RFA Static Fire | Trouble on the way to Mercury | This Week In Spaceflight

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Published 2024-05-17

This Week in Spaceflight, we cover the latest developments in the space industry. RFA's historic UK Static Fire. Starship is fully stacked and ready for its wet dress rehearsal, the BepiColombo mission to Mercury faces challenges, and we experienced the most intense geomagnetic storm in the past 20 years, resulting in stunning aurora displays worldwide. Stay tuned for all these updates and more!

🔴 Highlights:

Starship Stacked: Full stack testing at Starbase with recent liquid nitrogen and oxygen tank updates.

BepiColombo Snag: ESA's mission to Mercury encounters thruster issues.
Geomagnetic Storm: The strongest in 20 years, causing widespread auroras.

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🤵 Hosted by Elysia Segal (@elysiasegal).
🖋️ Written by Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera (@alexphysics13) with Justin Davenport.
🎥 Footage from: BocaChicaGal, Jack Beyer, Ryan Caton, Max Evans, Brady Kenniston, D Wise, Starbase Live, Space Coast Live, Nasir Shadravan (@n4Cr on X), ESA, ESA-U, JAXA, NASA Goddard, NOAA, NASA, Rocket Factory Augsburg, The Exploration Company, Space Pioneer, CCTV, SpaceX, Russian Aerospace Forces, Blue Origin, ULA, Rocket Lab.
✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).
💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).

🔍 If you are interested in using footage from this video, please review our content use policy: www.nasaspaceflight.com/content-use-policy/

00:00 Intro
00:33 BepiColombo hits a snag on its way to Mercury
03:01 May 2024 Geomagnetic storm
06:33 Starship fully stacked for launch rehearsal
09:16 Europa Clipper ready to ship to the launch site
10:00 RFA ticks off major milestone for maiden RFA One launch
10:36 Latest developments at The Exploration Company
11:44 Space Pioneer adjusts plans for Tianlong-3 maiden flight
12:39 Chang Zheng 4C launch of Shiyan 23
13:10 Falcon 9 launch of Starlink Group 6-58
13:51 Falcon 9 launch of Starlink Group 8-7
14:26 Soyuz 2.1b launch
14:46 May 18th: First Falcon 9 booster to fly 21 times
15:05 May 19th: First operational launch of Starshield satellites
15:24 May 19th: New Shepard's return to human spaceflight
15:40 May TBD: Atlas V N22 launch of Starliner CFT
16:10 May 22nd: Electron launch of Ready, Aim, PREFIRE
16:24 May 23rd: Falcon 9 launch of Starlink Group 6-62
16:36 Outro

#Spaceflight #Starship #SpaceX #BepiColombo #ESA #JAXA #MercuryMission #GeomagneticStorm #Auroras #SolarFlare #SpaceNews #RocketLaunch #Astronomy #SpaceExploration #ScienceNews #SpaceTechnology #SpaceMissions #ElonMusk #NASA #Starlink #SatelliteLaunch #SolarMaximum #SpaceEvents #Spacecraft #ISS #SpaceProbes #SpaceIndustry #SpaceUpdates

All Comments (21)

@MickRonald 28 days ago

Thank you for the fantastic photos of the Aurora Lights, Max, Ryan C., and Brady.
@fwd79 21 days ago

The jewelry from Elysia are one of the highlights of the week LOL but overall a great coverage of space news. Keep up the good work 👍👍
@Lopez_rc 28 days ago

0:07 I live in a very vast place in Holland and it’s really dark here at night, I have never seen such beautiful aurora. It was an unreal experience to see it move and change colour with my naked eye
@michaeldemarco9950 28 days ago

When the Columbo Probe cycles back around to Mercury the second time, it’ll say, “Sir . . . Sir . . . Just one more thing . . . “
@fredpryde8555 21 days ago

thank you for keeping us updated
@smarttoys407 21 days ago

Thanks NSF team.
@Twingo_lover 28 days ago

I was at presentation here in Czech Republic and I held part of heatshield. It was icredible how light it was it was like popcorn. I hope it will get back in one piece. 🚀
@DebraJean196 28 days ago

Nothing like a good dose of Elysia, TWIS and of course, EARRINGS!!!!
@RangerAvL 28 days ago

Thanks!
@knerdlyknight4696 28 days ago

Thanks guys, keep it up!
@SeaScienceFilmLabs 28 days ago

“Mercury?” Very Nice! 👍
@00kt86 28 days ago

Thanks for the updates! 🐄🐄
@EMANUELMANINGAT 28 days ago

IFT-4 LET'S GO!!
@jonesjoyce1215 28 days ago

Thank you very much, I love the beautiful images, and your precise explanation of the entire process of each operation. Thank you very much, have a good weekend and work.❤️🌹🌟🚀
@Tmccreight25Gaming 28 days ago

More than likey the plan for BepiColumbo will be to maintain the current trajectory and to fire the thrusters at lower thrust for longer.
@jack4socal 28 days ago

Thank you Elysia! Great show.
@jameswilson5165 28 days ago

"Push it back. Push it back. Waaaaay Back!" The unofficial slogan for Starliner.
@adriangillies6037 28 days ago

AWESOME SHOW ! . Thank you Elysia, you doing a suburb job . I look forward to your show every week.
@JGS123WRPTP 28 days ago

Woo. A mention for a UK space port.
@samfromportadown 21 days ago

One of the possible advantages of an oversized but relatively cheap launch architecture like Superheavy / Starship is that probes to other places in the solar system, such as the BepiColumbo mission to Mercury for example, can have a much larger kick stage, or at least much more fuel for their kick stage, giving them much higher isp and nixing the requirement for so many gravity-assist flybys. This could cut the cruise phase from multiple years down to one year or less (for inner solar system objects like Mercury) or down to only 2 or 3 years, rather than decades, for outer solar system objects.