After about a month of delays due to a helium leak and review of its propulsion system, Boeing and NASA are ready to launch the final test flight of the Commercial Crew Program, Starliner Crewed Flight Test.

On board are NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, veteran Navy aviators, test pilots, and astronauts, that will make sure Starliner is ready for crewed operations. Liftoff on an Atlas V is planned for 12:25 P.M. ET on Saturday June 1.

Backup windows exist for tomorrow, June 2, with further windows on June 5 and 6.

Live launch coverage is provided via NASA’s streaming services on the agency’s website, your TV, and on YouTube.

Announced late Friday evening here in the US, the dearMoon mission to launch a team of artists and athletes around the Moon is no more. Its creator canceled the mission due to no near-term schedule certainty.

Alongside possibly two other missions, SpaceX is launching a science mission co-sponsored by ESA and JAXA, beating both agencies home-built rockets. This week we’ll also see a resupply mission to the ISS by Russia and two mysterious launches from a Chinese company within a few days of each other.

For the fourth time, Boeing’s Starliner CFT makes an appearance as it struggles with leakage and propellent issues in the spacecraft’s service module.

It seems like this is again not Starliner’s week, as NASA and Boeing pushing the launch of the first crewed Starliner spaceflight back from the May 25th launch date. The new launch date is no earlier than June 1, one week later. However what is going on with Starliner is less than clear.

This week will be the third week in a row the headline launch is supposed to be Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test. SpaceX is also planning another banger of a week with three launches and Rocket Lab shows up again.

Whether you believe AI is the future of humanity’s next greatest step or it will slowly destroy the world, it is here to stay. NASA believes this too as this week they announced they have appointed one of their chief civil servants to the role of Chief AI Officer.

ULA announced last week that it will be building a second cargo ship capable of transporting its Vulcan rocket hardware from its factory in Decatur, Alabama and its launch sites on both the East and West Coasts. The press release also emphasizes the importance Amazon‘s Kuiper satellite constellation plays in Vulcan’s launch services.

Following a long delay in flights, Blue Origin is returning to crewed spaceflight missions for its New Shepard rocket, with a launch date scheduled for May 19. The missions will carry six customers to an altitude just above the Karman Line.

Once again the big story this week will be the reattempt of Boeing’s CFT mission to the International Space Station. After a week of analysis, ULA is changing out a valve on the rockets upper stage which is what caused the abort last week.

Over the last few weeks, SpaceX has hit the major 20 flight milestone on not one but three separate boosters. The company is moving on and hoping to now get way more launches out of what was supposed to be a ten flight limit.

After an extremely smooth countdown and crew egress, ULA controllers called a scrub Starliner’s Crewed Flight Test a few hours before planned liftoff due to a misbehaving valve. While the problem is a known issue by ULA, it will take a few days to trouble shoot, meaning the next launch attempt won’t be until at least Friday.

In a report by Reuters, the publication uncovered SpaceX‘s continued high injury rates have yet to come down from years prior. For some locations, SpaceX is over nine times higher than the industry average.

By the end of the week the International Space Station will be fully ready to support Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight with an opening on the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony Module. This will be completed with the reshuffling of two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

This week SpaceX will attempt another three launch week, with two of those mission scheduled from the West Coast. The headline mission for the week will actually come out of China, a Long March 5 rocket is scheduled to liftoff Friday with the country’s next lunar sample return mission, this time from the far side of the Moon.

Over the last few weeks NASA has announced a plethora of partnerships and contracts for lunar rovers that astronauts will eventually use on future Artemis missions. Those rovers will of course need a ride to the Moon, which will come in the like of cargo variants of NASA’s HLS landers, Starship and Blue Moon.

Last week Boeing and ULA rolled a Starliner spacecraft from the former’s facilities on Kennedy Space Center to the latter’s launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. With that, final checkouts are underway before two NASA astronauts climb inside and fly it to the ISS and back.

The United States space industrial base is currently facing significant challenges due to a surge in demand for small satellites, which are crucial for national security space programs. This rising demand is revealing vulnerabilities in the supply chain as the military seeks rapid deployment of satellite constellations. 

This week we’re looking to be a rather busy one with a launch everyday from either SpaceX, China, and Rocket Lab up to Friday. China will be launching its next crew rotation to their space station and SpaceX might have a four launch week.

The FAA has made a new rule that any spacecraft that plans to reenter after launch must obtain its reentry license from the administration prior to launch. This was created out of safety concerns and experiences learned during granting Varda Space the first ever Part 450 reentry license.

One year ago SpaceX launched its first fully integrated Starship rocket, which in my opinion is the start of the Starship era of spaceflight. While that mission was far from 100% successful, this new era is truly changing the way people look at the future of heavy lift rockets.

In what I’ve always viewed as a bold move by NASA, since 2021 Perseverance has been collecting Martian core samples for future return. The issue is a return plan wasn’t finalized or paid for before launch, which in recent years has been under attack by Congress who wants a lighter budget. On Monday NASA conceded to complaints that it’s too expensive.

NASA revealed its comprehensive Space Sustainability Strategy April 9, aiming to tackle the escalating threats posed by space debris in Earth’s orbit. This initiative, as detailed by NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy during the 39th Space Symposium, prioritizes understanding the complex nature of space sustainability and developing methods to mitigate associated risks.