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Why Boeing Starliner is still docked to the ISS

NASA held a press conference yesterday to talk about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Starliner. In attendance were Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Bill Spetch, operations integrations manager; Emily Nelson, chief flight director at JSC; and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program element.

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SpaceX releases Starship test flight update

Back on April 20, SpaceX launched their Starship rocket from Boca Chica, Texas. The test was a major milestone for the program which had previously spent 4 years in development, starting in 2019. The launch used Starship vehicle ‘Ship 24’ and Booster 7 (also known as B7). Together the two vehicles launched into the Texan skies, where issues rapidly started developing. The issues eventually resulted in the vehicle entering an uncontrolled spin, whereafter the vehicle was remotely destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico.

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NASA’s InSight falls silent, its mission complete

On December 21, NASA reported that the Mars lander InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) missed replying to its second call from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, likely as a result of the power waning.  This led to NASA officially concluding its four-year mission on Mars. There are several elements that led to the lander’s loss of power, leading many to question how the vehicle could have been saved. Followers of the mission have common questions about how the vehicle could’ve been saved. They also ask about the fate of Mars’ other remaining operational vehicles.

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Florida will be the home of SLS Core Stage assembly starting with Artemis 3

MacBook Pro space wallpaper VAB

Earlier this month, NASA moved the SLS engine section for Artemis 3 into the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This comes as a distinct change from previous SLS core stages like the recently flown Artemis 1 and Artemis 2, which are still being assembled at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. The biggest questions arising from this change are what NASA’s plan for Artemis 3 is and onwards and what stirred this sudden change.

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SpaceX Super Heavy Booster 7 fires up 11 Raptor engines

At 2:42 pm ET (1:42 pm CT), SpaceX performed another static fire of their Super Heavy booster. This test was performed using 11 of the 33 Raptor 2 engines. These static fire tests are intended to test the booster and ground support equipment to prove the system’s readiness for a planned orbital flight test and many future missions supporting Starlink and eventually NASA’s Artemis Missions.

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Falcon Heavy flies again; Dual-booster landing from USSF-44 sends sonic booms across the space coast

Three years after its last flight, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has returned to flight on this cloudy Florida morning. The primary payload of this launch is the classified USSF-44 satellite, with two other satellites co-manifested. The launch occurred on November 1 at 9:41 a.m. Eastern Time, successfully delivering the satellites to their targeted geosynchronous orbit.

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