Starship, check. Starliner, check.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 845 words, a 5-minute read.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: Starship 4 Was a Massive Success

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. Boeing’s Starliner Mission is Going Wonderfully

• 4. A Change of Pace from the Usual Book Recommenda …

• 5. Upcoming Launches & Missions

1 Big Thing: Starship 4 Was a Massive Success

SpaceX’s Starship had a highly-successful 4th test launch this past Thursday, June 6th.

The 400-foot rocket rose above the Boca Chica, Texas horizon at 8:50 am. After the upper stage separated from the lower booster stage, the booster “landed” itself softly in the Gulf of Mexico.

• In the future, SpaceX plans to land its Starship boosters on land so they can be rapidly reused, much like the Falcon 9 boosters.

• Rapid reusability is the main focus of the Starship program as a whole, making last week’s soft splashdown a crucial milestone.

Starship flew its planned trajectory, and managed to survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Slight Damage: Starship saw one of its nose fins and many heat-shielding tiles partially burn up upon re-entry, but the ship made it back to Earth and conducted a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned.

Exciting News: Elon Musk says that during Starship’s next flight test SpaceX will try to catch the booster in its “Mechazilla” arms on the launch pad.

• “Mechazilla” is the name that SpaceX has given to its launch pad apparatus which, in the future, will catch Starship’s booster (and potentially Starship itself) so they can be rapidly reused.

Looking Ahead: SpaceX is already reviewing the data from the 4th test launch and making plans for a 5th.

• There are rumors that the 5th Starship test flight could happen as early as next month, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

• SpaceX will beef up Starship’s heat shield before its next launch, hopefully leading to fewer sparks and flames than this most recent launch.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. Scientists discovered water ice in a crater on Mars’ equator - previously thought impossible. (Space)

2. Virgin Galactic completed its 7th suborbital commercial space flight. (CBS)

3. Stoke Space test fired its new full-flow staged combustion cycle engine. (SpaceNews)

4. NASA Astronaut Bill Anders died at 90 years old in a plane crash. (NPR)

3. Boeing’s Starliner Mission is Going Wonderfully

I wasn’t going to say it before the launch happened, but now that it’s over, I didn’t have much faith in Boeing leading up to the highly-anticipated Starliner launch.

Defying the Odds: Despite its shaky track record with planes and whistleblowers, Boeing managed to launch its Starliner capsule without a hitch this past Wednesday, June 5th.

• Much of the credit for the launch should go to United Launch Alliance (ULA), whose Atlas V rocket took Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to space aboard Starliner.

• The Atlas V is on its way to retirement, after completing over 100 successful launches and claiming the title of America’s longest-serving active rocket.

Here’s a 1-Minute Time Lapse of the launch:

We Want More: Now, Boeing is extending its mission to June 18th, 5 days past the originally-planned June 13th-ish return date.

Spacewalk: The mission extension will allow the astronauts to perform a spacewalk this Thursday, June 13th. while engineers finish checking and preparing Starliner before its return.

Looking Ahead: Starliner will make a parachute-assisted landing in the New Mexico desert next Tuesday, June 18th.

• This successful flight test means that Boeing is ready to begin shuttling astronauts to and from the International Space Station somewhat regularly.

4. A Change of Pace from the Usual Book Recommendation

I Love Recommending Space Books in here, but I can’t read them fast enough to keep recommending new ones. I’m still reading Adam Higginbotham’s book about the Challenger Disaster, and it’s great.

This is probably the worst example of targeted advertising, but another book I’m reading right now is called Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Doctor Bob Rotella. It’s golf season, I love golf, and I’m always looking to improve.

This is hands-down the best book I’ve ever read about the mentality and psychology it takes to be a good golfer. It’s so simple and elegant yet so deeply insightful at the same time, and if you like golf, you should absolutely read it.

(It would also make a great Father’s Day present, hint hint)

5. Upcoming Launches & Missions

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