Boeing Starliner sits atop an Atlas/Centaur booster at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-41 on May 6th. Photo: Charles Boyer/FMN
The target launch date for Boeing’s oft-delayed CFT-100 Starliner capsule has been shifted again. The Crewed Flight Test of the vehicle is now targeted for May 21 at 4:14 PM EDT.
A typical data center on Earth. Photo: Leonardo Rizzi, Creative Commons
In the modern world, data centers are everywhere. They house the IT infrastructure for building, running, and delivering applications and services over the Internet and also through private networks such as the ones that corporations have for their employees. This website — and almost every other website in existence — resides in a data center somewhere, where it is maintained and monitored by the folks that Florida Media Now has engaged to provide that service. “The cloud” is another term we use for data centers — your email, photo backups, and so forth are all in a data center too. And now, data centers are starting to move to orbit.
Jason Aspiotis, Director of In-Space Infrastructure & Logistics, Axiom Space. Photo: Spacecom Expo 2024
Jason Aspiotis, Axiom Space’s Director of In-Space Infrastructure & Logistics, says this only makes sense as the space economy grows. “Earth’s orbital economy is evolving with the proliferation of thousands of commercial, U.S. government, and allied satellites addressing needs in Earth observation, next generation communications, positioning, and navigation, space domain awareness, and security.”
SpaceX Starship lifting off on the IFT-2 test from Boca Chica Texas. Photo: Chris Leymarie, Florida Media Now
The Federal Aviation Administration, NASA and other parties have published a notice of intent to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for SpaceX Starship launches from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, where it anticipates up to forty-four launches and landing at the facility.
This Story Was Updated at 4:38 PM On 5/9/24 to include a response from NASA.
Boeing’s Starliner sits atop a ULA Atlas V booster hours before a scrubbed launch attempt on Monday, May 6, 2024. Photo: Mark Stone/FMN
“As a valued NASA partner and as valve experts, we strongly urge them not to attempt a second launch due to the risk of a disaster occurring on the launchpad”.
Valvetech President Erin Faville – Wednesday March 8th.
Atlas V and Starliner sits on Launch Complex 41 Monday night. Photo: United Launch Alliance
UPDATE: Several sources are now reporting that Starliner will have to be rolled back from the pad with a new launch date NET May 17th.
Cape Canaveral It was all going well until it wasn’t. That’s often the story with launch attempts: tens of thousands of things must work perfectly, perform as planned, and operate normally, and only one thing has to go wrong for the attempt to be called off.
The Crew Access Arm enables the astronauts to board the spacecraft. Photo by United Launch Alliance
NASA’s Commercial Crew program will take a big step forward on Monday, May 6th with the launch of the Boeing Starliner Calypso’s Crewed Flight Test (CFT-100). Scheduled for a 10:34 PM EDT liftoff, Starliner Calypso will carry its first-ever crew to the ISS on an important test flight. (The spacecraft was named in honor of the research vessel Calypso, used by famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau from 1950-1996.)
Another 23 Starlink satellites are set to be sent to orbit aboard a Falcon 9 this evening from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch window opens at 09:49 PM EDT and extends until 01:17 AM EDT Friday.
If tonight’s planned liftoff does not happen, according to SpaceX, “If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Friday, May 3, starting at 9:03 p.m. ET.”
A Delta IV Heavy launches from United Launch Alliance’s facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Photo: Mark Stone/FMN
Spring Hill, FL – As the commercial space industry in Florida continues its unprecedented growth, a sleepy Nature Coast county is not just watching the rockets soar; it’s preparing to leverage that growth.
Unoccupied AxEMU lunar EVA suit underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas. Date unknown. Photo: Axiom Space on X.com
Houston, Texas One of the critical tasks for the upcoming Artemis missions is completing new spacesuits for astronauts to wear while on the lunar surface. The suits are critical, as they must protect astronauts from severe temperatures, the moon’s lack of a meaningful atmosphere, and sharp, jagged lunar regolith. In September 2022, NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228.5 million contract to develop the next-generation spacesuit for the Artemis III mission to the moon.
A spent second stage as imaged by Astroscale Japan’s Adras-J spacecraft in April 2024. Photo: Astroscale Japan
In his classic book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” writer Douglas Adams once said that “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test launched last year. A crewed flight test is scheduled for May 6, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
NASA’s Commercial Crew directorate has announced the results of the Readiness Review for the planned launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner flight test: they are “go” for launch at 10:34 PM EDT on May 6.
Timing Suggests Possibility of Jellyfish Phenomenon
Model of Galileo Communications Satellite Photo: Wikipedia
SpaceX is set to launch a pair of long-delayed navigation satellites tomorrow night (April 27) at 8:34PM from Pad 39A at KSC.
The satellites, FM25 and FM27, are being launched aboard a Falcon 9 booster as part of Europe’s MEO Galileo constellation. They will join 26 other satellites that began launching in 2011 to form part of a high-precision navigation system for the European Union.
