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Roman Launch Countdown, Solar Flare Watch & SpaceX Louisiana Megaport
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is four days from launch, a powerful M6.9 solar flare has triggered geomagnetic storm watches, and SpaceX just announced a $100 billion Louisiana spaceport. Six stories shaping the week in space.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches Sunday. Four days out, and the countdown is real.
Out at the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot are on their second spacewalk to finish installing a replacement antenna on the Z1 truss. The first attempt, on August eighteenth, ran out of time.
The Sun had a busy Tuesday. A powerful M6.9 solar flare erupted from sunspot region forty-five thirteen on August twenty-fifth, and it was Earth-directed.
SpaceX announced a hundred billion dollar investment in a new spaceport in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. One hundred and twenty-five thousand acres.
The August twenty-sixth Starlink launch from Vandenberg was, by SpaceX's own account, the last planned Starlink mission on a Florida Falcon 9. Future Starlink launches move to Starship.
NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program has selected eighteen Phase One projects, sharing three point two million dollars. The concepts include femtosatellites designed for Saturn, spacecraft hardened to survive Venus conditions, and proposals involving solar-blocking dust structures.
The clearest thing to track this week is straightforward: Roman's Launch Readiness Review on Friday, and the weather window Sunday. If it scrubs, watch for how quickly backup windows get set.
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