Space Explored

SpaceX’s third custom-made Falcon 9 recovery robot called Octograbber was seen leaving a SpaceX facility in Cocoa, Florida.

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity was originally expected to complete its campaign after just five flights. After extraordinary performance on in the initial flights, demonstrating the possibility of powered flight on Mars, NASA JPL decided to extend the campaign to gather more information.

SpaceX completed their 100th successful launch since their last inflight failure back in 2015. This also marked their 16th flight this year and 4th in a single calendar month. Experience the launch with photos and videos taken by our team.

First announced in 2015, Starlink is a constellation of satellites by SpaceX intended to provide a high-speed and low-latency connection to the internet anywhere in the world. SpaceX hopes to bring the connection speed of Starlink up to 10 Gigabits per second.

Today the two defense contractors announced they will team up to develop the next lunar rover for NASA’s Artemis program.

May 26th, 3:46 p.m. EDT: SpaceX has deployed the 60 Starlink satellites that endured the ride to space this afternoon. This batch will finish up the first shell of satellites needed to provide high-speed internet around the globe.

Later today, SpaceX will attempt to launch another batch of 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. This will be their 4th mission of May again tying their record for most launches in a calendar month.

Date: Wednesday, May 26th, 2:59 PM EDT

Early tomorrow morning, there will be a lunar eclipse visible across the western United States. This will be the first time in six years that we have seen a total solar eclipse occur with a supermoon.

Earlier today, the nominees for the 48th annual Daytime Emmy Awards were announced. Among the nominees, was the Discovery and Science Channel’s coverage of the United States’ historic return to Crewed Spaceflight last year, Demo-2.

Located just north of the Visitor Complex at KSC is SpaceX’s newest facility. The Roberts Road site has been in development for around 2 to 3 years at this point, and construction is continuing to ramp up. Hangar X is the main building of the site that will support Falcon 9 booster refurbishment and house administration offices.

Axiom Space announced the commander and pilot for their upcoming Ax-2 mission this morning, expected to launch NET Fall 2022. The Ax-2 Commander will be Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut with a lot of firsts to her name. Ax-2 Pilot will be John Shoffner, a pilot, motorsport racer, and a life science activist.

Since SpaceX first acquired a Boston Dynamics Spot robot last year, they have served as vital tools for inspecting areas where it is not safe for humans to be located. During my recent trip to Boca Chica, I noticed that something had changed on SpaceX’s first robotic dog, Zeus.

On Sunday we saw new images of what will become SpaceX’s third droneship. The eventually named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” seems to be trending well on the construction timeline.

Discovery Channel just put out a casting call for a new TV show, “Who wants to be an Astronaut?” The prize? Well, a visit to the International Space Station of course!

In 2009, Elon Musk wrote an article titled, “Risky Business” discussing his goals for the future and the challenges overcome thus far since SpaceX’s founding.

Earlier this month we broke the news that SpaceX-related construction has started on the Marmac 302 barge in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. New images show more construction has been completed.

We haven’t received a formal update on Starship’s development since the 2019 event in front of the Mk1 prototype. This week Elon Musk promised to give us one this year.

The aging International Space Station has outlived its planned 15-year lifespan. As a result, the original solar panel arrays are show signs of degradation and will be supplemented by six new solar arrays.

After an unsuccessful attempt to reach space last December, today, Virgin Galactic reached space from Spaceport America earlier today with Pilots CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay aboard VSS Unity.

On Tuesday United Launch Alliance launch their first Atlas V rocket of the year. This mission carried with it a missile detection satellite called SBIRS GEO 5 for the United States Space Force.

May 18th, 2:19 PM EDT: The SBIRS GEO 5 satellite has been deployed from the Centaur upper stage.

A few weeks ago, ULA conducted their first launch for 2021 with a launch of a Delta IV Heavy for the National Reconnaissance Office. Next week, ULA plans to launch the first Atlas V rocket of the year carrying a payload for the US Space Force.

Date: Monday, May 18th, 1:37 PM EDT