Weekly Space Report: Double Boom Week! Starship and New Glenn Booster

Highlights:

  • Starship Test Flight 7 on Thursday afternoon, after various delays

  • Booster performance near-perfect on ascent, with one inner ring engine shutting down early.

  • Perfect catch. All inner ring engines participated.

  • Cool close-up shots from SpaceX showing the booster swaying after catch.

  • Ship telemetry froze at 146km, after a progression of engine failures.

  • Video from Turks and Caicos showing up quickly with the Ship’s final fireworks.

  • Big debris field to be investigated.

  • Elon reported likely fuel leak beyond vent capacity.

  • New Glenn #1 flight on Thursday morning, after various delays

  • Short hold during countdown due to a boat in the exclusion zone.

  • Low thrust-to-weight ratio makes for a slow tower clearance.

  • Booster ascent nominal, but telemetry lost not long after stage separation, @ 84,000 ft altitude

  • Second stage performed flawlessly, delivering Blue Ring Pathfinder to medium earth orbit.

  • Falcon 9: Transporter 12 (with many satellites), Moon landers Blue Ghost and Hakuto-R shared ride, Starlink 12-4

  • Transporter 12 also included Mark Rober’s “Sat Gus”.

  • NASA Spacewalk 90 on the ISS, included Suni Williams.

3 Likes