Verge Science is here to bring you the most up-to-date space news and analysis, whether it’s about the latest findings from NASA or comprehensive coverage of the next SpaceX rocket launch to the International Space Station. We’ll take you inside the discoveries of new exoplanets, space weather, space policy, and the booming commercial space industry.
SpaceX has launched over 7,000 low earth satellites that have disrupted astronomical observations. Another 70,000 LEO satellites are expected to launch before 2031 from SpaceX and its competitors including three 10,000 mega-constellations originating from China. Scientific American explores how astronomers are dealing with the challenge and planning for the future.
Drone footage provided by Isar Aerospace (a startup incubated as part of the Bavaria One space program) shows the first test flight of its Spectrum orbital vehicle in Norway. The flight termination system was triggered before it attempted a first-stage separation, and the rocket fell into the sea, though Isar called it a success and said it has more vehicles in production.
Andoya Spaceport general manager Ingun Berget told TV 2 the flight was aborted because the rocket wasn’t going where it was supposed to go.
On April 14th, the pop star will join Jeff Bezos’ fiancé Lauren Sanchez and CBS host Gayle King aboard the New Shepard rocket as part of Blue Origin’s first all-female flight. The rocket will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with a launch window opening at 9:30AM ET.
The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity could lead to more accidents in space missions, experts say.
Right on schedule, the Dragon capsule deployed its parachutes and landed off the coast of Florida as recovery crews began the process of bringing the capsule onboard a recovery ship and extracting its crew.
The Dragon spacecraft is fewer than 20 minutes out from splashdown in Florida. As noted on NASA’s livestream, it has completed the deorbit burn that lasted about seven and a half minutes at 5:18PM ET, and is entering a period of communications blackout as they reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
Its drogue parachutes will deploy four minutes before splashdown, beginning the process of slowing it down from 350 miles per hour before its targeted landing at about 5:57PM ET.
Last night, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, along with Crew-9 members Aleksandr Gorbunov and Nick Hague, left the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft now that the Crew-10 mission has arrived to relieve them. NASA will resume coverage of their return mission this afternoon, as they are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida at about 5:57PM ET, ending a voyage that started last June.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will soon return to Earth — following an unexpectedly long stay in space due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner craft — after the Crew-10 mission’s SpaceX Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station early this morning.
Here, in a video shared by NASA, the newcomers are greeted by the ISS crew. NASA said Friday that Wilmore, Williams, and two others “will return to Earth no earlier than Wednesday, March 19.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on schedule in its second attempt Friday night, sending the Crew-10 mission on its way to the International Space Station.
Commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, pilot, along with mission specialists Takuya Onishi and Kirill Peskov are back in the Dragon spacecraft, ahead of the mission’s launch, which is scheduled for 7:03PM ET.
According to NASA, once the craft takes off, it will be about 28.5 hours before it meets up with the ISS.
Now that SpaceX ground teams have “successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air” in the ground support hydraulics system used for the clamp arm supporting the Falcon 9 rocket, there will be another attempt to launch the Crew-10 mission to the ISS tonight, after the first one on Wednesday was scrubbed.
It’s scheduled for 7:03PM ET on Friday, March 14th, and once it reaches the space station, that will mean it’s time for Crew-9 and the stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts to make their way back to Earth, which could happen as soon as March 19th.
With less than an hour to go on the countdown, NASA announced tonight’s launch attempt to send a capsule to the ISS on a Falcon 9 rocket is off. There is a backup lunch opportunity already scheduled for tomorrow night, on March 13th at 7:26PM ET, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The agency is axing the Office of the Chief Scientist and the the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.
NASA contributes significantly to research on climate, weather, air quality, and the environment. Joe Biden appointed chief scientist Katherine Calvin, who was recently stopped from joining a meeting of the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Science reports.
SpaceX recently listed some explanations for how its seventh Starship flight test ended, and now another report is coming. Flight 8’s launch and Super Heavy booster rocket separation was successful, with the booster returning to the pad.
However, before reaching the engine cutoff point nearly nine minutes into the flight, the Starship began to tumble, then exploded (according to SpaceX, “...experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost”) without attempting its planned payload deploy demo.
The resulting debris field caused the FAA to issue a ground stop order at several Florida airports until 8PM ET.
Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël has said that Ariane 6 is key to “giving Europe an autonomous access to space,” despite delays that pushed its debut from 2020 all the way to 2024.
Now it’s made a second successful launch, with the VA 263 mission carrying CSO-3, an optical spy satellite for the French military.
The footage is so crisp that it almost looks like CGI. Check out the incredible shot of the Firefly Aerospace lander’s shadow coming back into focus after the Moon dust settles.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick plans to make an internet infrastructure investment program “technology-neutral,” according to The Wall Street Journal, meaning Elon Musk’s Starlink could more easily benefit. The program currently favors investment in fiber.
SpaceX called off Starship’s eighth flight test yesterday after the countdown timer was put on hold at T-minus 40 seconds to resolve issues with the Super Heavy booster. The new launch will happen as soon as Wednesday, March 5th.
Reuters has a good summary of what’s going on. The Department of Justice initially sued SpaceX in 2023 over alleged hiring discrimination.
[reuters.com]
