Every post, I will bring you news in the aerospace industry and talk about what NASA and the private companies are up to. Today I will introduce the companies that I consider the “Big Three” in space exploration. SpaceX is a private company founded in 2002 by billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Musk has said that the goal of SpaceX is to eventually get a city of about 1 million people on the planet Mars. Blue Origin was founded by billionaire and Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s vision is “millions of people living and working for the benefit of Earth” Virgin Galactic, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is a private space company having the goal of “connecting people across the globe to the love, wonder, and awe created by space travel.

May 19, 2024 to May 25, 2024

• SpaceX’s 4th integrated flight of the Starship is now delayed to June.

•      Blue Origin launches its NS-25 mission on Sunday May 19.

•       Boeing Starliner is set to launch on Saturday May 25.

•       Quite a few planets are set to line up in the sky before dawn on June 4.

•      NASA’s Artemis 3 mission is now set to launch in September of 2026.

June 9, 2024 to June 15, 2024

• SpaceX’s Starship has a successful launch and splashdown of the Super heavy booster and Starship 29.

• Boeing finally launches their Starliner spacecraft.

• James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) opens up a new window on supernova science.

July 14, 2024 to July 20, 2024

•     SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy Booster successfully launched and landed back on Earth during the 4th test flight.

•    SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded due to an issue with the second stage after 300+ flights.

•    The Hubble Space Telescope finds and studies a potential galactic merger.

•   NASA cancels its VIPER Moon Rover project due to budget concerns.

•     The James Webb Space Telescope finds a distant world and studies its sunrises and sunsets.

•    Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane has its first launch now targeted for 2025.

•      SpaceX is targeting no earlier than August 2024 for the 5th test flight of Starship/Super Heavy.

•       The United States Space Force is launching its USSF-51 mission aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V 551 rocket no earlier than July 30, 2024.

•    Blue Origin is targeting September 29, 2024 for its first launch of its New Glenn rocket. The rocket will also carry NASA’s EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.

•       NASA is targeting May 2027 to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

August 8, 2024 to August 10, 2024

• This blog post will be about my very recent visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. I will also talk about upcoming rocket launches this week and what you can see in the night sky this week.

• I recently visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It was cool to see. I saw the museum and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility. The museum is called the Von Karman Visitor Center. It has an exhibit on the planets of the Solar System and the spacecraft that have visited them. There is also an auditorium where you see a short film presentation called “Journey to the Planets and Beyond.” The short film talks about the accomplishments of JPL and their goals. The Spacecraft Assembly Facility is where rovers and satellites are put together and made ready for their missions. The most recent mission that came through NASA JPL’s Spacecraft Assembly Facility was the Perseverance Rover for the Mars 2020 mission.

Upcoming Launches

•         SpaceX Starlink satellite Group 8-3 mission happens on 8/7/2024.

•         SpaceX Starlink satellite Group 10-7 mission happens on 8/10/2024.

•         SpaceX Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) happens on 8/11/2024.

•         SpaceX Transporter mission happens no earlier than 8/15/2024.

•         SpaceX Crew-9 mission happens on 8/18/2024.

•         SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission happens no earlier than August 2024.

•         SpaceX Starship Flight 5 happens no earlier than August 2024.

What you can see in the night sky this week  and upcoming events in the night sky

•       The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on 8/12/2024. It is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

•       On the night of Monday, August 5, you can see a crescent moon and Mercury, while Venus is a bright evening star.

•       In the early morning hours of Tuesday, August 6, the asteroid 16 Psyche reaches its opposition point at 2 AM EDT. (1 AM CDT, 12 AM MDT, and 11 PM PDT.) The target of a NASA mission of the same name launched back in 2023 and is set to reach the asteroid in mid-2029.

•       Jupiter’s moon Ganymede will transit Jupiter’s south pole moving east to west in the early morning hours of Friday, August 9.

•       Jupiter’s moon Callisto is also making a move around Jupiter at the same time Ganymede passes Jupiter’s south pole. It will start to slide beneath Jupiter moving from east to west. Jupiter’s moon Callisto will miss Jupiter’s south pole entirely.

September 15, 2024 to September 21, 2024

There has been a re-emergence of UFO sightings I will talk about this topic for my blog post this week. I will also include a schedule of rocket launches for the week and what you can see in the night sky this week also.

UFOs and Aliens: I think that it is crazy that there has been a recent reemergence in the number of UFO sightings and people claiming that they have seen a flying saucer or two in the sky. In fact, Space.com has written an article about this and why it could be spiraling out of control. According to Space.com, at least 24% of Americans have claimed that they saw a UFO. Those same people have also believed that aliens have also visited Earth. But the thing is, we have absolutely zero evidence that aliens from other planets even exist. However scientists at NASA and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute) are trying hard to answer the question, “Are we alone in the universe?” In fact, NASA has confirmed that more than 5,600 exoplanets exist out of billons of exoplanets that are out there. This probably is a valid claim to have seen aliens, considering that NASA is trying to figure out if there is life on these exoplanets. They are also trying to figure out if there is other life on worlds within our own solar system, like Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus. Again, scientists have discovered a whole ocean under Mars’s surface, so maybe there is probably other life in that ocean, we just have not found it yet. The belief in UFOs might be crazy, but the concept stands true because it is all about trying to find life on other worlds besides Earth, whether that is in our solar system or outside of it.

