Author Archives: Astrobitica

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 members stand inside the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Nov. 13, 2024. From left are Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Commander NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, and Pilot NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. Image: NASA/Josh Valcarcel The makeup of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station was announced publicly Thursday evening and it includes three astronauts who were previously assigned to other missions. Leading the flight, scheduled for no earlier than July 2025, is NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. She will be joined by fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. These four will be on the space station when the ISS marks the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence on the orbiting outpost. Expedition 1 docked to the station on Nov. 2, 2000. Crew-11 will have a short handover with Crew-10, which arrived at the station earlier this month. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Zena Cardman checks out a grid fin on a Falcon 9 first-stage booster at SpaceX’s HangarX facility in Florida on May 13, 2024. Image: SpaceX Cardman was previously assigned to be the commander of the Crew-9 mission. The original lineup of Cardman along with NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov was announced back in January 2024. NASA’s decision on August 24, 2024, that the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test mission would conclude with the spacecraft returning uncrewed, led to Cardman and Wilson being removed from that mission and becoming eligible for reassignment down the road. So far, NASA has not announced if Wilson has been assigned to a new mission and if so, which one. Changes for Continue ReadingNASA switches Starliner crew to SpaceX Dragon as testing continues on troubled Boeing capsule→

The four astronauts of the Fram2 mission stand atop the crew access tower at Launch Complex 39A during a pad visit in mid-February. From left to right: Eric Philips, Chun Wang, Rabea Rogge, Jannicke Mikkelsen. Image: Fram2 Update March 30, 1:12 a.m. EDT: SpaceX completed a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket. Less than a month after the SpaceX Crew-10 mission blasted off to the International Space Station, another four-person crew is gearing to up launch from the same pad in Florida this time making history as the first astronauts to fly in a polar orbit. The mission is dubbed “Fram2” in reference to the Norwegian ship, Fram, which was used for Antarctic and Arctic expeditions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the same spirit, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, Resilience, will orbit the Earth over the poles during the course of a three- to five-day mission. Fram2 is targeting launch on Monday, March 31, at 9:47 p.m. EDT (0147 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Ahead of the mission, on Saturday, the crew conducted a dry dress rehearsal to go through the motions of launch day. That was followed by a static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket at LC-39A. Ignition of the nine Merlin engines at the base of the rocket happened at 12:47 a.m. EDT (0447 UTC). SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1085, which will be making its sixth trip to space and back. It will also mark the first time a crewed mission launches on a booster with five previous flights. Dragon Resilience will once again be outfitted with a cupola underneath the nose cone, as it did during the Inspiration4 mission in 2021. The capsule most recently flew on the Polaris Dawn mission Continue ReadingFram2 astronauts arrive in Florida ahead of polar spaceflight→

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-80 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update March 31, 4:40 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed the first stage booster on the droneship. A day after poor weather prevented a Sunday flight, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday afternoon with a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-80 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:52 p.m. EDT (1952 UTC) on Monday, March 31. SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1080, to launch the Starlink 6-80 mission. It will be making its 17th launch after supporting four missions to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid observatory and 10 previous Starlink flights. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 landed on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions’. This marked the 113th booster landing on this droneship and the 424th booster landing to date. File: A batch of what are likely Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites onboard a Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage prior to deployment during the Starlink 11-7 mission. Image: SpaceX via livestream On board the rocket are 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which represented the largest batch of this type of satellite to fly on one mission. The previous record was 27 satellites on the Starlink 11-8 and Starlink 11-7 missions. In its 2024 progress report, the company said the Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites include a Doppio Dualband antenna along with “upgraded avionics, propulsion, and power systems, and are mass optimized for Falcon 9 to allow up to 29 satellites to launch on each mission – six more satellites per launch than the original V2 Mini Continue ReadingSpaceX launches 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral→

The four astronauts of the Fram2 mission pose inside the suit up room near Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. From left to right: mission commander Chun Wang, vehicle pilot Rabea Rogge, vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips. Image: Fram2 Four people united by their fascination with the Earth’s polar regions are embarking on a spaceflight that will allow them to experience those remote areas like no human before. Chun Wang, a 42-year-old entrepreneur and adventurer, chartered a free-flier mission with SpaceX aboard the Dragon Resilience spacecraft. Following eight months of training, he along with Jannicke Mikkelsen, a 38-year-old cinematographer and director; Rabea Rogge, a 29-year-old, arctic robotics researcher; and Eric Philips, a 62-year-old polar explorer are undertaking a multi-day mission, dubbed “Fram2.” Wang said he took inspiration from previous spaceflights that named their spacecraft and missions after historic vessels. “On the evening of April 23, 2023, I was in Saudi Arabia, lying in my hotel bed, thinking about the perfect name for the world’s first spaceflight mission to orbit the poles,” Wang told Spaceflight Now in a prelaunch interview. “I recalled the British Mars lander, Beagle2. I had spent a lot of time following that mission, among others, during my college years. It was named after the Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world in the 1830s. That’s when it hit me. I could name my mission after a ship, too. “I thought of Fram, the ship aiming to [explore] both poles.” An artist’s rendering of the Crew Dragon Resilience orbiting over a polar region amid the aurora during the Fram2 mission. Graphic: SpaceX According to The Fram Museum, the polar ship was the first “specifically built in Norway for polar research.” It sailed on three key expeditions: it drifted with Continue ReadingMeet the Fram2 crew: A cryptocurrency entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a robotics engineer and an Arctic explorer→

