Space Explored

This week we welcome the addition of a new podcast for Space Explored, Rapid Unscheduled Discussions. Started by Seth Kurkowski and Daryl Sausse at the beginning of 2020. The show takes a more laid-back and humorous approach to discussing current events. This week they go over what they missed over their (rather long) two-week break.

This morning Blue Origin is planning their first crewed flight of their suborbital New Shepard rocket. The crew will be Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, legendary aviator Wally Funk, and early ticket holder Oliver Daemen.

SpaceX conducted the very first static fire test of a Super Heavy Booster prototype on Monday afternoon.

SpaceX has stood out from other rocket companies in their determination to reuse their Falcon 9 boosters as much as possible. Below are some FAQs of booster reuse.

Update: A video was shared on social media showing the progress on the X-Wing that has been made since it arrived at the museum for restoration work.

Happy Star Wars Day to everyone, and if you’re an avid fan of the sci-fi series then you know what an X-Wing is. Good news for anyone wanting to see one cause starting tomorrow you can at the National Air and Space Museum.

Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Derek Wise discuss SpaceX’s new droneship locations. As Of Course I Still Love You arrives in California and A Shortfall of Gravitas arrives in Florida. Long-time astronaut Doug Hurley retires from the astronaut corp and they try to answer the question of what to call Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.

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This week, the fourth crew member to fly on New Shepard was announced, A Shortfall of Gravitas arrived in Florida, and Astronaut Doug Hurley announced his retirement.

Friday, July 16th, NASA announced that veteran astronaut Doug Hurley will retire from his career within the Astronaut Office. Hurley’s career has spanned the retirement of the shuttle, activation of SpaceX’s dragon, and an overall change in NASA’s culture.

This week on Twitter, Elon addressed some major planned improvements to the constellation of Starlink internet satellites, and the advantages Starlink has over traditional internet connections.

Boeing’s Starliner Capsule for Orbital Flight Test 2 began its rollout from the company’s processing facility to ULA’s vertical integration facility. The capsule has been secured to the Atlas V rocket which will launch it to the International Space Station at the end of the month.

Update: NASA released a post on social media that stated the science instrument are not back online. Also, science data is being collected once again.

The historic Hubble Space Telescope has been out of commission since June 13th, when an onboard computer error caused the system to halt. Teams at NASA have been working to diagnose and develop plans to restore the telescope to operation.

SpaceX’s latest booster-catching droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” arrived at its new home in Port Caneveral Florida on July 15th after journeying for nearly a full week from its build site in Port Fourchon Louisiana.

SpaceX has been steamrolling towards their orbital Starship attempt out of Boca Chica since the SN15 launch. However, we are still months away from a possible attempt. The reason? Darn FAA Environmental Reviews.

In a time when traveling to a museum might not be the best of ideas (Thanks, COVID!!), being able to take a virtual tour is a godsend when you want to satiate your curiosity about something. Luckily, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum has us covered with a VR tour of Space Shuttle Discovery.

SpaceX’s latest droneship left Port Fourchon, Louisiana where it was constructed last Friday, and this morning, arrived in Port Canaveral Florida.

Update: Blue Origin spoke with CNBC about the reasoning for Daemen’s selection.

Blue Origin announced today that the fourth member of the NS-16 crew will be an 18-year-old from the Netherlands who bought a ticket on the New Shepard rocket.

Over the few months, SpaceX’s newest droneship has made baby steps towards operation. The next step is coming close to an end as it approaches its homeport in Florida.

Today was a great day for Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin. Bezos is making a $200 million dollar donation to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, while the charity Club for the Future is making 19 $1 million grants to space-related organizations.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex has unveiled a new display for SpaceX’s next-generation spacesuits worn by astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on the historic DM-2 Crew Dragon mission to the ISS in May of 2020.

On July 20th Blue Origin will attempt to launch their founder and a group of explorers to the edge of space with their first crewed mission. Blue shared details on where and when to watch the flight, but the public will be pushed far away.

Today the European Space Agency announced they will add a kick stage option to their upcoming Ariane 6 rocket. The addition brings expands the payload capabilities for the rocket.

While Virgin Galactic ran into some technical difficulties with the live views from the cabin of VSS Unity, you can now watch the crew experience spaceflight. The crew spent just over a minute above the 50 miles high definition of space but experienced ~2-3 minutes of zero gravity.