Soyuz Pad Apparently Damaged After Successful Launch
Following the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 mission to the International Space Station this morning, the Soyuz launch complex, Pad
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Author: Scarlet Dominik
HTV-X Arrives at ISS For the First Time
After its launch from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on October 26th at 9:00 AM JST, Japan’s HTV-X1 resupply mission arrived at the ISS, where it was berthed at roughly 1:00 AM JST on October 30th.
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New Glenn Earns Its Wings
At 2:04 AM local time on January 16th, 2025, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rose from Launch Complex 36 at Space Canaveral Space Force Station for the first time. The launch of the 320-foot rocket represented the culmination of a decade and a half’s worth of development, and over a full year of assembly and testing.
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Blue Fire and Green Lights for New Glenn
The first integrated New Glenn launch vehicle has completed a hotfire test of its seven BE-4 main engines. The hot fire test was New Glenn’s final major pre-launch test campaign ahead of its debut mission – slated for very early 2025.
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New Glenn on the Roll
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has made it to Launch Complex 36 ahead of the massive rocket’s inaugural flight, scheduled for sometime this year.
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Starship IFT-5 Launches With a Catch
At 7:25 AM CDT on October 13th, 2024, the fifth Integrated Flight Test (IFT-5) of SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle lifted itself from its Orbital Launch Mount at Starbase, Texas.
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FAA Waives Hera Launch – Falcon 9 Remains Grounded
Falcon 9 currently finds itself in the midst of its third grounding in 2024. Following a successful launch of the Crew-9 mission and crew aboard Crew Dragon Freedom on September 28th, the Falcon 9 second stage experienced an anomaly during its deorbit burn, causing it to fall outside of the designated safe zone.
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Vulcan Centaur Completes Second Flight Despite Anomaly
On October 4th at 7:25 AM Eastern Time, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan-Centaur rocket leaped off the pad for the second time, beginning a critical flight test ahead of beginning national security flights. According to ULA the mission’s various goals were completed, but not without incident.
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New Glenn Comes Together, but Plans Change
On Friday, September 6th 2024, NASA announced an official delay of the EscaPADE mission’s launch to March of 2025. The agency specified that the decision came at potential risk to spacecraft health in the event that the twin Mars orbiters had to be unfueled following a launch delay. Regardless, work continues towards the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
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BepiColombo Completes Mercury Flyby on New Trajectory
The joint European/Japanese BepiColombo mission completed its fourth encounter with Mercury on Wednesday, September 4th 2024. The flyby was the latest of many gravity assists the mission needs to decelerate itself into Mercury orbit, and took the spacecraft closer to the planet’s surface than ever before.
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Falcon 9 Completes Second Return to Flight of 2024
SpaceX’s Starlink 8-10 mission lifted off successfully at 3:43 AM EDT on the morning of August 31st, deploying 21 Starlink satellites into orbit. This mission represents the second return to flight for Falcon 9 this year, and a historic turnaround.
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Starliner Astronauts to Return Aboard Crew-9
In a press conference starting at 1:13 PM EST, a panel of NASA program managers officially declared that Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be returning aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon at the conclusion of the Crew-9 mission in February of 2025.
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Pressure Mounts as New Glenn Nears Launch Date
2024 is far from over and another new rocket is still expected to earn its wings: Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
If all proceeds according to plan it could happen in less than 60 days. However, substantial milestones remain incomplete, raising questions on the rocket’s readiness.
Poland, Hungary, and India Join Next Axiom Crew
Axiom Space’s fourth mission aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to carry astronauts from Poland, Hungary, and India next year, setting the stage for yet another record breaking international segment.
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Artemis II’s Core Stage Heads to Florida
The second SLS core stage, or CS-2, is now aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge following its rollout from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, paving the way for the first flight of crew to the moon in over 50 years.
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Falcon 9 Grounded after Anomaly
At 7:30 Pacific Standard Time on July 11th, 2024, a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket carrying the Starlink Group 9-3 satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Nearly 2 hours later, SpaceX confirmed that the mission had experienced an anomaly.
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H3 Launches ALOS-4 Earth Observation Satellite
On July 1st, 2024 at 11:06:46 PM Eastern Time Japan successfully launched its third H3 rocket, deploying the ALOS-4 satellite.
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Asteroid Day 2024: A Plethora of New Insights
For Asteroid Day 2024, we’ll be briefly covering updates to various small body missions, and exploring how these vital ambassadors from Earth teach us so much about our origins.
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Blue Origin, SpaceX, ULA Selected for National Security Missions
In an announcement on June 13th, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin were selected for the Department of Defense’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 program. All three providers are now eligible to compete for a series of 30+ launches, with a combined value of $5.6 billion.
