Covering All Things Florida
President Donald Trump has called upon SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to expedite the return of NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams from the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts have been aboard the ISS since June 2024, following an extended mission due to technical issues with their original Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
Today is the 39th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. On January 28, 1986, astronauts: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, perished when the rocket they were aboard exploded. This event shook the nation and led to significant changes within NASA and the broader aerospace community.
Spaceflight aficionados, like many sports fans, love memorabilia. Space-related apparel, books, mission patches, stickers and other items sell at a brisk pace, and that’s just the bottom end of the market. The most valuable pieces are “flown” — meaning that they were either a part of or aboard a given mission. Many of those pieces are well out of reach for the common man – they are relatively rare and often quite expensive, at least for artifacts with certain authenticity. Others are affordable, at least to a dedicated collector, and can be bought for a few hundred dollars or less.
In the world of aerospace engineering, even the smallest miscalculation can lead to catastrophic failure. And in the past few years, a phrase has emerged as a humorous way to describe those unfortunate events: “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” often shortened to RUD. This technical-sounding euphemism, often deployed in the aftermath of rocket explosions, has become a staple in modern spaceflight jargon, is widely used when a rocket fails and has entered into common vernacular. But where did the phrase come from?
As expected, the FAA is requiring an investigation into Blue Origin’s New Glenn’s first stage failure during its descent towards an attempted landing in the Atlantic Ocean, and SpaceX’s Starship breakup over the Caribbean Seas. Both events occurred on January 16, 2025.
Space X’s Starship (L) and Blue Origin’s New Glenn (R) both had success full launches but faced challenges during Thursday’s flight tests. Images: Richard P Gallagher-FMN / Blue Origin
January 16th proved to be an emotional roller coaster for private space exploration. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX achieved notable successes tempered by huge challenges during their respective rocket launches from Florida and Texas.
Just after 2 AM on January 16, 2025, Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, successfully launched its first New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This inaugural flight marks Blue Origin’s entry into the heavy-lift launch vehicle market, positioning it as a competitor to established players like SpaceX and the SpaceX Starship.
NASA’s latest Commercial Lunar Payload Program (CLPS) mission, “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” developed by Firefly Aerospace (Cedar Park, TX), was successfully launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Centers’s Launch Complex 39A in the early morning hours of January 15, 2025. This spacecraft, named Blue Ghost, is the first of three planned Ghost Riders spacecraft destined for lunar landings.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 roared off the launch pad at 1:11 AM EST this morning from Kennedy Space Center carrying two lunar landers into orbit and on their way to the moon.
Cocoa, FL – January 14, 2025
Looking for something to see or do while in Florida this week? You’re in luck! This week is witnessing a flurry of space exploration activities at Cape Canaveral and KSC, with multiple launches and historic feats by private aerospace giants. The excitement began with SpaceX’s ongoing efforts to complete their Starlink constellation and will culminate in the much-anticipated launches of the Blue Ghost lunar lander, Blue Origin’s first New Glenn Heavy booster launch, and hopefully SpaceX’s Starship IFT-7.
SpaceX successfully launched the Starlink 12-4 mission from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida this morning. This mission adds 21 new Starlink satellites to the company’s ever growing internet constellation. 13 of those satellites launched to low earth orbit today have Direct to Cell capabilities.
Blue Origin’s inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket has been rescheduled to Monday, January 13, 2025, at 1:00 AM Eastern Time due to unfavorable sea conditions in the Atlantic Ocean. Waves at Stage 1’s landing site were expected to calm from 10-foot swells to more acceptable levels tomorrow.
