NASA and other federal agencies launched a new website last week that shows past, present, and future sea level rise along America’s coastlines. It combines data from satellites with readings from sensors on the ground to create an interactive map.
[U.S. Sea Level Change]
The rocket’s second stage “experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn” and missed its landing target following yesterday’s flight, SpaceX posted.
The company is investigating the root cause. In the meantime, as Space notes, a California satellite launch that was scheduled for today has been postponed.
At 9:10AM ET, the agency will kick off a livestream of the start of the Crew-9 mission meant to bring stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams back to Earth next year.
Out of the loop? Check our storystream on the Boeing Starliner issues that left them stuck on ISS. Liftoff is scheduled for 1:17PM ET today.
It’s taken just four years and more than 6,000 satellites placed into low Earth orbit — at a rate of about 24 per launch — with service now in over 100 countries.
As noted by TechCrunch:
The milestone would mean that SpaceX has gained a million new customers since the end of May alone. This outpaces the company’s already impressive rate of growth: Starlink started providing beta service of its product in October 2020; it hit 1 million subscribers in December 2022, 2 million subscribers in September 2023, and 3 million in May.
I’ve been a user since 2022 and am currently testing the Starlink Mini — ask me anything.
Two weeks ago it was United announcing fast free in-flight Wi-Fi for all. Who’s next?
The Federal Aviation Administration can’t “keep pace with the commercial spaceflight industry” and “lacks the resources” to respond to mission changes, SpaceX said in a letter sent in response to $633,000 in federal fines for launching two missions with unapproved changes. SpaceX owner Elon Musk has promised to sue the agency, but it seems as if we’re still in the “strongly worded letter” phase of this particular feud.
At 3:38AM ET, SpaceX confirmed the successful conclusion of its historic Polaris Dawn mission, which took four people, including Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, farther into space than any astronaut has been in decades.
During the flight, Isaacman and Gillis became the first private astronauts to conduct a spacewalk. Gillis also recorded herself playing violin while in space, as Engadget notes.
