threelonmusketeers

Starlink Group 12-18 launch out of SLC-40 in Florida is currently scheduled for 2025-02-11 18:53 UTC, or 2025-02-11 13:53 local time (EST). Booster 1077-18 to land on Just Read the Instructions.

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight page

Webcasts:

• Space Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l_Cu1yWTsQ
• Spaceflight Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAabLYNXSvM
• NASASpaceflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WljAk6uf1xc
• The Launch Pad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rho0IyZRdJM
• SpaceX: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1889386081960730742
• The Space Devs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z742URDG33Q

A Texas state agency awarded $47.7 million in grants to five space companies to support projects like construction of facilities and development of spacecraft in the state.

The Texas Space Commission announced Feb. 10 that it awarded the grants to Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, SpaceX and Starlab Space. The grants are part of the commission’s Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund (SEARF) program.

The press release did not disclose what projects the grants would fund at each company, and a commission spokesperson did not respond to questions about the awards. Brief details about the proposals were discussed during a short meeting of the commission’s board that approved the grants unanimously and without debate:

• Blue Origin: $7 million for upgrades to its booster engine testing facility to enable higher thrust for those engines through densified propellants.
• Firefly Aerospace: $8.2 million for expanded capabilities at its spacecraft development center, as well expanded internship and student access programs.
• Intuitive Machines: $10 million for development of a commercial orbital return vehicle.
• SpaceX: $7.5 million for a new vertical integration facility at Starbase for the company’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle.
• Starlab Space: $15 million for a systems integration lab that could be used by multiple entities in the commercial space station field.

NASA has selected SpaceX to launch a small exoplanet science mission as a rideshare payload as soon as September.

Pandora is a smallsat mission that is part of the agency’s Astrophysics Pioneers program for low-cost smallsats. The spacecraft features a 45-centimeter telescope equipped with optical and infrared detectors that will observe 20 stars known to have exoplanets over a one-year mission.

“Pandora’s primary goal is to probe into the atmospheres of exoplanets using transmission spectroscopy,” said Elisa Quintana, principal investigator for Pandora, during a Jan. 11 presentation about the mission at a meeting of the Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG).

Pandora is designed to help scientists determine if spectral signatures seen in certain exoplanets are caused by the presence of hydrogen or water in the planets’ atmospheres or instead are linked to variability in the star itself. “Stars are not uniform,” she said. “Pandora is essentially a calibration instrument to help address this problem.”