Starship 4 and the World's Largest Telescope

Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 820 words, a 6-minute read.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: Starship’s 4th Flight is Scheduled fo …

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. The World’s Largest Telescope Hits an Important …

• 4. A Brand-New Space Book

• 5. Upcoming Launches & Missions

1 Big Thing: Starship’s 4th Flight is Scheduled for June 5th

SpaceX has Officially Scheduled the 4th Starship test flight for June 5th.

Broken Record: Yes, I know I talk about Starship a lot in this newsletter, but it’s for good reason.

Why You Should Care: Starship is, in my opinion, the most important spacecraft in the world, and it’s not even close. Heck, it might even be the most important piece of technology currently being developed by human beings.

• I’m definitely biased toward space-related technology. Maybe nuclear fusion reactors or medical devices are more important to humanity, but Starship is definitely up there.

What’s So Special About It?: There are a few key aspects of Starship that make it so special, ranging from vague and philosophical to highly nerdy and technical.

• Philosophical: Starship promises to turn humans into an interplanetary species. Starship landing on Mars will be arguably the most important milestone in human history since the moon landings.

• Technical: Starship will be fully-reusable, which technically speaking hasn’t been done yet. Starship is also the first rocket to successfully use full-flow staged combustion cycle engines - and they’re powered by liquid methane, which can be manufactured on Mars and other planets.

  • If you’re a nerd like me, read this explainer on rocket engine cycles by Everyday Astronaut.

• Cool Factor: It’s the largest flying object ever created by humans. If a 400-foot stainless steel vehicle flying at 16,000 miles per hour isn’t just plain incredible, I don’t know what is.

Awaiting Clearance: June 5th is the date that SpaceX has set for Starship’s 4th test flight. However, the FAA still needs to clear the company for the launch date, so it could potentially be later.

Looking Ahead: SpaceX will look to achieve all of its previous flight milestones with this test, and then some. The big one is surviving reentry into the atmosphere - this was the point at which Starship broke apart in its last test flight.

• I’ll be covering the test launch in detail in the newsletter right before it happens, so look out for that.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. We might be seeing more solar flares and auroras soon. (Space)

2. America’s first black astronaut candidate finally went to space - at 90 years old. (NPR)

3. Radar has detected lava flows on Venus, suggesting active volcanoes. (CBS)

3. The World’s Largest Telescope Hits an Important Milestone

The World’s Largest Visible- and Infrared-Light Telescope is under construction in Chile, and it just hit a very important milestone.

Engineers Have Completed the Extremely Large Telescope’s giant steel skeleton, as pictured above.

Nearing History: Once finished, the Chilean telescope - managed by the European Southern Observatory - will be 262 feet high and 289 feet wide.

What’s it for?: The Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT, will peer into the night sky looking for clues about the origin of the universe.

• This telescope differs from others in that it sees in the visible and near-visible light spectrum.

• Other telescopes, especially space-based ones like JWST, see in the infrared spectrum only, so they can’t “see” exactly what our eyes would see looking into the night sky.

Scheduled Completion: Although this is a huge milestone for the telescope, it likely won’t begin operations until 2028.

4. A Brand-New Space Book

Just Last Week, Adam Higginbotham Released his new book, “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space.”

The Book Tells the fascinating and heartbreaking story of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which broke apart on January 28th, 1986 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts on board.

I Picked This Up on Kindle last week and started reading it. It’s great. You can check it out here:

5. Upcoming Launches & Missions

SPECIAL EXCITING NEWS: If you refer just 3 friends (used to be 5, now it’s 3) to this 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