July 28, 2024

Could We Set Uranus on Fire to Steal its Hidden Diamonds? (Source: New Scientist)
Burning a material and examining its light through a method called spectroscopy is one of the best ways to determine its chemical composition. For another, the deep interiors of the ice giant planets remain murky and mysterious, so burning away the outer layers could reveal what is beneath. But the interior of Uranus isn’t just mysterious; it also may be full of iceberg-like chunks of diamond. (7/23)

What it Was Like to Live in NASA'S CHAPEA Mars Simulation for a Year (Source: Business Insider)
When Ross Brockwell emerged from a 1,700-square-foot habitat, meant to simulate life on Mars, after 378 days, he wanted to see his loved ones, eat some seafood, and jump in the ocean. But a small part of him had hoped that when the habitat's doors opened on July 6, he'd be on the red planet for real instead of in Houston. Click here. (7/26)

SpaceX Drone Incident Sees Tourist Jailed in South Texas (Source: My San Antonio)
A SpaceX tourist found himself in handcuffs this weekend after he attempted to get a closer look at its mega rockets and launch site. The astronautics company is filing charges against the man for flying his drone over its South Texas facility. On Saturday, July 20, reports of a drone over SpaceX property brought the police. The launch pad area is considered a critical infrastructure as per the Texas Government Code. (7/26)

SpaceX Returns to Form with California Starlink Launch (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Hours after a successful liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX completed a second Falcon 9 flight, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff of the Starlink 9-4 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 2:22 a.m. PDT. (7/28)

Florida Launches Reach 52 with Sunday Starlink Launch (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites on July 28 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. This was the 14th flight of its first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This marked the 300th successful reflight of a booster. It also marked 52 Space Coast launches thus far in 2024, 49 by SpaceX, and 3 by ULA (1 Vulcan, 1 Delta IV Heavy, 1 Atlas V). (7/28)

NASA CADRE Moon Rovers Test Autonomous Exploration of Lunar Surface (Source: New Scientist)
Inside a cleanroom at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, three moon rovers undergo final checks before being attached to flight hardware, ahead of a proposed launch later this year. The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration rovers, or CADRE for short, are a technology test of what NASA calls a multi-agent autonomous rover. (7/28)