Space Explored

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.

Over the last month, we’ve seen a lot of changes in SpaceX’s recovery fleet. New members to the fleet are being added, and some being moved around. Here is an update on what has happened recently.

In a press release today, Sierra Space announced that they will be supplying propulsion components and integration services for a nuclear thermal propulsion system under DARPA’s DRACO program.

On SpaceX’s CRS-22, the first pair of new solar panels were sent up to the ISS to give the station a little boost. Tomorrow two astronauts will conduct a third spacewalk to continue installing the station’s newest addition.

SpaceX has had great success recovering and reusing their payload fairings. In contrast, ULA doesn’t recover or reuse them, but according to CEO Tory Bruno, ULA seriously considered implementing fairing reuse, but the economics didn’t make sense.

The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (S-ISAC) is a private-sector group with federal support to monitor and analyze both cyber and physical threats to space assets and their operators. Microsoft has joined as a founding member to bring their experience to the table.

Space Perspective wants to be your ride to the edges of space all for the cost of $125,000. Which compared to the rumored half a million for Blue Origin’s New Shepard, it might just be the best deal. If you’re willing to compensate.

United Launch Alliance loaded an Atlas V Booster and Dual Engine Centaur onto their Rocketship boat over the weekend. Its destination? Florida. This isn’t just any ordinary Atlas V though, this will be the first one to carry crew to space. The Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) is still expected NET late 2021. However, a second Orbital Flight Test is needed.

UPDATE: ULA Begins OFT-2 Booster Stacking

UPDATE: RL-10C not to be used for upcoming Atlas missions

Rocket Lab is continuing progress on their latest launch pad located at their New Zealand facility, LC-1B, with the installation of the strongback. The Electron launch vehicle has been grounded since an in-flight failure of the second stage engine. The anomaly investigation is still underway, but the FAA has cleared Electron for flight.

An Atlas V booster and Dual Engine Centaur have arrived at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) after being offloaded from the Rocketship transport vessel. Spaceflight media was invited to attend the event to provide coverage. This is the third human-rated Atlas V rocket to be delivered to the Cape, with the first being stacked ahead of the Orbital Flight Test 2.

On this day 17 years ago the age of privately funded space ventures reached a major milestone with Mojave Aerospace Ventures’ SpaceShipOne flight. Mojave Aerospace Ventures is a joint venture between Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites, largely funded by Paul Allen. This marked the first privately funded and developed crewed spaceflight and also led won Mojave Aerospace Ventures the Ansari X Prize.

As SpaceX’s new droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, has been under construction, we’ve said that the design has changed radically. We have been wondering when ASOG would finally gain its wings, and that time seems to be now.

We’ve all been waiting on the debut of United Launch Alliance’s brand new Vulcan rocket, the rightful successor to the Atlas V and Delta IV. But we might have to wait a little long for a payload to be ready to fly on the first mission.

Today marks an important milestone in spaceflight history. For the first time on the Space Shuttle, a woman would fly and bring motivation to little girls everywhere to join the STEM industry.

The United States Space Force operates the GPS constellation that we use every day to know where we are. Tomorrow, SpaceX will launch a new GPS III satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, into orbit to expand and upgrade the constellation that was been active since 1978. The launch window opens at 12:09 p.m. and lasts 15 minutes.

Date: Thursday, June 17th, 12:09 p.m. EDT

Pegasus XL is an air-launched rocket capable of launching ~443kg to Low Earth Orbit. Northrop Grumman conducted a launch of this vehicle over the weekend on a mission for the Space Force. The satellite was named Odyssey and was designed to be a “Space Domain Awareness” Technology Demonstration.

SpaceX’s third droneship has been under construction for the last couple of months now and it is looking very close to being finished. This week, signs of deck work are showing up, which could be a final step before being shipped out.

Today NASA and SpaceX announced a new launch date for the next crew rotation on the ISS this coming fall. The new date is due to “visiting vehicle traffic” with a few missions possibly taking place around the same time.

Today, Blue Origin held the final live auction for a seat on the first crewed launch of their launch vehicle, New Shepard.