Several significant missions were scheduled for this week, including the third lunar lander to launch in just over a month. The Intuitive Machines-2 (IM-2) mission will explore and analyze the Moon’s subsurface, testing new technologies and paving the way for future lunar missions. NASA is also set to launch its SPHEREx observatory, which will map hundreds of millions of galaxies to study the origins of the universe, uncover “cosmic inflation,” and search for the building blocks of life.
In addition to these two Falcon 9 missions, SpaceX also launched two Starlink missions, while Starship’s eighth flight test will now launch no earlier than Wednesday, March 5, following a scrub on Monday’s attempt. Blue Origin’s crewed missions resumed on Tuesday when New Shepard launched a crew of six past the Kármán line.
Internationally, Roscosmos has launched the MS-30 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and also launched a navigation satellite. The second launch attempt of Europe’s Ariane 6 has also been postponed to Wednesday, with further work being required on ground support equipment. China also attempted to launch two missions this week.