New Glenn Booster Moves to Launch Complex 36

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket, heading to Launch Complex 36. Credit: Blue Origin/Dave Limp.

Nine years ago, Blue Origin revealed the plans for their New Glenn rocket, a heavy-lift vehicle with a reusable first stage that would compete with SpaceX for orbital flights. Since that time, SpaceX has launched hundreds of rockets, while Blue Origin has been working mostly in secret on New Glenn. Last week, the company rolled out the first prototype of the first-stage booster to the launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. If all goes well, we could see a late November test on the launch pad.

The test will be an integrated launch vehicle hot-fire which will include the second stage and a stacked payload.

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Chinese Company is Taking Space Tourism Orders for 2027 Flights

Infographic publicizing Deep Blue Space's first commercial flight, scheduled for 2027. Credit: Deep Blue Space (via Weixin)

China has some bold plans for space research and exploration that will be taking place in the coming decades. This includes doubling the size of their Tiangong space station, sending additional robotic missions to the Moon, and building the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) around the lunar south pole. They also hope to begin sending crewed missions to Mars by 2033, becoming the first national space agency to do so. Not to be left behind in the commercial space sector, China is also looking to create a space tourism industry that offers suborbital flights for customers.

One of the companies offering these services is Jiangsu Deep Blue Aerospace Technology, a private launch company founded in November 2016 by Chinese entrepreneur Huo Liang. On October 24th, at 6:00 pm local time (03:00 am PDT; 06:00 am EDT), during a “Make Friends” Taobao live broadcast, Huo shared the companies’ latest progress on their commercial spacecraft. He also announced the pre-sale of tickets for the first suborbital launch in 2027. The company also posted an infographic with the details of the flight on the Chinese social media platform Weixin (WeChat).

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The Polaris Dawn Crew is Back on Earth

The Polaris Dawn crew (left to right): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis. Credit: Polaris Program/John Kraus

On September 15th, 2024, the Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth after spending five days in orbit. The mission was the first of three planned for the Polaris program, a private space project to advance human spaceflight capabilities and raise funds and awareness for charitable causes. The mission’s Dragon spacecraft safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 3:36:54 a.m. EDT (12:36:54 p.m. PDT). Once their spacecraft was retrieved, the crew was flown to the Kennedy Space Center to see their families and undergo medical examinations before traveling to Houston to complete more of the mission’s studies.

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See a First-Person View of the First Private Spacewalk

Spacecraft footage of Jared Isaacman conducting the first commercial EVA in spaceflight history. Credit: SpaceX

On Tuesday, September 10th, at 5:23 a.m. EST (03:23 p.m. PST), the Polaris Dawn mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying a crew of four to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This mission is the first of three that comprise the Polaris Program, a private spaceflight program organized by entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman and financed by SpaceX. Since launching, the Resilience Crew Dragon spacecraft has flown higher than any crewed mission since the Apollo Era and passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt.

Earlier today, the crew carried out the first private spacewalk in the history of spaceflight!

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There Was a Strange Sound Coming From Starliner. It Was Caused by a Speaker in the Capsule

The Starliner spacecraft is pictured docked with the Harmony module at the International Space Station high above the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: NASA

As part of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), NASA contracted with commercial space partners to develop crew-capable spacecraft to restore domestic launch capability to U.S. soil. In addition to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, which was validated in 2020 and has been transporting crews to the International Space Station (ISS) ever since. Concurrently, Boeing developed the CT-100 Starliner, which has suffered a seemingly endless string of technical issues and delays. After undergoing a long checklist of fixes, the Starliner completed its first orbital flight test (OFT-1) in May 2022.

The Starliner then made its first crewed flight to the ISS on June 5th, 2024, carrying two astronauts – Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Unfortunately, malfunctions with the spacecraft’s RCS thrusters have forced it to remain in orbit until the necessary fixes were made. In addition to its thrusters, astronaut Butch Wilmore identified a strange pulsing sound coming from the Starliner crew capsule. That sound has since been identified as feedback from one of the capsule’s speakers, apparently due to an audio configuration between the ISS and Starliner.

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Watch an Inflatable Habitat Burst in Super Slo-Mo

Image of Sierra Space's full-scale Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) on the test stand at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. (Credit: Sierra Space)

Ae inflatable habitats the future of human space exploration? This is what the space-tech company, Sierra Space, hopes to achieve as they recently conducted a successful Ultimate Burst Pressure test on June 18 with its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) technology at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The goal of these tests is to inflate the test article until it explodes while ascertaining if the maximum pressure falls within NASA’s strict safety guidelines regarding a recommended operating pressure of 60.8 psi (maximum operating pressure of 15.2 psi times four as a safety factor). Upon explosion, Sierra Space engineers immediately found the recent test achieved 74 psi, thus exceeding NASA’s safety standards by 22 percent.

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NASA Doesn't Know When Starliner Will Return From Orbit

An aurora streams below Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked to the forward port on the Harmony module as the International Space Station soared 266 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia. Photo credit: NASA/Matt Dominick

After helium leaks and thruster problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, NASA has been pushing back the return date from the International Space Station. On Friday, the agency announced they no longer had a planned return date. Instead, they will keep testing the capsule, trying to understand its issues, and seeing if they can make any fixes. Plenty of supplies are on the station, so there’s no urgent need to bring the two astronauts back to Earth.

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SpaceX Shows Off Its New Extravehicular Activity Suit

SpaceX just revealed the EVA suits their Polaris commercial astronauts will use. Credit: SpaceX

In February 2022, SpaceX and entrepreneur/philanthropist Jared Isaacman (commander of the Inspiration4 mission) announced they were launching a new program to “rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities” while supporting important charitable and humanitarian causes here on Earth. It’s called the Polaris Program. In a recent press release, SpaceX revealed the spacesuits its Polaris astronauts will be wearing (up top) and described the research crews will conduct during the program’s three human spaceflight missions – the first of which is scheduled to launch this summer!

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Lunar Night Permanently Ends the Odysseus Mission

Image of Odysseus moon landing
This image shows one of the Odysseus lander's legs breaking due to the shock of first contact on the moon. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)

On February 15th, Intuitive Machines (IM) launched its first Nova-C class spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. On February 22nd, the spacecraft – codenamed Odysseus (or “Odie”) – became the first American-built vehicle to soft-land on the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. While the landing was a bit bumpy (Odysseus fell on its side), the IM-1 mission successfully demonstrated technologies and systems that will assist NASA in establishing a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development.”

After seven days of operation on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machines announced on February 29th that the mission had ended with the onset of lunar night. While the lander was not intended to remain operational during the lunar night, flight controllers at Houston set Odysseus into a configuration that would “call home” if it made it through the two weeks of darkness. As of March 23rd, the company announced that their flight controllers’ predictions were correct and that Odie would not be making any more calls home.

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Watch the Varda Capsule’s Entire Fiery Atmospheric Re-Entry

Screenshot from the Varda W-1 capsule's reentry to Earth.

Here’s a front row seat on what it would be like to return to Earth inside a space capsule. Varda Space Industries’ small W-1 spacecraft successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range on February 21, 2024.  A camera installed inside the cozy 90 cm- (3 ft)-wide capsule captured the entire stunning reentry sequence, from separation from the satellite bus in low Earth orbit (LEO) to the fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, to parachute deploy, to the bouncy landing.

At the end of this 5-minute video, you’ll see a pair legs with mud-caked shoes approach to gather the parachute and retrieve the capsule. Not only is there video, but sound as well. And the sounds of reentry and landing are what grabs you!  

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