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Welcome to episode 2 of our behind-the-scenes series as we document space exploration. In this episode, join our team as we capture slow-motion footage of SpaceX’s Starship at Starbase, record powerful liftoff audio, share stereoscopic VR from up close, and journey to the top of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building for an exciting astronaut launch. Thank you for watching!

Want to support the work we do? Get access to our exclusive Discord server and collect member-only perks. Support the team on Patreon: / cosmicperspective.
or join on Youtube: / @cosmicperspective.

Early access to the full 100x slowmo: / starship-engines-105298825

Explore the Beta release of our IFT-3 Stereoscopic 3D film on Oculus headsets https://www.meta.com/experiences/4722
(Apple Vision Pro Sideload video files available for patrons)

Music by @annu__music (MaryLiz)
Launch Audio by Andrew Keating, Cosmic Perspective.

The Cosmic Perspective team: Ryan and MaryLiz Chylinski, Andrew Keating, Nick Jakubik, Kelly Rodriguez, John Pisani, J. Trent Adams, and an extra special thanks to the Everyday Astronaut crew and our friends and volunteers!

Starship Flight Test 4 (unofficially IFT-4) will be the 4th flight of Starship. The current launch date is set for NET June 6, 2024. [1] Ship 29 (S29) and Booster 11 (B11) will be used for this mission. Both vehicles have received upgrades since Flight 3. The fourth flight test of Starship is currently planned for the 6th of June, 2024 at 7 am CDT, pending regulatory approval. The test profile of this mission is almost identical to the one on Flight 3, but there are some changes. The most notable of these changes are the jettison of the hot stage ring from B11 and a soft, engine powered landing for S29. The goals for the fourth flight per SpaceX: \.

[TIME SUBJECT TO CHANGE] This is the fourth fully integrated full stack test flight of Starship and the mighty Super Heavy booster, the largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly. It produces over twice as much thrust as the Saturn V that took humans to the moon.

The goal of the test is to get further along than IFT-3 in March, 2024. If all goes well, Starship will re-enter in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes after it lifts off from Starbase, TX, on a suborbital trajectory.

Want more information? We’ve got a video talking about what’s new and upgraded from flight 3! — https://youtu.be/O5GY7_aVBtk.

Want to know where to watch this live? I made a video on how to visit Starbase and where to watch a launch from — https://youtu.be/aWvHrih-Juk.

Learn more about Everyday Astronaut Mission Control by Guinn Partners! — http://guinnpartners.com.

Want to support what I do? Consider becoming a Patreon supporter for access to exclusive livestreams, our discord channel! — http://patreon.com/everydayastronaut.

New long-term agreement will help provide responsive access to space for future tech demonstration spacecraft

Cedar Park, Texas, June 5, 2024Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, today announced it signed a multi-launch agreement with Lockheed Martin for 25 launches on Firefly’s Alpha rocket through 2029. This agreement commits Lockheed Martin to 15 launch reservations and 10 optional launches.

“Firefly is honored to continue this partnership with Lockheed Martin and appreciates their confidence in our rapid launch services to support their critical missions for years to come,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “The Firefly team has scaled up Alpha production and testing and significantly streamlined our launch operations to fly Alpha more frequently and responsively. This allows us to continue delivering the one metric ton rocket the industry is demanding.”

Making Humanity A Multi-Planetary Species — Dr. Eliah Overbey, Ph.D. — Assistant Professor, Bioastronautics, University of Austin; CSO, BioAstra.


Dr. Eliah Overbey, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Bioastronautics at The University of Austin (UATX — https://www.uaustin.org/people/eliah–…) where she is involved in pioneering research in the field of astronaut health, specializing in spaceflight-induced genomic changes. Her work focuses on mapping changes in the human body during spaceflight and developing Earth-independent laboratories to make humans a multi-planetary species (https://www.eliahoverbey.com/).

Dr. Overbey comes to UATX from her previous position as a Research Associate at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Overbey’s most recent projects have analyzed genomic changes in astronauts from the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, and she is currently working on data analysis and sample collection for the Axiom-2 and Polaris Dawn missions.

Dr. Overbey’s work launched the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA — https://soma.weill.cornell.edu/#main), an online portal with the largest compendium of molecular measurements from astronauts. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Cornell Aerospace Medicine Biobank (CAMbank — https://cambank.weill.cornell.edu/#main), which is the first biorepository of samples from commercial astronauts.

The space agency has been around since 1958, yet only a select few spacecraft have transported NASA astronauts to space. Boeing’s Starliner could join a rather exclusive list should it succeed in docking with the ISS and delivering its precious human cargo. We’ve put together a list of all the spacecraft that have flown, or will soon be flown, with NASA crews on board.

MIT scientists found that metals like copper can become stronger when heated and impacted at high velocities, challenging traditional views and potentially enhancing materials for extreme environments like space and high-speed manufacturing.

Metals get softer when they are heated, which is how blacksmiths can form iron into complex shapes by heating it red hot. And anyone who compares a copper wire with a steel coat hanger will quickly discern that copper is much more pliable than steel.

But scientists at MIT have discovered that the opposite happens when metal is struck by an object moving at a super high velocity: The hotter the metal, the stronger it is. Under those conditions, which put extreme stress on the metal, copper can actually be just as strong as steel. The new discovery could lead to new approaches to designing materials for extreme environments, such as shields that protect spacecraft or hypersonic aircraft, or equipment for high-speed manufacturing processes.

NASA is developing a ChatGPT-style interface for future spacecraft, giving astronauts the ability to talk to the systems using natural language — and have the systems talk right back.

Space talk: In June 2018, a massive dust storm on Mars engulfed NASA’s Opportunity rover, cutting off communication with Earth. Eight months later, NASA announced an end to the rover’s 15-year Mars mission.

“The last message [NASA] received was basically, ‘My battery is low and it’s getting dark,’” tweeted science reporter Jacob Margolis after talking to NASA about the rover.