an autonomous robot powered by their Full Self Driving neural net. Many have questioned the companies choice but there could be a clever reason for Elon’s madness. Yes, it includes Tesla Bots on Mars, it’s always about Mars.

Update: Blue Origin is pushing back the mission target by 24 hours.

Blue Origin has announced its next New Shepard rocket mission called NS-17 will take place on Wednesday, August 25. The mission carrying NASA technology and a special art installation will be an uncrewed spaceflight following founder Jeff Bezos’ trip to space on NS-16.