Space Explored

Those going out to see the latest booster return and droneship departures may have noticed a new structure being erected in the SpaceX area. Permits detail this new tent as a roughly 40′ square with the walls consisting of containers. The canopy being constructed will sit atop these containers.

This week the U.S. Space & Rocket Center took delivery of a huge piece of space history. The 27-foot-wide base portion of Space Launch System Core Stage Pathfinder, a full-scale mockup of the SLS rocket’s main segment, arrived in Huntsville, Alabama, where it will soon be displayed publicly. The original hardware was created to help NASA simulate operations in preparation of its upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon.

After SpaceX got rid of their faring catching ships the company went through a few options for how to recover their fairings. Today their second contracted ship left Port Canaveral, leaving SpaceX again with no dedicated fairing recovery ship.

After coming back from the dead recently, OneWeb continues to build out its constellation of satellites to provide networking service to terminals around the world.

There is really no material value in one billionaire beating another billionaire to space. Yet Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson is scheduled to be aboard his company’s spacecraft during a suborbital flight before Jeff Bezos rides his rocket with Blue Origin.

Starting today Astra Space shares are live on the NASDAQ after merging with the special purpose acquisition company Holicity. Astra planes to use the money to grow their rocket production facilities and team.

The Artemis program will be launching the first woman and the next man to the Moon. Before humans can step aboard an SLS rocket launching towards the Moon, we need a test run. Inside the Orion capsule for this first launch of the Artemis program, Artemis I, will be a manikin some have dubbed a ‘Moonikin’, but now this dummy has a name.

Today Jeff Bezos announced that Blue Origin has picked Wally Funk to join the crew that will fly on New Shepard’s first crewed flight. The legendary aviator, now 84 years old, has done everything except finally receive her chance to fly to space.

SpaceX will launch 88 satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth. This will be SpaceX’s second dedicated rideshare mission and host companies like Spaceflight Inc, ExoLaunch, and D-Orbit who will deploy the bulk of the payloads with their specialized deployment system. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch south, down the coast of Florida, and then the first stage will perform the first RTLS landing of 2021, back at LZ-1.

Date: Wednesday, June 30th

So this happened today. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to a Vulcan rocket teaser video from ULA CEO Tory Bruno with a slightly provocative “when do the engines arrive” response. Without mentioning Blue Origin, the taunt is mostly targeted at Jeff Bezos’ rocket company.

This morning Virgin Orbit is attempting their third flight of the LauncherOne air-launched vehicle. This will be the first operational flight of the vehicle after their successful Demo-2 mission in January.

Date: Wednesday, June 30th, 10:47 a.m. EDT (Drop and Launch)

Last Friday it was announced that Virgin Galactic was awarded their full commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration. The marks the beginning of their operational status for crewed sub-orbital flights to space.

SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 a.m. EDT on June 28th, 2015. This was meant to be SpaceX’s 7th resupply mission to the International Space Station. But 139 seconds into the flight, the vehicle began to disintegrate. This resulted in the loss of the rocket and the Cargo Dragon capsule. What happened?

Yesterday the teams at SpaceX’s Starbase Starship facility received the first vacuum-optimized Raptor engine from Hawthorne. This is one of the most important pieces needed for an orbital Starship launch sometime this year.

While this week has been devoid of launches, it was far from an uneventful week in space news. We’ve had spacewalks occurring at the ISS, the arrival of ULA’s Atlas V booster for CFT, and brand new exclusive updates on SpaceX’s newest droneship.

Jeff Bezos is just a few weeks away from being among the first humans to leave Earth in his New Shepard rocket, and a growing number of people are hoping he won’t be allowed back.

We’ve been waiting a while to see any sign that shows SpaceX’s third droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas is nearing completion. This week, a few of those signs have shown up, proving that ASOG is getting reading for operation.

Josef Aschbacher is pushing a major initiative at the European Space Agency to recruit and launch the first physically disabled astronaut to space. Reuters reports that several hundred of 22,000 ESA astronaut applicants who have applied are eligible thanks to ESA’s initiative.

Elon Musk is known for his online antics and market-moving jokes. His Twitter account also provides a wealth of information.

SpaceX launched the Space Test Program 2 (STP-2) mission in early June 25th, 2019. STP-2 was launched on the third flight of Falcon Heavy, reusing the side boosters from the Arabsat-6A launch earlier that year.

We’ve been covering the construction on SpaceX’s news addition to the Eastern fleet, A Shortfall of Gravitas. ASOG will soon be taking the place of the droneship Of Course I Still Love You which is moving to the west coast.