Link to Space.com article: Belief in alien visits to Earth is spiraling out of control – here's why that's so dangerous | Space

Launch Schedule for this week:

• Galileo FOC FM26 & FM32 Mission

Location: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9

Date: Mon Sep 16, 2024

• Kinéis Killed The RadIoT Star Mission

Location: Launch Complex 1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand

Rocket: Electron/Curie

Date: Mon Sep 16, 2024

• Starlink Group 9-17 Mission

Location: Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenburg Space Force Base

Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9

Date: Wed Sep 18, 2024

What to see in the sky this week:

       September 17, 2024:

• An occultation between Earth’s moon and Saturn, this is where Saturn gets behind the Moon. This is visible in the western U.S. Australia, western Canada, and northwestern Mexico. It will be visible from 3:08 AM to 7:07 AM local time.

• There will be a conjunction between Earth’s moon and Saturn. This will be visible from Sep 16 at 7:32 PM local time to Sep 17 at 6:32 AM local time. The exact time this will happen is 5:14 AM local time.

• A partial lunar eclipse will occur. It is visible in Europe, most of Aisa, Africa, North and South America, the Arctic, and Antarctica. The eclipse begins at 7:41 PM local time and ends at 11:47 PM local time. The max eclipse will be at 10:44 PM EDT. (9:44 PM CDT, 8:44 PM MDT, and 7:44 PM PDT.) The moon will be in 3.5% percent shadow. During a lunar eclipse the Earth’s shadow makes the moon turn red instead of disappearing like the sun. A lunar eclipse happens when the moon is at its full moon phase.

• The Moon at its full moon phase.

• There is a conjunction between Venus and the Spica star. A conjunction is when two astronomical objects have either the same right ascension or the same ecliptic longitude, usually as observed from Earth. Basically, a conjunction is when two objects in space look like they are close to each other, but they are not. This is an apparent phenomenon caused by the observer’s perspective. You can see this from 7:30 PM local time to 8:35 PM local time. The exact time this will happen is at 9:59 PM local time.

September 18, 2024:

• There is an occultation between Neptune and the Moon. This is where Neptune goes behind the Moon. An occultation is where one object in space is hidden by another object in space that passes between it and the observer. This is visible from 12:15 AM local time to 3:53 AM local time.

• The Moon is at its perigee. Perigee is the point in the Moon’s orbit when it is nearest to the Earth. It is visible from Sep 17 at 7:30 PM local time to Sep 18 at 7:14 AM local time. The exact time for this is Sep 18 at 8:26 AM local time.

        September 20, 2024:

• There is an opposition for Neptune. A planet (or asteroid or comet) is said to be in opposition when it is located on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. This is visible from Sep 20 at 7:26 PM local time to Sep 21 at 7:16 AM local time. The exact time of this is Sep 20 at 5:43 PM local time.

Meteor Showers visible this week:

• Daytime Sextantids

• Perseids

• Southern Taurids

• Daytime Leonids

October 20, 2024- October 26, 2024

On June 5, 2024, two astronauts, Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams launched to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that sat atop United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The two astronauts were able to make it to the ISS, but are now scheduled to return to Earth in February 2025 due to issues with the Starliner spacecraft. In fact, Boeing has always had problems with it even before its launch. The two astronauts are now “stranded” in space and are supposed fly back on a SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft. Due to issues, NASA has had the Boeing Starliner spacecraft return to Earth without the astronauts.

Other News: Unlike Boeing, SpaceX successfully launched its 5th test flight of Starship on October 13, 2024 and successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster back at the launch tower at its test facility in South Texas.

NASA also successfully launched its Europa Clipper mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024. The purpose of the mission will be to see if Jupiter’s moon Europa might be able to support life under its surface.

What to see in the sky this week:

• October 21: The Orionids Meteor Shower peaks, There is an occultation between the Moon and the star Elnath, and there is a conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter.

• October 22: Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) will make its closest approach to Earth.

• October 23: There is a conjunction between the Moon and Mars and there is a conjunction between the Moon and the star Pollux.

• October 24: The Leonis Minorids Meteor Shower peaks, The Moon is at its last quarter phase, There is a conjunction between the Moon and the Beehive Cluster of stars, and there is a solar conjunction between the Sun, Earth, and the dwarf planet, Haumea.

• October 25: There is a conjunction between Venus and the star Antares.

• October 26: There is a conjunction between the Moon and the star Regulus.

November 3, 2024- November 9, 2024

This blog post will be about all about the rockets and spaceships that NASA and private companies have built and operated in the modern space age. From the SpaceX Starship to NASA’s Space Launch System, this is your encyclopedia for these spaceships and rockets. You can also read about what you are able to see in the sky this week.

Starship-

Manufacturer: SpaceX

Flights flown/Missions Flown: 5

Location where it was developed: SpaceX Starbase Texas

Mission: To transport people to Mars.

