The News from Space: Week of 2/16/20

The Chinese Long March 7 Heavy Lift Rocket in Wenchang, Hainan province.

Credit: SpaceFlight Insider

SpaceX builds and misses-----The hottest new startup-----China's mystery satellite

The week of 2/16/20

For a broad overview of the most important recent events in the space world, go HERE.

SpaceX's construction of Starship, the spacecraft Elon Musk plans to mass-produce and send thousands of people to Mars in within the next decade, continues in Boca Chica, Texas at an astronomical rate. 

On the flip side, one of SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 first stage boosters failed to land on a drone ship and "soft-landed" (crash-landed) in the Atlantic after sending a batch of 60 Starlink satellites to low earth orbit.

Both topics covered in much greater detail HERE.

The hottest new startup in the space industry, Astra, (which only recently unveiled itself to the public after emerging from "stealth mode") won a DARPA competition to launch a small, undisclosed payload into orbit. Astra will be launching out of Kodiak Spaceport, Alaska.

Much more on this HERE.

Yes, but what is China doing?

- The CNSA is pushing through recent coronavirus related setbacks and proceeding with the launch of a mysterious, "technology verification satellite" (ah, of course) on the heavy-lift Long March 7A from the tropical Chinese equivalent to Cape Canaveral.

Learn more HERE.

It is also imperative that you watch THIS. 

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Have a good weekend y'all.

Harry Thomas is a junior in the College studying Economics and Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA). He is a Co-President and Co-Founder of Georgetown University Space Initiative.