2024

The Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft ends its Polaris Dawn mission splashing down (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft concluded its Polaris Dawn mission splashing down without problems. Onboard were Jared Isaacman, Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon, and Scott Poteet, who finished this completely private space mission in the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly after the splashdown, the SpaceX ship went to retrieve the Crew Dragon and its crew to transport them to the coast.

The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft blasting off atop a Soyuz rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after a little more than three hours reached the International Space Station with three new crew members on board. It docked with the Station’s Rassvet module. As is becoming increasingly common for crewed trips as well, the ultra-fast track was used which halves the journey duration.

The Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on the Polaris Dawn mission. After just over twelve minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage. It will spend about five days in orbit on a completely private crewed space mission. For the first time, a spacewalk is planned during a private space mission.

The CST-100 Starliner Calypso spacecraft landing (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner Calypso spacecraft landed at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, ending its Boe-CFT (Boeing Crew Flight Test) mission. Unlike the previous American spacecraft, this one doesn’t splash down in the ocean but lands on the ground. It was an automated return trip while Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who had arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 aboard the Calypso, remained on the Station.

Kuiper Belt Objects (Image created with NightCafé)

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An article accepted for publication in the “Planetary Science Journal” reports the detection of 239 candidate trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). NASA’s New Horizons Kuiper Belt search team discovered the candidates using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii. Estimates indicate that the candidates are located at distances up to 90 times that of the Earth from the Sun. This supports the theory that the Kuiper Belt is wider than expected or that there’s a second Kuiper Belt further out.