Space Explored

Spaceflight Inc, one of the big players in launch services is supporting Brazil in launching their first Earth observation satellite that was completely designed, built, tested, and will be operated in the country. It plans to launch by the end of February on top of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Last July NASA’s newest Mars rover lifted off from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This began its roughly 6-month journey to the Red Planet and tomorrow will bring the long awaiting landing of the rover onto the surface, reusing the similar Skycrane maneuver used by its twin rover Curiosity.

With Mars being about 200 million kilometers (124 million miles) away from Earth, it isn’t possible to control Perseverance in real-time from the ground. It will take about 11 minutes to know if the rover landed safely, by the time teams on the ground see it start it has entered the atmosphere, the rover has already landed one way or another.

Today California-based small satellite launcher Astra announced that Benjamin Lyon is joining their team as their new Chief Engineer. Lyon leaves his position as Apple’s Senior Director of the Special Projects Group, the team that brought the company many of its greatest innovations. According to Bloomberg, Lyon most recently worked on Apple’s car team.

The secretive rocket company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been developing rockets to compete in both the space tourism and commercial launch markets named New Glenn after the first American to reach orbit, John Glenn.

The rocket has been in development for almost 9 years and since then we’ve only seen rare glimpses of the current stages of development. They plan to make their debut launch of the rocket later this year and we’ve luckily got a glimpse of what will be used to test their new launchpad for this coming flight.

A key part of NASA’s Artemis program is Gateway, a lunar outpost 1/6 the size of its cousin the International Space Station. It will be used as the orbital research lab for Earth-faring astronauts destined to explore the lunar surface and possibly as a rest stop for those heading to Mars. The first two modules are planned to launch in 2024 on top of the party pleaser Falcon Heavy rocket.

Last week SpaceX launched their SN9 Starship prototype to an almost fully successful flight only missing the landing due to issues relighting one of the two Raptor engines needed for the flip and landing maneuver. This is something Elon Musk has already hinted at a possible fix that we might see on their next prototype which has already begun test at their site in South Texas.

Starlink, SpaceX’s high-speed satellite-based internet service, has been in development for several years now and for the last three years, SpaceX has been launching satellites into orbit on their own dedicated missions. The company has launched over 1 thousand satellites and has over 10 thousand beta testers in the northern latitudes of the US and Canada with another pair attempting to launch from both of their launch pads in Florida.

After almost a month and a half of tests, fixes, and red tap SpaceX finally got a chance to fly Starship SN9 to its 10 km test flight. This following their SN8 flight test in the beginning of December which marked the first flight of a fully assembled Starship prototype vehicle. While ending in similar fashions, the cause of the failed landings is different but not concerning.

ULA plans to unveil its newest launcher later this year from the same launchpad that it launches its Atlas V rocket from. Building on top of their already successful line of launchers and using Blue Origin’s methane-powered BE-4 engines, ULA conducted a crucial test and rolled out the brand new launch mount it will be attached to for the first time.

Launch service startup Astra successfully reached space with its Rocket 3.2 vehicle for the first time in December. Now the satellite launch company is setting its sights on a new target: the New York Stock Exchange. Astra plans to join the small but growing list of publicly traded space companies this year.

Tonight on NBC Nightly News, Tom Costello will be sitting down for a joint interview with SpaceX founder Elon Musk and billionaire Jared Isaacman. During the interview, Costello will also be given an exclusive tour of SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Cygnus continues a tradition in naming their spacecraft after people that have made great contributions to the spaceflight industry either as engineers or astronauts. With the upcoming launch slated to take place February 20th, Northrop Grumman named its next mission after the great mathematician Katherine Johnson.

Late last week, NASA announced that it would perform a second hotfire test of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. While the decision will likely cause SLS to miss its launch date later this year, it will allow NASA and Boeing the opportunity to collect necessary data.

On February 1, 2003, family, coworkers, and media awaited the return of the crew of STS-107 and the Space Shuttle Columbia at NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Although sadly, the shuttle would never come, today we remember the seven crew members who perished, reaching for the stars in the name of peace.

The saga of getting Starship SN9 to launch continues after the FAA, which oversees commercial space launch licenses, did not approve SpaceX’s request to launch last week. This pushes the nearest possible launch opportunity to this week. In the meantime, SpaceX kept teams busy by bringing the next Starship prototype to its pad to begin testing.

SpaceX will conduct its third mission to send astronauts to space on April 20 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft will send two NASA astronauts, one JAXA astronaut, and one ESA astronaut to the International Space Station. The mission called Crew-2 will be the first SpaceX flight for a European Space Agency astronaut and the second for a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut.

A new job posting on SpaceX’s website shares that the company is in the development process of their version 1.5 and 2.0 Starlink satellites. Once the constellation of over 4000 satellites is complete, these satellites will be able to provide high-speed internet access to the entire globe.

Join Space Explored’s Zac Hall, Seth Kurkowski, and Astrid Cordero this week as we discuss the latest NASA policy progress, Boeing’s upcoming Starliner OFT-2 mission date, Axiom Space’s first private crew of astronauts, SpaceX’s week in rocket launches, and more.

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SpaceX’s Starship SN9 was supposed to be a quick turnaround from SN8 that flew at the beginning of December. Instead the next-gen rocket prototype has seen several setbacks including needing to conduct several static fires to insure the Raptor engines and the vehicle itself are ready. Now Starship SN9’s time has finally come.

The US reached the Moon with the Apollo program, and we haven’t been back since. But the planned first crewed mission of the program, Apollo 1, ended tragically before the rocket ever left the launch pad. The mission is deemed by NASA one of the worst incidents in spaceflight history.

Port Canaveral in Florida is the homeport for cruise ships, fishing vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, and yes, SpaceX’s rocket recovery efforts. On Tuesday, SpaceX brought in a special Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster to the port after a quick return from flight. Teams also moved out SpaceX’s life leading booster from the docks and back into Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to get ready for its next flight.

SpaceX has been serious going into 2021 about doubling their launch count from last year. With already three launches since the start of the year, two of these three mark historic firsts for SpaceX and the industry. Sunday was a busy day in Cape Canaveral with both a record-breaking launch and a milestone booster return.