SpaceX is about to do the impossible

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Launchpad Newsletter
August 06, 2024

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Breaking Down the Business of Space for People on Earth

Welcome to the Launchpad Newsletter, your top source for political, economic, and social developments in the New Space Economy, built by real entrepreneurs shaping it.

Ready-for-launch into the insights of the most impactful industry of the 21st Century.

This Week’s Next-Gen Newsflash

🚀 SpaceX Falcon 9 returns to flight after only two weeks of being grounded

🛰️ The Pentagon is going all in on satellites, giving out millions in contracts

💸 New space company wins $480 million in military contracts

These cannabis gummies keep selling out in 2024

If you've ever struggled to enjoy cannabis due to the harshness of smoking or vaping, you're not alone. That’s why these new cannabis gummies caught our eye.

Mood is an online dispensary that has invented a “joint within a gummy” that’s extremely potent yet federally-legal. Their gummies are formulated to tap into the human body’s endocannabinoid system.

Although this system was discovered in the 1990’s, farmers and scientists at Mood were among the first to figure out how to tap into it with cannabis gummies. Just 1 of their rapid onset THC gummies can get you feeling right within 5 minutes!

Today’s Subject of Space: Starship’s High-Stakes 5th Flight Test.

SpaceX is about to do the impossible. Again.

As SpaceX gears up for the fifth flight test of its Starship vehicle, set for late August, the aerospace community is abuzz with anticipation. CEO Elon Musk has highlighted the particularly ambitious goal for this flight: attempting to catch the Starship with the launch tower’s mechanical "chopsticks," a method designed to recover the vehicle efficiently and safely.

In the 2010s, SpaceX pulled off what critics once thought was impossible by safely landing a rocket booster back on Earth, opening the floodgates for hardware reusability and the beginnings of the New Space Economy. And now, a full recovery of Starship will lead to the next great leap.

The upcoming fifth flight test represents a leap forward in SpaceX’s mission to revolutionize space travel with 100% reusability in their rockets. The attempt to catch the Starship with the chopstick tower, also known as Mechazilla, is noteworthy for several reasons:

  • Enhanced Reusability: Successfully catching the Starship with the launch tower's arms would significantly reduce turnaround time and refurbishment costs, pushing the boundaries of what reusable spaceflight can achieve.

  • Operational Efficiency: This method promises to streamline the recovery process, reducing the need for complex and costly landing gear and recovery operations.

  • Technological Innovation: This bold attempt underscores SpaceX’s commitment to pioneering new technologies and methods, setting new benchmarks for the aerospace industry.

As SpaceX builds on the lessons learned from the previous tests, the fifth flight not only aims to validate these advancements but also to establish a new standard for spacecraft recovery.

Should this ambitious test succeed, it will not only mark a historic achievement for SpaceX but also for the future of space exploration, bringing humanity one step closer to sustainable interplanetary travel.

State of the New Space Economy

  • Looking for a job in the aerospace sector? Click here to explore open positions at Blue Origin. As always, they’re poaching top talent from across the country to fuel their rapid rise!

  • The space economy employed 360,000 jobs in the private sector alone as of 2021, growing ~5% annually. (Maybe we should add job listings join our newsletter topic lineup?)

Top Space Creators to Follow in 2024

📸 Instagram: All Around Science (442k followers)

👔 LinkedIn: G. Pettit (11k followers)

✖️ X: Curiosity Rover (4.2m followers)

📽️ TikTok: AstroKobi (2.7m followers)

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