Space Explored

After the successful test flight of Starship SN8, SpaceX had a lot of data to go over to learn how Starship flies and what changes might be needed for future flights. The SN9 flight is much more likely to stick its landing because of this.

Earlier this month, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico met its sad demise as the aging facility collapsed overnight. The facility’s destruction was a terrible day for the astronomy community, and rebuilding it felt entirely out of reach. However, Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced just gave those hoping to rebuild Arecibo an unexpected glimmer of hope.

Space Explored’s Zac Hall and Seth Kurkowski go over the achievements and top stories of the major players in space while previewing the year ahead of what’s to come.

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Plum Brook Station is a remote test facility for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. It is home to four cutting-edge test facilities used for ground tests for the international space community. Today, a name change for the facility was signed into law.

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program is rarely talked about but has contributed to many of the technologies that we take for granted in our daily lives. In this article, we will be discussing a few of the essential technologies that have benefited from the program over the years.

Elon Musk shared that SpaceX is thinking about catching Starship’s Super Heavy rocket booster by its four grid fins using the launch mount tower that will be on future versions of the Starship launch mount.

Before now, we’ve thought Super Heavy landing would be similar to how SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lands its first stage booster back on land. That would require the use of landing legs and either having a landing pad next to the launch mount or landing directly on the launch mount to be able to reload another Starship on top of the booster to launch again.

A new report has come out stating that Anek Laothamatas, Thailand’s Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation, wants to build a spacecraft capable of orbiting the moon. The news has sparked some controversy among Thailand residents as they see more pressing issues that could be addressed with the money. 

On October 14, NASA announced that it had selected an experiment by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to participate in its Flight Opportunities program. However, what’s unique about this experiment is that the payload will include a human named Alan Stern.

The 2021 Intelligence Authorization Act includes a rather interesting section involving Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP). The particular section of the act calls upon the UAP Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence to submit a report to Congress within 180 days of the act’s enactment date.

While most satellites these days use the highest grade metals that can withstand the harsh environment of space, Japan has started developing a satellite that will be made out of wood to help prevent space junk and harmful particles from falling off as they re-enter the atmosphere.

NASA has added two new science missions to its slate of future explorations to study the Sun. The two missions will cost just over $100 million to better understand how the Sun works and how it affects us here on Earth.

The Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission, or EUVST, and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE will help NASA and an international cooperation of researchers study how the Sun’s atmosphere and Earth’s magnetosphere work, two parts of the solar system we still don’t fully understand.

While everyone was mesmerized by SpaceX’s leaning B1051.7 Falcon 9 first stage booster returning to Port Canaveral after launching SXM-7, another interesting spectacle caught the eye of regular port stalkers: a new structure going up on the dry dock.

SpaceX plans to launch its first dedicated ridesharing mission in January called Transporter-1. ExoLaunch will be providing integration and dispensing services for their new EXOport cubesats.

The United Arab Emeritus has been in the process over last year to select its next class of astronauts that will begin training to join the international team of researchers on the International Space Station. With the help of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anne McClain, they will choose two new astronauts out 14 candidates.

It turns out Iron Man 2 isn’t just a classic entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The 2010 American superhero film is also a piece of SpaceX history, and not just because of the Elon Musk cameo with Tony Stark.

Space Explored’s Zac Hall and Seth Kurkowski unpack the last week in launches from SpaceX’s SXM-7 mission to Astra’s first rocket reaching space, the latest status update on Space Launch System and the Artemis I mission around the Moon, Canada’s plans to send the first Canadian astronaut to the Moon, Space Force naming its members and gaining its first astronaut, three Crew-3 astronauts being named, updates on Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket, and much more.

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Humans first orbited the Moon on this day in 1968, and while on their first pass around the backside of the Moon, they first saw with their own eyes Earthrise over the horizon.

While we didn’t see much from Firefly during 2020 in terms of launches, we did see them in the news plenty for making deals for launches and testing their new Alpha launcher which plans to debut early next year. Firefly says they already have an almost full launch manifest for 2021 with two launches going to Adaptive Launch Solutions.

After a busy year for the newer small sat launcher, Rocket Lab released a video recapping all of their achievements over 2020.

The California based small sat launcher provider conducted seven launches across 2020 and experienced its first failure of the Electron in flight. Rocket Lab was able to return to flying just two months later. While headquartered in California, Rocket Lab currently conducts most of its operations in New Zealand where they have their own launch complex with one operational launch pad with a second pad nearing completion.

After months of negotiations, NASA finally received a budget for 2021 that includes more funding for the Artemis Human Landing System, although not as much as requested, and the survival of several missions and programs.

The technology used by airports to communicate with aircraft appears to be relatively advanced, but this is the opposite of the truth upon closer inspection. Outdated technology that relies heavily on voice communications is what you actually see, and that creates problems.

NASA announced that Pat Forrester will be replaced with Reid Wiseman as the new Chief Astronaut at Johnson Space Center. Forrester will be pursuing a career opportunity outside of NASA after his tenure in the office since 2017.