Space Explored

3 days ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

In a last-minute announcement, SpaceX, NASA, and Axiom Space are attempting to launch Axiom-4, the company’s fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS for about two weeks. The launch is set for 2:31 A.M. ET from LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. After weeks of delays, Axiom is finally back on the launch schedule with a scheduled launch later tonight. The announcement was made nearly last second, with word only getting out officially yesterday evening.

6 days ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

Earlier this week, SpaceX suffered a major setback again in its Starship development program with the total loss of Ship 36. In good news, the potential failure of the COPV that is in Starship will not affect Falcon 9’s historic launch cadence. Wednesday evening, SpaceX attempted a six-engine static fire of its Ship 36 Starship upper stage.

6 days ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

Tuesday, Honda’s Research and Development Company surprised the world with its announcement of a successful low-altitude hop of a test vehicle designed as a reusable rocket testbed. While Honda’s entrance into the space industry is not new, no prior word of this sort of progress in the space launch market was previously known. It’s not often we get to be shocked by a space development in the industry.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

Vast is working on what might just be the first commercial space station in low Earth orbit. To get the public excited about the station’s launch as soon as one year from now, the company released a VR fly through, led by Vast’s Lead Astronaut, that is available on Meta, Steam, and yes, Apple’s platforms. Called Haven-1, the small space station is capable of being launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the most economical medium-lift rocket on the market.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

SpaceX’s Starship program has hit another setback as what was expected to be its next flight-ready Starship second stage exploded on the test stand prior to an engine test. The cause of the explosion is unknown, and as of this writing, no injuries have been reported. Ship 36, the next expected flight-ready Starship second stage, also known just as “The Ship” or more confusingly “The Starship,” was rolled over to the Massy’s test site over the weekend for testing.