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A to begin the Fram2 polar orbit mission. This was the 200th orbital launch from LC-39A. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now A historic mission took flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday night. Against the backdrop of an off-shore band of thunderstorms, four first-time astronauts soared off the pad at Launch Complex 39A onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and headed into a polar orbit. Malta resident Chun Wang funded the orbital polar expedition and flew alongside Norwegian cinematographer, Jannicke Mikkelsen; German arctic robotics researcher, Rabea Rogge; and Australian polar guide, Eric Philips. Liftoff of the mission, dubbed Fram2, happened at the opening of the launch window at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 UTC). Heading into the launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 60 percent chance for favorable weather at the opening of the window, predicting the thunderstorms that caused some consternation by those watching the launch at the LC-39A Press Site. On Friday, Kiko Dontchev, the vice president of Launch for SpaceX, said they were juggling a similar challenge to launch as they experienced with the Polaris Dawn flight last year. “This mission is a little more challenging than even a normal crew mission when it comes to launch availability,” Dontchev said during a teleconference about the mission on X. “Because this is a free flier and we are not going to the space station, we not only have to worry about weather at the launch site, weather on the ascent track, but we also have to go ahead and predict weather in the recovery zone.” The four astronauts of the Fram2 mission pose inside the suit up room near Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. From left to right: mission commander Chun Wang, vehicle pilot Rabea Rogge, vehicle Continue ReadingFram2 astronauts begin historic polar orbit spaceflight following a launch from the Kennedy Space Center→

A stack of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites drifts away from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage to conclude the Starlink 11-13 mission. Image: SpaceX Update April 3, 9:52 p.m. EDT: The Falcon 9 booster landed on the droneship. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket launch Thursday night after standing down on Tuesday due to weather. The mission, dubbed Starlink 11-13, delivered  27 more Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit and will be the 25th Starlink flight of the year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:02 p.m. PDT (9:02 p.m. EDT, 0102 UTC). The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1088 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a fifth time. It previously supported the launches of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH rideshare mission, NROL-57, NROL-126 and the Transporter-12 smallsat rideshare flight. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1088 will target a landing on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ which is positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this was the 123rd booster landing on OCISLY and the 426th booster landing to date.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) payload fairings encapsulate 27 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites ahead of their launch no earlier than April 9, 2025. Image: Amazon Amazon is less than a week away from the first launch to assemble its satellite internet constellation, called Project Kuiper. It plans to send 27 of its satellites into low Earth orbit on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket. Launch is scheduled for Wednesday, April 9, during a three-hour window that opens at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 UTC). “We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper, in a news release. “We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once. “No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years.” Amazon hasn’t released many details about the individual satellites. In a February interview with Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs, said that the upcoming launch for Amazon, dubbed Kuiper 1 by ULA and Kuiper Atlas 1 (KA-01) by Amazon, was the first of many planned for the year. “We have quite a few Kuiper Atlases planned this year, as well as Kuiper Vulcans,” Wentz said. “I do know that the Amazon guys are tracking the number of spacecraft they’re going to put up in total because they have different criteria Continue ReadingAmazon targets April 9 for launch of 1st production satellites for its Project Kuiper internet mega-constellation→

Isaacman, a billionaire and private astronaut, has flown in space twice on SpaceX rockets and spacecraft. Continue ReadingJared Isaacman, Trump’s pick for NASA chief, to get Senate confirmation hearing on April 9→

The first astronaut crew to fly directly over Earth’s poles splashed down safely on Friday after nearly four days on orbit. Civilian astronauts Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge, and Eric Phillips — the international crew of SpaceX’s private Fram2 mission — landed around 12:19 p.m. EDT and exited their SpaceX Dragon capsule without assistance, allowing researchers to study how theContinue reading “Fram2 astronauts splash down after historic polar spaceflight” The post Fram2 astronauts splash down after historic polar spaceflight appeared first on Astronomy Magazine. Continue ReadingFram2 astronauts splash down after historic polar spaceflight→

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured a giant dust devil devouring a smaller storm swirling closely behind on the rim of Jezero Crater. Continue ReadingNASA’s Perseverance rover watches as 2 Mars dust devils merge into 1 (video)→

After putting on a great show in our evening sky since the fall of 2024, dazzling Venus puts on a spectacular showing for early morning risers for the balance of 2025. Continue ReadingHow to see Venus light the sky as the bright ‘morning star’ through fall 2025→

The HoverAir X1 PRO is one of two new ZeroZero Robotics selfie drone models and is the more affordable option of the two with 4K video capture with a host of optional accessories available. Continue ReadingHoverAir X1 PRO drone review→

Scientists are probing stellar “quakes” to understand what lies beneath the surface of a star’s body. Continue ReadingScientists are using stellar ‘quakes’ to peer inside stars→

This fantastic Lego set makes an amazing center feature to any Lego Marvel collection and it’s rarely discounted, so grab it while you can. Continue ReadingThe Lego Marvel Spider-Man Daily Bugle set is one of the largest Lego sets in the Lego Marvel range — now at one of the lowest prices we’ve seen in years→

SpaceX’s Fram2, the first crewed mission ever fly a polar orbit, splashed down today (April 4), returning four private astronauts to Earth. Continue ReadingSpaceX’s private Fram2 astronauts splash down on Earth, ending historic polar orbit expedition→

NASA photographer Josh Valcarcel captured Zena Cardman in a pose evocative of one of the first female astronaut’s portraits. Continue ReadingAstronaut’s new NASA portrait is a blast from the past: Space photo of the day→

“OK, this is kind of out there and caters to your inner Uber-Geek.” Continue ReadingRare colorful lightning caught on camera by ISS astronaut. ‘OK, this is kind of out there’→