This Week In Space

By Laura Holt, Co-Founder of Her Cosmic Orbit

TLDR;

·       Flight Back in MCC?!

·       RIP Athena

·       Boom Supersonic Schlieren Images

·       Tough Week for SpaceX

·       X-37B OTV-7

·       NASA Science Being Cut 50%?

·       Planetary Society’s Call To Action

·       Happy International Women’s Day

Apollo Flight Director and legend Gene Kranz, aka Flight, was back in Mission Control with Intuitive Machines! What an incredible sight to see Gene continue to be recognized and influencing our current space program. His knowledge, experience and wisdom are invaluable – frankly even just his presence in the room. To that point, you’ll notice the IM employees all adopting his tradition of wearing a vest. Check out the images here!

Speaking of Intuitive Machines… sadly, after a promising flight of their lunar lander, Athena, the spacecraft did not land upright on the moon. “This was the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ever achieved.” According to the company. “Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side. After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted.” Unable to recharge, the mission was concluded. RIP Athena! The image of the spacecraft on its side with Earth in the background is poignant. You still made us proud – we’ll be back for you sooner than later!

Boom Supersonic recently completed XB-1’s second supersonic test flights. During those flights, they partnered with NASA to get Schlieren images! Boom states, “Schlieren photography (is) a technique to visualize the shock waves resulting from XB-1 pushing through the air at supersonic speeds.” Capturing these images is very difficult and requires many factors to line up together. Doing so, “makes the invisible visible—the first American made civil supersonic jet breaking the sound barrier.” Congrats, Boom!

SpaceX had a tough week! It all started with booster B1086 landing on droneship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) but tipping over becoming unsalvageable. SpaceX updated, “Following the successful landing, an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster's landing legs which resulted in it tipping over.” This was the booster’s fifth flight and was previously used for GOES-U which I watched in-person with NASA Social. Hate to lose that one.

After a few launch date slips and one T-40 second scrub, Starship launched its 8th suborbital test flight. Minutes after launching, the super heavy booster was caught for a third time. Third times a catch! Unfortunately, the ship then lost attitude control and began spinning uncontrollably. The team lost contact with the ship just 20 seconds away from the ascent burn. This is why test flights are a thing. SpaceX will review the data and make changes going forward. On to the next

Amidst all that, we did get some positive and exciting updates. SpaceX announced a new Florida integration facility, Gigabay. The building is already in construction and is targeting functional operations by end of 2026. Secondly, “Pending completion of environmental reviews, SpaceX intends to conduct Starship's first Florida launch from LC-39A in late 2025.” That timeline seems fast, but I won’t put anything past them. Can’t wait to see Starship launch in FL

Space Force’s uncrewed spaceplane, X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, March 7, 2025, at 02:22 a.m. EST. This is the vehicle that gave us the rare photo last week. The mission achieved successful execution of the aerobraking maneuver and remained on-orbit for over 434 days.

Reports came out late in the week that the White House was considering 50% cuts to NASA science. According to the Planetary Society, “Should these cuts come to pass, the result would be nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the United States.” This is the time we must advocate and try to make change. Planetary Society makes it easy for us – simply fill out 30 seconds worth of your information here to write a letter to your Members of Congress about your support for space science and exploration. Let’s make our voices heard

Saturday was International Women’s Day! We spent the day highlighting and celebrating so many incredible women in STEM. Since NASA decided not to make mention of this day, I’ll take this opportunity to celebrate the two upcoming women onboard Crew-10, Col. Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers. We are greatly looking forward to this mission and will be onsite to cover all launch activities! Godspeed Crew-10

Bye – gotta go pack for FL :)