Former Astronaut and KSC Director Bob Cabana Joining IBX As Senior Advisor

Former Astronaut and KSC Director Bob Cabana Joining IBX As Senior Advisor

April 1, 2024Posted inAxiom Space, KSC, NASA, Space News
Astronaut Robert D. Cabana, mission commander on Shuttle Orbiter
Endeavour’s flight deck, logs a note regarding operations with Unity in 1998.
Photo: NASA

Robert D. “Bob” Cabana, a former NASA astronaut, NASA Associate Administrator (the agency’s third highest-ranking executive) and Director of Kennedy Space Center, has joined IBX, a firm that invests in and fosters innovation in space-related companies. Founded by engineer and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffirian, IBX supports companies Ghaffirian helped found: Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, Quantum Space and X-energy along with other ventures. Cabana will serve as a Senior Advisor with the company.

Playalinda beachgoers watch a Falcon 9 lift off from Pad 39A. Photo: Charles Boyer/FMN

SpaceX Completes Cape Doubleheader Saturday

March 31, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
SpaceX / Eutelsat 36 lifts off from LC-39A at KSC. This was the view from Playalinda Beach near Wilson’s Corner in Brevard County Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
SpaceX / Eutelsat 36 lifts off from LC-39A at KSC. This was the view from Playalinda Beach near Wilson’s Corner in Brevard County
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets to orbit Saturday: first, at 5:52 PM EDT Eutelsat 36D from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, then at 9:30 PM, Starlink 6-45 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — a three-hour, thirty-minute gap between launches. The mission marked the second of the company’s “doubleheader” launches this year.

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night’s Double Header Launch

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night’s Double Header Launch

March 29, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Space News, SpaceX
Spectators in the surf at Playalinda Beach watching a SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
Spectators in the surf at Playalinda Beach watching a SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

Opening Day in Major League Baseball was just a couple of days ago, so it’s fitting in a way that the Space Coast will get its own kind of double-header tomorrow: SpaceX is planning to launch Eutelsat 36D from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center between 5:52 PM and 8:00 PM EDT, and then between 9:00 PM and 10:31 PM EDT, another batch of Internet connectivity satellites with the Starlink 6-46 mission from their pad at SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“Scrubby” Rears His Ugly Head Again

“Scrubby” Rears His Ugly Head Again

March 28, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Delta IV Heavy

3/28/24 9:18 PM UPDATE: ULA WILL NOT LAUNCH DELTA IV HEAVY ON FRIDAY – NEW DATE TBD

Scrubby Graphic
ScrubbyLogo (c) FMN

UPDATE: ULA earlier reported that they had repaired a system that caused the company to scrub today’s launch. Upon further testing, ULA determined further repairs are needed. No launch date has yet been announced, but Monday is the next opportunity.

What started out as a dicey proposition about whether the final Delta IV Heavy launch would make it off the pad on Thursday ended with a disappointing scrub. But not for the reason most thought it would be.

Hut-Two-Three-Four:  SpaceX Joins the Armed Forces

March 26, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
USAF setting up a Starlink dish
Master Sgt. Caleb Frisbie from the 242nd Combat Communications Squadron, setting up the communication equipment for the Agile Battle Labs Communications Demonstration. The antenna he installed is a SpaceX Starlink dish, pictured above. Photo: US Air Force/ Todd Cromar

By now, almost everyone has heard of SpaceX’s Starlink. However, it is lesser known that SpaceX and their subsidiary, Starlink, now have two major government- and military-related contracts. Pilot testing began in 2020 and took a few years to complete. That product — Starshield — is now ready for deployment.

Starlink 6-42 Launches As Weather Finally Clears

March 24, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
Starlink 6-42 Launches into Florida Sky
Space X Falcon 9, partial timelapse photo over the Indian River. Space Coast residents may recognize “Scruffy The Tug Boat” — an accidental landmark on the Indian River on FL 528 West. It’s an accidental landmark that’s been aground in the same spot for years.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 booster carrying 23 more Starlink V2 Mini satellites to orbit Saturday night from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center after hours of weather delays. The launch finally came at 11:09 PM EDT, after two pushbacks on the planned L-0 time due to shifting weather on the Space Coast.

Soyuz MS-25 Launches Saturday Morning; On Its Way To ISS

Soyuz MS-25 Launches Saturday Morning; On Its Way To ISS

March 23, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, ISS, NASA, Space News
Soyuz MS-25 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 23. 2024.
Photo: NASA

The Russian Federation’s Roscosmos launched a Soyuz capsule on the MS-25 mission to the International Space Station Saturday morning. Three crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson successfully launched at 8:36 a.m. EDT Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.

Boeing Starliner Launch Now NET May 1st

Boeing Starliner Launch Now NET May 1st

March 22, 2024Posted inAtlas V, Aviation and Space News, ISS, NASA, Space News, United Launch Alliance

Boeing’s Crewed Flight Test of Starliner has pushed a little further to the right again and is now scheduled to launch no earlier than May 1st. That shift is not due to any concerns with the vehicle or its readiness, but instead, ISS scheduling, specifically docking port availability, when astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Willmore arrive at the orbiting outpost.

NASA’s SpaceX 30th Resupply Mission Heads For the International Space Station

March 22, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, ISS, Space News

CRS-30 Launches to the ISS
CRS-30 Launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Photo: Ed Cordero/FMN

NASA’s 30th commercial resupply mission was successfully launched Thursday, embarking on a journey to deliver a new round of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations to the International Space Station (ISS). This mission includes critical studies focusing on sea ice measurement technologies and plant growth in space, signaling a significant leap forward in our understanding of Earth and space environments.

Soyuz MS-25 Aborts At T-Minus 20 Seconds; Crew Safe

March 22, 2024Posted inISS, NASA, Space News
MS-25 sits on the pad in Russia
MS-25 sits on the pad Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Photo: Roscosmos

Yesterday’s planned launch of Soyuz M-25 to the International Space Station was aborted with twenty seconds left in the countdown. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus are fine, and were evacuated from the Soyuz capsule shortly afterwards.

Coffee and Bees: CRS-30 Cargo to ISS

March 20, 2024Posted inISS, Space News
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough poses aboard the International Space Station with all three Astrobee robotic free-flyers. Photo Credit: NASA/Shane Kimbrough
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough poses aboard the International Space Station with three Astrobee robotic free-flyers.
Photo Credit: NASA/Shane Kimbrough

Like many of us, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station  (ISS) crave their morning coffee.  Consequently, that’s one of the food treats, along with fresh citrus, apples, and cherry tomatoes that are aboard the SpaceX CRS-30 mission to the ISS scheduled for launch March 21 at 4:55 pm from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.