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So, what is NASA up to with their SR-71? What Is NASA Doing With Its Old Blackbird? | 27:01 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 304,352 views | October 13, 2026

Deep Space Updates - Space News Laying out all the space stories from the last couple of weeks, SpaceX managed the feat of launching all 3 of it's Falcon 9 variants in one day, and that was 3 days after launching Starship to Orbit for the first time on flight 14. Rocket Lab signed a deal which will mean they'll build more boosters than SpaceX did for Falcon 9, NASA has a new space telescope, ESA's JUICE visited the Earth again. Blue Origin Taller Lunar Lander, SpaceX Launches All Its Rockets - Deep Space Updates Oct 6th | 35:27 Scott...

Last month I spent a few hours talking with scientists at Science Systems and Applications Inc. about their work, both their internal projects within SSAI and their support for NASA projects and the broader Moon to Mars Architecture. We talk about exploring the moon using spacecraft that were designed to study the earth. Evidence for water on the moon and proposals to study the flows of water around the surface. Space weather hazards. Asteroid impacts and impacting asteroids and why Mars needs a weather forecast if we're really going to explore it. The Questions We Need To Answer, The Solutions...

In 2007 a spacecraft was launched with a special tether experiment named 'YES2' - this was planned to deploy a 30km tether and swing it like a pendulum to return a payload to Earth without using rockets. It holds the record for the longest object ever deployed in space, but, we don't know what happened to the return capsule. World's Largest Slingshot Threw A Spacecraft To Earth! | 14:54 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 103,941 views | September 30, 2026

[snip] In July I paid a visit to Lawrence Livermore National Labs which hosts the fastest supercomputer in the US, a couple of months earlier it was the fastest supercomputer in the world, but Moore's law means computer supremacy is fleeting. El Capitan is an exaflop scale system, meaning is can run 10^18 calculations per second (a billion, billion), and this is measured by benchmarks that require tight cooperation between it's thousands of corse. There are datacenters with many more processors, but those may not perform at the same level because of the interconnectedness required for this kind of task....

Answering a question from my supporters over at Patreon - 'Assuming there will be mining and smelting operations on the moon, how would you launch the resultant products into lunar, or even earth, orbit? Spin-launch, chemical rockets, electro-magnetic angled ramp, or other?' Launching From The Moon With Silicon Based Rocket Fuel And Other Ideas - Deep Space Questions | 26:23 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 518,106 views | April 11, 2025

Stoke space just closed another Billion dollar investment round making them probably the most successful space startup in terms of investment before they make their first launch. And as part of this they unveiled the Block 2 version of their fully reusable launch vehicle, it increases the mass to orbit by a factor of 6, but also, gives us space watchers a lot of questions about how exactly that upper stage will manage reentry. The Billion Dollar Bet On Redesigning The Reusable Rocket | 19:14 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 237,778 views | September 9, 2026

When people think about rocket fuels, they don't think of water at the top of their list, but water has been a key material in many serious studies on exploring the solar system and refueling in space. And it turns out that water electrolysis propulsion makes engineering sense for many applications. Using Water As Rocket Fuel - Is This The Future of Space Exploration? | 20:13 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 24,669 views | August 13, 2026

This morning a Long March 7A rocket launching from Wengchang in China suffered a dramatic failure close to Max-Q. We don't have much in the way of details of the launch or its payload but a selection of videos posted on China's social media support the conclusion that a structural failure due to launch loads. The rocket is seen to bend at the interstage between the 2nd and 3rd stage leading to the destruction of the vehicle. China's Rocket Literally Bent Under Pressure! | 9:57 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 263,458 views | August 10, 2026

There are so many satellites its breaking old satellite tracking systems, the US Space Track began tracking satellites in the 1950's and the standard 'Two Line Element' or TLE format only allowed for 5 digit identifiers. The world just blew past that number! It's Official, There Are Too Many Satellites! | 17:32 Scott Manley | 117,769 views | July 15, 2026

SpaceX has been moving at an incredible pace this week! Ship 40 completes a full six-engine static fire, Ship 41 begins cryogenic testing (twice), Ship 42 enters production, Booster 21 finishes stacking and Booster 22 is already underway. We also check out the latest Starbase Pad 1 and Pad 2 construction, plus huge progress at Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A and LC-37. Blue Origin has revealed major changes to New Glenn following the launch pad explosion, NASA has announced new Moon missions, Falcon 9, Atlas V and Amazon Kuiper continue launching, Rocket Lab acquires Iridium, the Canadarm2 is repaired during an...

