ASTRA, ROCKET LAB, CARGO DRAGON, AND BLUE ORIGIN ARE READY!!

Hello and welcome back to TerTech News! Today’s issue: Astra, Rocket Lab, Cargo Dragon, and Blue Origin are ready!

Blue Origin is launching another New Shepard, but this time, fully unmanned.

“Blue Origin is conducting another launch of their capsule dedicated to commercial payload. This launch comes after a successful flight of four humans including Blue Origin’s founder, Jeff Bezos, his brother, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. However, this flight will not ferry humans. Instead, NS-17 will carry important cargo for NASA (11 payloads) with an additional seven other commercial payloads.”
- Austin Desisto, writer for everydayastronaut.com

Now moving on to Astra. It is the third launch of Rocket 3, and after the first two failed launches, we are hoping that all goes well.
“STP-27AD1 will be conducted from Astra’s Kodiak Spaceport, located at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. The launch window will begin at 1:00PM PT, on Friday, August 27, 2021 and will be open through Saturday, September 11, 2021.” -Astra website news article

Meanwhile, SpaceX will be launching their CRS-23 mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX plans to reuse the Cargo Dragons up to five times. The launch window for the Resupply mission is on 08/28/2021 07:37 UTC from Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA.
SpaceX will launch the cargo variant of its Dragon 2 spacecraft on their 23rd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.Dragon will be filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support science and research investigations that occur onboard the orbiting laboratory. (Source: rocketlaunchschedule.com).

Up next is Rocket Lab’s Love at First Insight. According to Rocket Lab, “ Scheduled to lift-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula in late August, the ‘Love At First Insight’ mission will be Rocket Lab’s 22nd Electron launch overall and fifth mission of 2021. ‘Love At First Insight’ is the first in a rapid succession of scheduled Electron launches between late August through September that represent the company’s fastest launch turnarounds to date. The ‘Love At First Insight’ mission is the latest in a multi-launch agreement signed earlier this year for BlackSky between Rocket Lab and Spaceflight Inc., which is providing integration and mission management services for BlackSky. This mission will deploy the eighth and ninth satellites of BlackSky’s planned constellation as part of that rapid-launch agreement, with another four Gen-2 smallsats across the two additional Electron dedicated missions to follow.” (Source: Rocketlabusa.com).

And that’s a wrap for today’s news update. Stay tuned for another exciting update coming soon!