Rocket Lab is launching an Electron rocket on a sub-orbital trajectory from NASA Wallops on the Virginia Coast tonight; the 5 hour launch window opens at 8:00 PM EDT. The ‘Bubbles’ mission looks to be a government (classified) payload, meaning there won’t be an official live webcast of the launch.
A video posted by a user on X showing a reentry was reportedly taken in the Maldives at 0355-0400 UTC Apr 20. It's possible it shows the SpaceMobile
BlueBird 7 reentry, although the SpaceForce TLE says this time was 25 min too early to be BB7, so I don't regard it as confirmed.
DEORBIT - Space Force just issued a decay notice for BlueBird 7, saying it reentered on Apr 20 (with no further details)
The First WORLD FENCING LEAGUE is happening April 25th!!! I'M GEEKING!!!
Japanese engineers developed this "Sword Tip Visualisation" tracking technology specifically for this event that will make it so much easier for the average person to see what's going on!
I MUST WATCH THIS ENTIRE TOURNAMENT
A US Navy Diver photo of the Artemis II Heat Shield underwater showing a near perfectly even wear pattern across the spacecraft.
After much debate from certain people over whether or not the people working on Artemis II knew what they were doing when they said they understood why the heat shield on Artemis I wore unevenly, I think it's safe to say that the scientists and engineers got this one right.
I posted about spacecraft knots in 2012! Well, I edited a post by knot tyer David Fred:
www.planetary.org/articles/201...
The year is 2085. The A-10 Warthog pleads for sweet release. Congress appropriates 800 bitcoin to extend the plane for strafing missions on Mars.
1/200 of a second after 60 foot diameter balloon burst at 100,000 feet.
Hypersonic glider 2026
Well this is REALLY WEIRD. Space Force just issued another BB7 orbit with an epoch of 1235 UTC yesterday and a nominal orbit of 455 x 462 km x 49.5 deg. I suspect this orbit is BOGUS and is a `search orbit' not based on real measurements that slipped through by accident
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨 Blue Origin confirms engine issue during second New Glenn second stage burn
Every Sunday my paying Patreon Patrons get access to the Sunday Space Brochure, a scan of a NASA, other space agency, or contractor public info brochure from my collection, which spans nearly 70 years.
This one, from 1991, looks at Europe's proposed Hermes space shuttle.
www.patreon.com/u168347
A more hard nosed assessment of Artemis 2.
jatan.space/moon-monday-...
And I have to say, I think he's right. The science achieved was tiny.
The New Glenn second stage hasn't been cataloged yet , wondering where it is (possible what they are tracking is stage 2 and not the payload!)
A second orbit dataset from SpaceForce for the BlueBird-7 sat shows it in a 265 x 485 km x 43.0 deg orbit, indicating that the upper stage delivered about 1000 m/s, mostly changing orbital inclination. This is about half the dV that would have been needed for the target orbit
🥳
Here we go: Sentinel-1D is available operationally and data have started to accumulate over the weekend.
Easiest way to access them is via Copernicus Browser, where a filter for Sentinel-1D has been added last Friday.
#EarthObservation #Copernicus #Sentinel1
browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu
Absolutely incredible.
NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone.
Watch with sound on.
ASTS confirms unrecoverable failure but without any specific orbital parameters www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
AST confirme la perte de son satellite après son lancement sur New Glenn. L’orbite est trop basse, il n’est pas capable de la hausser lui-même.
La transparence de Blue Origin a bien laissé à désirer dans cette affaire, ne serait-ce qu’avec ce direct qui ne continue pas jusqu’au déploiement.
AST SpaceMobile, the customer for today's Blue Origin New Glenn launch that placed the payload in an "off-nominal" orbit, says the satellite "is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited."
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
At ~6100 kg its reentry would be interesting. Per FCC filings for FM1 "The majority of FM1 including its components and the phased array will burn up on re-entry." Let's see.
apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.h....
The next TLE set for this object, hopefully later today, will be definitive (absent any clarifying statement from Blue or ASTS). At this point we can still hold out some hope for a new orbit set at a later epoch time with a higher orbit. To be clear, I am not optimistic. But it's prudent to wait.
The BlueOrigin/AST_SpaceMobile
launch has been tracked by Space Force as catalog 68765, 2026-85A, in a 154 x 494 km x 36.1 deg orbit. Epoch is 1138 UTC which is the time of SECO-1, so this may not be the final orbit. (If it is, then they are indeed toast).
"In 2023, China launched the world’s first GEO SAR satellite: Ludi Tance 4-01...The Ludi Tance 4-01 showed a monitoring and positioning margin of error of only 3km when tracking the Towa Maru." www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
Third New Glenn launch suffers upper stage malfunction
Blue Origin’s New Glenn suffered a malfunction of its second stage on the rocket’s third flight April 19, stranding its payload in an “off-nominal” orbit.
With all of the reuse of hardware and dramatic booster landings (and I'll throw the other guys in there for good measure), they mean squat-diddley if you don't deliver the payload in the right orbit for the client. The recovery of the booster, while a milestone, is gravy. x.com/blueorigin/s...
The first re-flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn included another successful booster recovery. However, we never got any updates after the second stage reached orbit, until we were informed the payload was deployed into an off nominal orbit. AST Space Mobile's satellite may be lost.
New Glenn Flight Three, launching BlueBird Block 2 FM2 Mission. This is the first reuse of a flown New Glenn booster.
2/2
New Glenn Flight Three, launching BlueBird Block 2 FM2 Mission. This is the first reuse of a flown New Glenn booster.
1/2
Really good to see GS1-7E02 back on Jacklyn again. Blue Origin needed this. With GS1-7E03 almost ready for its debut on NG-4, having 2 boosters in the fleet will hopefully allow Blue Origin to get a consistent cadence going where they can alternate between their boosters.