SpaceX may have just dropped its biggest hint yet about what comes after Starship Flight 13. Indeed, FINALLY! Starship's Next Giant Leap may be here as the new filings point toward an Orbital Return Demo that could mark the next major milestone on the road to full reusability. With that work continues at Starbase on Pads 1 and 2, the Gigabay, and future launch infrastructure. Elsewhere this week, we cover Falcon 9 launches carrying BlueBird satellites, Starlink, and another classified NRO mission, Cargo Dragon’s return from the International Space Station, Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander preparing for launch, Ariane 6’s impressive...

We've been hearing stories about the ongoing leaks on the ISS for years now, but a recent story highlighted NASA's concerns with a plan that might have been far more risky. I wanted to go back and explain the nature of the problem, and how the repairs are more than just slapping flex seal tape over the cracks. An accepted way to fix cracks in thin sheets is to drill a clean hole to distribute the stress over a larger area, stopping the crack from propagating further. Drilling Holes In The Space Station To Fix Leaks In The Space Station...

The Artemis III announcement included the crew selection, but more importantly it gave us a look at what Blue Origin & SpaceX will be building and flying for the mission, and neither represent the full HLS hardware they're supposed to deliver for the lunar missions. Artemis III Won't Use Real Landers.... And That's OK. | 20:58 Scott Manley | 1.86M subscribers | 38,888 views | June 14, 2026

In the last two weeks Starship flight 12 was the biggest thing launched, and it might even look like the biggest story in spaceflight news, but that doesn't mean we can ignore all the other stuff going on! We have a new crew on China's space station, some cool new satellites. Stoke space is testing their booster and Blue Origin are cleared to fly New Glenn, again. Starship V3 Debut, China's New Crew, Goonhilly Sold, SpaceX Financial Details - Deep Space Updates | 35:25 Scott Manley | 1.86M subscribers | 49,677 views | May 26, 2026

In the last week SpaceX has acquired XAI and presumably related to that they submitted plans to the FCC exploring the construction of a compute cluster in Earth orbit with one million spacecraft. So, I try to use Universe Sandbox to visualize this.... and it's not easy. For technical reasons this is a limited version visualizing the kind of orbits we expect, but you can play with it yourself if you own Universe Sandbox. What Would SpaceX's Space Datacenter Plans Look Like? | 11:31 Scott Manley | 1.83M subscribers | 50,409 views | February 10, 2026

[snip] Posted With Permission of Don Ross. Recorded at Trinity United Church in Cannington (Ontario, Canada) on Saturday, September 15, 2001. Tuning: DADFCE [/snip]Wall of Glass (Don Ross) | 6:54Bruce Head | 553 subscribers | 19,596 views | March 17, 2007

Intuitive Machines have successfully soft landed on the Moon, carrying a number of payloads for NASA, this represents a return to the moon for the USA. However far more significantly, it's the first purely commercial lander to land on the surface of the moon, and the first lunar lander to use purely cryogenic propellents for all its deep space maneuvering. Both of these factors are core to NASA's Artemis program, and so seeing success here is important to NASA's plans.However.It's far from a perfect success, because it appears to have fallen over during the landing, and this is limiting the...

[snip] ...In the suit, however, shareholders claim that Amazon "acted in bad faith" and made no effort to properly discharge their fiduciary duties when picking the launch providers. They primarily claim that SpaceX, the leader within the industry was glossed over and not even considered when making the decision. If that were the case, they would have a valid point considering the cost per launch and timeline these satellites are meant to launch by... [/snip]Amazon Shareholders Think SpaceX Should Have Been Picked For Kuiper Launches | 8:06TheSpaceBucket | 23.3K subscribers | 17,895 views | September 1, 2023

As a spacewalk was being planned to move a radiator onto a new module on the space station a cooling system on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was seen leaking into space. This resulted in the space walk being cancelled and the crew investigating this problem while trying to limit effects on the station's scientific experiments.Will Leaking Russian Spaceship Leave The Crew Stranded In Space?Scott Manley | 1.53M subscribers | 196,864 views | December 15, 2022