Cat Videos, False Alarms, and more Footage of Starship and Starliner.
It’s been a little over a week since the Epic Week In Space with Starliner, Starship, and Chang’e-6. While that will be hard to top, there are still interesting things happening in space! Check it out:
Space Emergency
On June 12th, the live-stream from the International Space Station (ISS) broadcast a radio communication about an astronaut who was experiencing decompression sickness (DCS). There was much discussion and panic on X about what might be happening. The notifications popped up on my phone and I got to follow along real time. About half an hour after the initial announcement, NASA clarified that “the audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation and is not related to a real emergency.” The actual astronauts on the ISS were healthy and safe, asleep in their beds. Phew! Crisis averted.
NASA runs drills and dress rehearsals frequently. This week they are practicing for the upcoming Starliner landing scheduled for June 22nd. And have you seen the awesome test suits of the Artemis astronauts training in the desert? I love those sleeves!
NASA/Josh Valcarcel
Remember to practice your own safety drills, too. Stay safe everyone!
Pets in Space
To counter-act all that stress, let’s talk about pets! NASA successfully sent adorable pet images by laser from Earth to the ISS on June 6th, 2024. They were testing their two-way, end-to-end laser relay system. High-tech! These laser communications, or optical communications, use infrared light to send and receive information instead of radio waves. According to NASA, “while both infrared and radio travel at the speed of light, infrared light can transfer more data in a single link, making it more efficient..”
“Taters the Cat” was the first test NASA sent last year via lasers, traveling over 19 million miles from the Psyche spacecraft to Earth. A cat playing with lasers, sent by lasers, traveling over 19 million miles, we are totally living in the future!
More Water on Mars
While we’ve known Mars has water since 2008 when it was detected by the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander, it’s always fun to discover more! This past week, June 10th, 2024, water frost was spotted near the equator on a Mars Volcano! The European Space Agency (ESA) found it with their ExoMars TGO and Mars Express probes.
Image from ESA.
Virgin Galactic Final Unity Flight
Virgin Galactic sent a new batch of citizen astronauts to space on June 8th, 2024. This was the final flight of their Unity spacecraft. Virgin Galactic is pausing their space tourism flights until 2026, when the new Delta fleet build is expected to complete. Let’s hope Virgin Galactic can keep the lights on in the factory throughout this pause.
Starliner Still In Space
Re-entry for Boeing Starliner is slated for June 22nd, 2024. Take a tour of the Starliner docked to the ISS and learn about some ISS research successes:
More footage: Starship Test Flight 4
There’s so much great footage!
Check out this fun compilation from Starship prep to landing made by a 15 year old space fan:
This one from Interstellar Gateway has a great view of the lift-off shock waves in the clouds – I have definitely watched this more than once.
And here’s the detailed highlights from the flight:
OK, and one more from Everyday Astronaut. You’ll want to turn up your volume for this one, it is Epic!
Keep looking up and reaching to the stars!
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