Space Launch System-

Manufacturer: NASA

Flights flown/ Missions flown: 1 (Artemis 1 mission)

Location where it was developed: Assembled at Kennedy Space Center

Mission: Transport astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis Program.

Dream Chaser-

Manufacturer: Sierra Space

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: Currently has not flown. Has multiple missions planned out.

Location where it was developed: Louisville, Colorado

Mission: To deliver supplies to the International Space Station

Vulcan Centaur-

Manufacturer: United Launch Alliance

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: 2

Location where it was developed: Decatur, Alabama

Mission: To ensure an affordable and reliable launch service

Virgin Galactic Delta Class Spaceships-

Manufacturer: Virgin Galactic

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: Currently zero. First flight is set for 2026.

Location where it was developed: Mesa, Arizona

Mission: To take space tourists to Earth orbit.

Alpha-

Manufacturer: Firefly Aerospace

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: 5

Location where it was developed: Firefly Texas Rocket Ranch

Mission: The rocket is intended to provide launch options for rideshare and full vehicle customers.

New Glenn-

Manufacturer: Blue Origin

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: Currently none. First flight is expected to happen this month.

Location where it was developed: Cape Canaveral, Florida

Mission: To place crewed and uncrewed payloads into Earth orbit and beyond.

Neutron-

Manufacturer: Rocket Lab

Flights Flown/Missions Flown: Currently none. First flight is expected for 2025.

Location where it was developed: Wallops Island, Virginia

Mission: To reduce cost and increase launch frequency.

What to see in the sky this week:

November 3-

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Mercury

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and the star Antares

• There is an occultation between the Moon and the star Antares

November 4-

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Venus

November 5-

• The Southern Taurids Meteor Shower peaks

November 8-

• The Moon is at its First Quarter phase

November 9-

• There is a conjunction between the star Antares and Mercury

November 17, 2024- November 23, 2024

This week’s post will be an encyclopedia/guide to all the space telescopes that NASA uses in the current day to learn more about space and the universe. This blog post will also feature what is in sky this week.

James Webb Space Telescope-

Launch Date: December 25, 2021

Status: Active

Mission Goal: To reveal more about the origins of the cosmos.

Hubble Space Telescope-

Launch Date: April 24, 1990

Status: Active

Mission Goal: To help scientists understand the history of the universe.

Chandra X-ray Observatory-

Launch Date: July 23, 1999

Status: The Chandra spacecraft is unfortunately facing budget cuts and the possibility of mission closeout after 25 years. However, Chandra funding so far is expected to last until September 2025.

Mission Goal: To help scientists learn more about the hot and turbulent regions of outer space.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Spacecraft-

Launch Date: April 18, 2018

Status: Active

Mission Goal: To discover exoplanets.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope-

Launch Date: May 2027

Status: Due to the Roman Space Telescope being a new telescope and it has not been launched yet, the status for this spacecraft is inactive.

Mission Goal: To survey the infrared universe.

What to see in the sky this week-

November 17, 2024:

• The Leonids Meteor Shower peaks

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter

• There is an Occultation between the Moon and the star Elnath.

November 19, 2024:

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and the star Pollux.

November 20, 2024:

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Mars.

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and the Beehive Cluster.

• The Sun, Earth, and Mercury are at dichotomy.

November 21, 2024:

• The a-Monocerotids Meteor Shower peaks.

November 22, 2024:

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and the star Regulus.

• The Moon is at its Last Quarter phase.

December 8, 2024- December 14, 2024

This blog post will be about the latest news with NASA’s Artemis program, what you can see in the sky this week, and this week’s rocket launch schedule.

Latest news: NASA delays Artemis II and III missions and finds the issue with the heat shield on the Orion Spacecraft.

At a recent news conference, NASA announced that they would delay the Artemis II mission to April 2026 and Artemis III to mid-2027. The delays were caused by issues with Orion’s heat shield. NASA found that it had cracked and partially eroded during its reentry phase of the Artemis I mission in 2022.

What you can see in the sky this week:

December 8:

• Saturn and the Moon are at an occultation.

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Mars.

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and Saturn.

• The Moon is at its First Quarter phase.

• The comet 333P/LINEAR makes its closest approach to the Earth

December 9:

• The December Monocerotids Meteor Shower peaks.

• The o-Hydrids Meteor Shower peaks.

• Neptune and the Moon are at occultation.

December 12:

• The Moon is at perigee.

• December 13:

• There is a conjunction between the Moon and the Pleiades Cluster.

December 14:

• The Geminids Meteor Shower peaks.

• The Moon is close to Jupiter.

• The asteroid Eunomia is at opposition.

• The Moon and the star Elnath are at occultation.

This week’s launch schedule:

December 8:

• SpaceX Falcon 9, Starlink Group 12-5. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL.

December 12:

• SpaceX Falcon 9, Starlink Group 11-2. Vandenburg Space Force Base, CA.

December 13:

• SpaceX Falcon 9, O3b mPOWER 7 & 8. Kennedy Space Center, FL

• SpaceX Falcon 9, GPS-3 10. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL