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Starship's First Orbital Flight & Mars' Three Water Episodes | Sep 28
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
SpaceX launches Starship Flight 14 on its first-ever orbital attempt today, carrying 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites into orbit for the first time. Plus, Perseverance reveals Mars had liquid water not once but three distinct times — rewriting the planet's wet history.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Tomorrow, SpaceX will attempt something it has never done before. Starship Flight 14 has received full FAA orbital launch approval, and the window opens September twenty-eighth.
Flight 14 also carries the first real cargo Starship has ever flown. Twenty-six Starlink V3 satellites are slated for deployment, making this the first time Starship has attempted to place operational hardware into orbit.
Two technical uncertainties are worth holding onto. The Super Heavy booster will attempt an ocean landing after stage separation, and SpaceX has made hardware and software modifications to fix engine relight failures seen in earlier flights.
Shift now to Mars, where Perseverance has produced one of the more consequential findings of its mission. A new analysis of three hundred and fifty-six bedrock samples from Jezero Crater's Margin Unit reveals that ancient igneous rocks there interacted with liquid water not once but at least three distinct times.
Two things to track in the next forty-eight hours. First, whether Starship reaches orbit and deploys its payload cleanly.
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