Space Highlights for the week ending 5/1/24.

April closed out a busy month of rocket launches and space activity. Last week we saw launches out of New Zealand, China, and the USA. Here’s the highlights:

• 4/23/24 Rocket Lab Beginning of the Swarm launched on the Electron. I always love how Rocket Lab names their launches. Usually launches have numbers and letters, but Rocket Lab missions have personality. I was really excited for this launch, as it carried NASA’s solar sail demonstration project – a spacecraft that uses light photons to sail through outer space. What a cool way to explore the cosmos – sailing!
• 4/23/24 China’s Shenzhou 18 crewed mission to the Tiangong Station launched on the Long March 2F. The 8 engines of the Long March rocket have a beautiful plume, and this night launch made for a great viewing.
• 4/27/24 SpaceX Galileo FOC launched on a Falcon 9. These navigation satellites are for the European Space Agency. The was the final launch for that Falcon 9 rocket booster, as it need all of its fuel to launch into high geostationary orbit with the satellites.
• 4/28/24 SpaceX Starlink 6-54 satellites launched out of Florida on a Falcon 9. This video is sped up in the middle to show the highlights of the rocket launch, stage separation, fairing separation, and booster re-entry. The booster landed successfully on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. SpaceX is the only company to have boosters land back on Earth. Other companies: zero. Falcon 9 boosters have relaunched and landed over 250 times!
• 4/30 Virgin Galactic launched its 7th crew of citizens on their SpaceShipTwo. This footage is from the 6th mission; I have not seen footage for this 7th mission. SpaceShipTwo is not launched from the ground; an airplane carries the rocket to a high altitude, releases it, and then the engines ignite to launch it into space. It glides back down to Earth for a smooth landing.
• There are currently 10 humans in Space. 7 on the International Space Station and 3 on the Tiangong Chinese Station. the Tiangong Station had a crew swap this week, transitioning the station to three new taikonauts.
• What’s In the Sky? The Aquariid Meteor Shower can be seen in the early morning when looking East. This shower is from the Haley Comet’s tail. Mars can also be seen in the early morning in the East. The moon is in a waning crescent, with a little less than half visible.

That’s the highlights for this week! Stay tuned – next week has some exciting launches scheduled!

Thanks. Remember to look up and appreciate the stars.

References

• YouTube Video clips: @RocketLabNZ, @NASAAmes, @VideoFromSpace, @TheLaunchPad, @SciNewsRo, @VirginGalactic, @NASAJPL, @NatGeo, @SpaceX
• Who is in Space – live updates. (2023, April 6). Who Is in Space? – How Many Astronauts Are on the Space Station. https://whoisinspace.com/
• SpaceX. (n.d.). SpaceX. https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/
• Rocket launch schedule. (n.d.). https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/
• NASA Image and Video Library. (n.d.). NASA Image and Video Library. https://images.nasa.gov/details/ACS3_SolarSailSunrise