The volunteer link for the Plano Balloon Festival is here.
Saturday’s DARC SkyNet is at 9PM CT.
Send Your Name to the Moon
Presented by: Keith K5KVJ
Crowley, Texas, USA
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Discussion Topic of the Evening.
The Dragonfly Mission
Dragonfly Entry, Descent, and Landing
On Titan’s Surface (Artist’s Concept)
Concept Artist Lift-off From Surface
Waz Up
Space Exploration and Space History
Space Exploration News
Sophie Adenot Becomes First French Woman to Perform a Spacewalk (August 18, 2026)
Rocket Lab Launches iQPS Earth-Observing Satellite (August 20, 2026)
White House Announces New National Space Transportation Policy (August 21, 2026)
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Rescue Mission Confirmed Failed (August 21, 2026)
Space-Related Birthdays
| Astronaut | Birthday | Birth Year | Flights | Notes |
| Stuart Roosa | August 16 | 1933 | Apollo 14 | Command Module Pilot for Apollo 14 who carried hundreds of tree seeds (“Moon Trees”) into orbit around the Moon that were later germinated on Earth. |
| Valeri Ryumin | August 16 | 1939 | Soyuz 25, Soyuz 32, Soyuz 35, STS-91 | Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and flight engineer who logged over 371 days in space across four missions, including long-duration stays on the Salyut 6 station. |
| Kathryn C. Thornton | August 17 | 1952 | STS-33, STS-49, STS-61, STS-73 | American scientist and NASA astronaut who logged over 40 days in space and performed three spacewalks, including the first servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| Sergey Treshchov | August 18 | 1958 | STS-111, Expedition 5, STS-113 | Russian cosmonaut who logged over 184 days in space as flight engineer on ISS Expedition 5 and performed a spacewalk to install space-to-ground antennas. |
| Story Musgrave | August 19 | 1935 | STS-6, STS-51-F, STS-33, STS-44, STS-61, STS-80 | Retired NASA astronaut and physician who flew on six Space Shuttle flights, performed the first Space Shuttle spacewalk on STS-6, and served on the first Hubble servicing mission. |
| Charles F. Bolden Jr. | August 19 | 1946 | STS-61-C, STS-31, STS-45, STS-60 | Marine Corps major general and NASA astronaut who piloted the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-31) and later served as the 12th Administrator of NASA. |
| Mike Massimino | August 19 | 1962 | STS-109, STS-125 | American engineer and NASA astronaut who logged over 23 days in space across two shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, performing four spacewalks. |
| Jean-Loup Chétien | August 20 | 1938 | Soyuz T-6, Soyuz TM-7, STS-86 | French retired Air Force brigadier general and CNES astronaut who became the first Western European in space during his 1982 mission to the Salyut 7 space station. |
| Gerald P. Carr | August 22 | 1932 | Skylab 4 | Retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and NASA astronaut who commanded Skylab 4, the final crewed mission to the Skylab space station, logging over 84 days in space. |
This Week in Space History
Glide Flight of NASA’s Wingless M2-F1 Lifting Body August 16, 1963
Discovery of Martian Moon Phobos August 17, 1877
Discovery of Helium in the Solar Spectrum August 18, 1868
Sputnik 5 Safely Returns Space Dogs Belka and Strelka August 19, 1960
Launch of NASA’s Voyager 2 Interstellar Probe August 20, 1977
Launch of Gemini 5 Crewed Spaceflight Mission August 21, 1965
Record-Breaking X-15 Flight by Captain Joe Walker August 22, 1963
Miss Carolyn’s Constellation of the Week
Constellation “Sagittarius the Centaur”
Space Launches For This Week
Space Flight Now Launch Schedule
August 25 Falcon 9 • Starlink 10-49
Launch time: Window opens at 1:49 a.m. EDT (0549 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. The first-stage booster, tail number B1067, launching for a 37th time, is scheduled to land on the droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, in the Atlantic Ocean.
Updated: August 15
August 25 Falcon 9 • Starlink 15-22
Launch time: Window opens at 9:44 a.m. PDT (12:44 p.m. EDT / 1644 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. The first-stage booster, tail number B1082, launching for a 24th time, is scheduled to land on the droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, in the Pacific Ocean.
Updated: August 15
NET August 27 Ariane 6 • MTG-I2
Launch time: Window opens at 5:10 p.m. local time (4:10 p.m. EDT / 2010 UTC)
Launch site: Europe’s Spaceport, Kourou, French Guiana
An Arianespace Ariane 62 rocket, the two-booster variant of the Ariane 6 launcher, will launch the second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) to a geostationary transfer orbit. The mission is a partnership between the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT. This will be the fourth Ariane 6 rocket launch of the year and the ninth to date.
Updated: August 11
NET August 30 Falcon Heavy • Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Launch time: 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 UTC)
Launch site: Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the agency’s next great observatory. Roman carries onboard two main instruments: the 300-megapixel infrared camera called the Wide Field Instrument and a coronagraph. It will carry out a minimum five-year mission capture detailed images of the universe at a dramatically faster rate than the Hubble Space Telescope, even with a primary mirror that’s the same size as Hubble’s. Watch a preview of the mission.
Updated: July 30
NET September 12 Falcon 9 • NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13
Launch time: 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft, tail number C-213 and named Grace, on its second flight to the International Space Station. The first stage booster, tail number B1101, launching for a third time, will return to Landing Zone 40, adjacent to the launch pad. The Crew-13 mission is led by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who is making her second trip to space and will become the first, active NASA astronaut to fly twice onboard a Dragon spacecraft. She’s joined by three, first-time fliers: NASA astronaut and pilot Luke Delaney; Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut and mission specialist Joshua Kutryk; and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Sergey Teteryatnikov. The four will spend about six months on the ISS as part of Expedition 75/76.
Updated: August 15
September 14/15 Vega-C • Sentinel-3C and FLEX Earth Explorer
Launch time: 10:21 p.m. Kourou time (9:21 p.m. EDT / 0121 UTC)
Launch site: Europe’s Spaceport, Kourou, French Guiana
An Avio Vega-C will launch the Sentinel-3C satellite, from the European Commission’s Copernicus program, and the FLEX (FLuorescence EXplorer) satellite, from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Explorer program, to a Sun-synchronous Earth orbit at an altitude of 820 km with an inclination of 98.6 degrees. Both satellites were built by prime contractor Thales Alenia Space along with other European companies. The mission, also designated VV30, is the second Vega-C flight managed by Avio and the eighth flight of a Vega-C rocket to date.
Updated: July 30
NET Q4 2026 Alpha • FLTA008
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: SLC-2, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
A Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket will launch on mission for a yet unannounced customer. This will be the debut of the Block 2 iteration of the rocket, which features larger liquid oxygen tanks on both the first and second stages, increasing the overall length of the rocket by two meters. Delayed from Summer 2026.
Updated: August 11