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Gyro Issues Force Hubble Into Safe Mode
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has suspended science operations for the time being. NASA reported that the space observatory entered safe mode on May 24th.
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Dream Chaser Arrives at KSC
Sierra Space’s first Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 20th, 2024, entering the next phase of development as the company proceeds towards flight.
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China Targets Far Side for Sample Return
The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, also known as Chang’e, has seen the launch of eight missions and three successful Moon landings since 2007. Chang’e-6 launched on May 3rd at 5:27 p.m. local time, and is China’s most ambitious lunar mission yet.
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Op-Ed: Starship’s Road to Commercial Launch – an Unclear Path
With testing already underway ahead of Starship’s fourth Integrated Flight Test (IFT), and several more flight tests planned in 2024, one may ask how quickly the dream will become reality. The answer, however, as many things are regarding spaceflight, is complicated and prone to delays.
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A Shake Up For Mars Sample Return
On April 15th 2024, NASA hosted a media teleconference giving updates on the current status of the agency’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. MSR is a vital step in providing high fidelity environmental data which could dramatically inform the technology and methodology for a planned human mission to the Red Planet.
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Sierra Space CEO Signals Dream Chaser Delays
It seems that Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, may be waiting a bit longer to fly, as indicated by Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice.
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Five Years to Apophis; Can a New Mission be Ready?
Apophis is an asteroid that needs little introduction, but it could soon become one of the most well studied small bodies in the history of spaceflight – should plans come to fruition.
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Space One’s Kairos Explodes on Maiden Flight
Private Japanese Firm Space One’s first launch has ended in failure after their Kairos launch vehicle exploded shortly after liftoff.
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The Sun Sets on SLIM – What Next?
After a troubled journey to the lunar surface and subsequent recovery, the sun has set on JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) at 1:57 PM, February 1st, Japan Standard Time.
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Op-Ed: The Load Bearing Rocket, A Falcon 9 Analysis
AS NG-20 prepares to fly, Space Scout’s Scarlet Dominik takes a closer look at the current state of the launch industry, and analyzes how a monopoly on launch may be something to avoid.
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Japan Becomes Fifth Nation to Land on the Moon
On January 19th 2024, JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) successfully touched down on the surface of the Moon. This makes Japan the fifth nation in history to conduct a successful soft landing on the surface of the Moon, following Russia, the United States, China, and India.
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New Shepard Returns to Flight
After over a year of waiting, New Shepard has returned to flight. Following a scrubbed launch on the 18th, New Shepard cleared the tower flying the NS-24 mission on December 19th at 10:43 AM.
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North Korea Launches First Domestic Spysat
North Korea, in a stunning turn of events, has launched their first successful spy satellite, entering an elite club of nations with such power.
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ISRO to Perform Lunar Sample Return
In a lecture given on November 17, Shri Nilesh M. Desai, director of India’s Space Application Center, outlined India’s next missions to the Moon – including the ambitious and tantalizing official plan for Chandrayaan-4.
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A Pause for Mars Sample Return
On November 13 2023, NASA’s Planetary Science Advisory Committee, which advises all of NASA’s planetary science interests, held a meeting to discuss the state of various programs heading into 2024.
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One in a Half-Million, Lucy Sees Double
On November 1st 2023, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by its first asteroid, just over ten months after the previously unplanned encounter was declared.
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Capturing the Ring of Fire
In 2023, Americans stand at the eve of another total solar eclipse set to occur in 2024, but this time we’ve been given a pre-show: an annular solar eclipse on October 15th 2023.
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You Are Beautiful: Lucy at Dinkinesh
Nearly two years after launch, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft prepares to encounter its first asteroid – one of many to come.
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Triumphs and Troubles: This Week at the Moon
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully completed its seven and a half week journey to the lunar surface. Now, after four years of planning and hard work, Chandrayaan-3 can begin its two week science mission at the lunar south pole.
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H3, Japan’s Bid for Space Access in a Competitive World
On the 7th of March, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the inaugural mission of their H3 rocket. Space Scout’s Scarlet Dominik takes a deep dive into the vehicle’s development.
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Lunar Lander Lineup, Two Nations, Two Missions
Next week is shaping up to be a busy time for rocket launches, but also a very busy time for the Moon. For the first time in 54 years, there are two landers in orbit of the Moon at the same time.
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Psyche to Psyche: Journey to a Metal World
Six years into the future and 177 years after its discovery, the massive asteroid 16 Psyche will receive its first visitor from Earth.
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