Spaceflight News: Starship, Starsailor, Crew 10, and More - August 2024

Recent Launches and Starlink Deployments

• 🚀 Starlink launches saw activity from Launch Complex 39A, Slick 40, and Vandenberg, with booster 1085 achieving its 10th launch in its first year.
• 🛰️ Other notable launches included a Gilong 3 carrying satellites for Gily Space, a Falcon 9 for Amazon's Kyper network, and a Long March 5B with Goang satellites.
• 🇪🇺 Europe's meteorological operational satellite, Sentinel A5, launched on an Aran 6, carrying the Sentinel 5A payload for tropospheric chemistry monitoring.
• 🇺🇸 The Vulcan Centaur had its first operational mission, launching the NTS3 navigational technology demonstrator and a secret USA 554 payload for the US Space Force.
• 💥 A Juuch 2e launch carrying four Jing Wang satellites experienced a launch failure, with a large cloud of gas observed shortly after liftoff.
• 🛰️ Multiple satellites were launched by various rockets including a Long March 4C, Kinetic 1, and Angara 1.2, with some missions being secret or for reconnaissance purposes.
• 🚀 Falcon 9 launched the X37B on its eighth flight (USA 36 mission) carrying experiments and an orbital laser communication system, alongside a secondary payload, LIMat.
• 📦 A Cargo Dragon CRS 33 mission to the ISS included five CubeSats and a new boost trunk with an extra propulsion system for ISS reboosts and potential de-orbiting.
• 🛰️ Luxembourg's National Advanced Optical System (NAOS) satellite was launched on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission, alongside satellites from Capella, Planet Labs, and others.

Starship and Suborbital Achievements

• 🌟 Starship flight number 10 demonstrated significant advancements, including a successful entry, descent, and pinpoint ocean landing, with an engine relight in orbit.
• 🚀 The Starsailor rocket, a 13m tall liquid-fueled vehicle built by a student team, experienced a structural failure at max Q during its flight, though it was considered a significant achievement for student rocketry.

Space Program Updates and Politics

• 🧑‍🚀 SpaceX Crew 10 successfully returned to Earth, landing off the coast of San Diego.
• 📜 The White House issued an executive order to expedite environmental reviews for launch and entry licenses and streamline regulations for commercial space activities.
• 🛰️ Space Force will absorb all space missions run by the Air National Guard, with no creation of a Space National Guard.
• 🛰️ NASA is investigating reboosting the Swift satellite to extend its operational life, exploring cost-effective solutions for preserving aging but scientifically valuable spacecraft.
• 🌕 China performed a static fire of the core booster for the Long March 10, a crucial step towards their goal of putting humans on the moon by 2030.
• 📡 Blue Origin proposed a concept for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter using their Blue Ring platform to provide continuous high-speed communication between Earth and Mars.
• 🇯🇵 Firefly Aerospace is studying the feasibility of launching its Alpha rocket from Japan, potentially by 2026.
• 💥 Firefly's investigation into a previous launch failure concluded that a plume-induced flow separation weakened the booster, leading to structural failure.

Astronomical Discoveries

• 🔭 The James Webb Space Telescope confirmed a new, tiny moon orbiting Uranus, bringing the total count to 29.
• 📚 Andy Saunders released his Gemini and Mercury remastered book, featuring restored classic space photography.