Starship 3 is Launching This Week, and Rocket Lab is Launching Right Now

Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 595 words, a 4-minute read.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: Starship 3 is Launching This Week

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. Watch a Rocket Launch - RIGHT NOW

• 4. An Awesome Newsletter You Should Check Out

1 Big Thing: Starship 3 is Launching This Week

SpaceX is Gearing Up for its 3rd orbital test of the Starship rocket. This test, if successful, would see SpaceX hit a bunch of critical milestones.

When’s The Test?: SpaceX announced a tentative launch date of this Thursday (Mar. 14), at 8:00 AM EDT from their Starbase in Boca Chica, TX.

If All Goes to Plan: The largest flying object in human history will ascend for 2 minutes and 39 seconds, then its two massive stages will separate, and the upper stage will continue ascending. The lower stage will practice landing itself, but safely over the ocean rather than on land or a drone ship.

What’s The Big Deal?: I’ve written about Starship for 2 straight weeks for a reason - it’s quite possibly the most important thing to happen in space since humans landed on the Moon in 1969. Starship promises to be the first rapidly reusable human-rated spacecraft with the capability to take us to the moon, mars, and beyond.

In the Short-Term: I feel like this doesn’t get talked about much, but SpaceX actually won the contract for NASA’s Artemis mission moon lander, meaning that a modified version of Starship will be the craft to bring humans back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years.

How to Watch: The launch will be livestreamed on SpaceX’s official YouTube account as well as on X.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. NASA’s 2025 budget was approved by Congress, coming in over $2 billion short of what they originally requested. (NASA)

2. Phanton Space Corp closed its latest funding round to help pay for its development of small satellite launch vehicles. (Payload)

3. SpaceX’s Crew-7 capsule returned safely to earth with 4 astronauts, marking the end of their 199-day mission on the ISS. (Space)

4. The U.S. Army extended Maxar’s contract for 3D terrain models. (SpaceNews)

3. Watch a Rocket Launch - RIGHT NOW

The Timing Has Never Worked Out for us, but this week, you can watch a live rocket launch right after reading the newsletter.

What’s Going On?: Rocket Lab is launching its “Owl Night Long” mission at 10:13 AM Eastern Standard. The mission will take the Japanese company Synspective’s commercial radar imaging satellite into orbit.

Rocket Lab: The New Zealand Company is perhaps the world’s most infamous private space company outside of SpaceX. The company trades under the symbol RKLB, and has carved out an interesting niche using light rockets to launch small payloads.

How to Watch: Here’s the link to watch the launch live on YouTube. If you’ve never watched a live launch before, I highly recommend it.

4. An Awesome Newsletter You Should Check Out

If you’re like me, you’re probably interested in the high-tech world of electric vehicles.

Just like the space industry, the EV industry sees innovation and new developments every single day. It’s a lot to keep up with.

Consider joining The EV Universe newsletter, where over 6,000 readers stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the EV industry. Joining means supporting my newsletter and another newsletter that I genuinely enjoy reading.

Don’t Forget: If you refer 5 friends to the newsletter, I’ll send you a free copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s A Brief Welcome to the Universe. Use the link below to share and get credit for your referrals!

Thanks as always,

-Michael