Seth Kurkowski

Through the year we in the media and the public regularly take shots at NASA and criticize them on a number of issues. While that’s our job to keep the agency accountable, sometimes it can sound like continued negativism.

So like what many of you here in the US will be doing tonight around the dinner table, here are three reasons I’m thankful for NASA this year.

For 20 years there has been a human presence in space on board the International Space Station (ISS). In those 20 years plenty of astronauts have made the sacrifice to be away from family and friends during Thanksgiving to continue the world’s push for new scientific discovery. Even though they are in space and remain busy, they still get the chance to celebrate the holiday.

Boeing‘s Starliner spacecraft is currently on track for its April 2024 launch date according to NASA’s Phil McAlister. However, this is all reliant on Starliner performing well during a January parachute drop test on a newly designed soft link on the spacecraft.

Phil McAlister, director of NASA’s commercial space division, said that Axiom Space and SpaceX were in talks to fly Axiom-3 from SLC-40 rather than LC-39A like in the past. This would use the newly constructed crew access tower built to bring redundancy to SpaceX’s human spaceflight operations.

NASA announced its chief civil servant, former astronaut Bob Cabana, plans to retire after this year. Jim Free, the current Associate Administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, will take the post of NASA Associate Administrator.

ULA hit another milestone in getting its first Vulcan rocket ready to launch with stacking a new Centaur V second stage on top of its booster at Cape Canaveral. This stage was rebuilt after one failed during a static fire earlier this year due to an unknown structural fault.

In a reply on his social media site X, Elon Musk shared his timeline for when he wants the next pieces of Starship flight hardware ready. However, we still don’t have any details as to what caused the RUDs of Saturday’s launch.

Over the weekend SpaceX pulled off an amazing feat by launching its Starship rocket and making it into space. While many doubted its label as a success, those that have followed rocket development and Starship’s progress will know for a fact, Starship Flight 2 was a big win and success for SpaceX.

After a rather eventful weekend, SpaceX only has one launch schedule for the week with a private Chinese company making a rare appearance, and Russia’s military launching a Soyuz 2. However, on Thanksgiving day, Arianespace and the ESA are planning a test of its Vulcain 2.1 engine down in French Guiana.

Japanese robotic space company, ispace, announced that it will fly a second Hakuto-R lunar lander to the Moon to reattempt its landing. This time, the mission will feature a micro-rover, developed by ispace, that will capture lunar regolith for NASA.

Earlier today SpaceX launched its second fully integrated Starship rocket. While it didn’t make it to Hawaii, the launch got much further than its previous flight. However, a lot still didn’t go right for the company, here’s a break down of all the bad stuff. (Here’s the good stuff article)

SpaceX launched its second flight test of its Starship rocket Saturday morning, only a few minutes into its 20 minute window. On all accounts, the flight was a resounding success, even if both stages got a little… explosive.

This week Sierra Space laid off hundreds of employees after sending its first Dream Chaser spaceplane to final testing before launch. While this might seem concerning, Sierra Space is in good financial shape and this is just part of a company reshuffling now that it has gotten through its first run of production.

Thursday, SpaceX CEO and chief engineer Elon Musk, shared that the Starship rocket would not be flying on Friday but will be getting a fresh actuator in its Super Heavy booster. The need to replace this part will slide the launch back one day to Saturday and drop the two hour window to only 20 minutes.

According to Ars Technica, three companies are in the running to purchase United Launch Alliance from its parent companies. One of the companies interested in buying the company is Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos and a major partner of ULA.

After months of investigation and an environmental review, the FAA has given SpaceX the go ahead for its second launch of Starship. Now it’s up to SpaceX to get the vehicle ready to fly.

Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur, shared on his Instagram account an update to his dearMoon mission around the Moon. Shocking no one, the flight will not take place this year as the rocket is still very much in development.

This week is a rather slow one with two launches scheduled for SpaceX‘s Falcon 9, yes they’re for Starlink. However, pending regulatory approval, the week could finish with the second launch of the company’s Starship rocket.

Over the weekend, SpaceX launched three Falcon 9 rockets from all three of its launch pads. The missions were all commercially purchased wither by NASA, SES, or in part of a rideshare program. Two out of the three flights featured RTLS landings at LZ-1 and 4, a rare occurrence.