321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Jan. 16)
NASA pushes back Artemis II astronaut moon mission to September 2025, citing heat shield
NASA is pushing back the target date of the Artemis II mission — which will propel four astronauts on a journey around the moon — from this November to September 2025 while engineers study an unexpected loss of charred material from the Orion capsule's heat shield from Artemis I.
"Now, this heat shield is an ablative material. It is supposed to char. But what we were not expecting was pieces of that char to be liberated from the vehicle," Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of NASA's Moon to Mars Program, said during a Tuesday press conference.
SpaceX eyeing Saturday night for Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
SpaceX crews are gearing up to launch Brevard County's fourth orbital rocket of the year during a 4½-hour window on Saturday night, federal navigational warnings show.
Though SpaceX has yet to publicly confirm this mission's existence, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S. Coast Guard navigational warnings indicate a rocket launch window will open at 7:52 p.m. EST.
Scrub! SpaceX stands down from Saturday night Falcon 9 launch at Cape
Updates: Scrub! Scroll down for live coverage of the postponed Saturday, Jan. 13, liftoff attempt of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape. Additional opportunities will become available Sunday starting at 7:45 p.m. EST, SpaceX announced.
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket Sunday; Axiom Space crewed mission is up next on Wednesday
After a scrubbed Saturday attempt, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took flight Sunday night after daytime rainy weather cleared from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX's Starlink 6-37 mission launched in the cloudy darkness at 8:52 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 40, sending another payload of 23 internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit.
Axiom-3, the first all-European private astronaut mission, to launch Wednesday to ISS
Nicknamed Axiom-3, the first all-European private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is targeting 5:11 p.m. EST Wednesday for launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift the multinational astronaut quartet and their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft skyward from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
For the latest launch schedule updates from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Jan. 16)
