Apollo-era Saturn V rocket lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, exhaust plume billowing across the launch pad.

Weekly · mission briefings for space enthusiasts

T-minus nothing.
The missions are already flying.

One dispatch a week. Launch windows, orbital telemetry, and the instruments returning data right now — written by people who read the flight logs, not the press release.

NASA · Apollo Program · public domain

MET: 011:42:06
Altitude: 406.0 km
Velocity: 27,536 km/h

Latest dispatch

Issue 47 · sent 07:42 UTC

Panoramic view from the Perseverance rover of the layered delta terrain inside Jezero Crater, Mars, with the rover's own hardware visible in the foreground. — NASA/JPL-Caltech · Perseverance Mastcam-Z · Jezero Crater16:9 · public domain

Europa Clipper’s first close pass returns radar through the ice.

T-plus six days. Europa Clipper crossed 2,750 km from the surface at 06:14 UTC — the closest approach of the primary mission. Ice-penetrating radar stayed live for the entire pass, and the returns came back clean on the first attempt.

REASON, the spacecraft’s dual-frequency radar sounder, logged a subsurface signature consistent with liquid water starting near 40 km depth. Nine more flybys are scheduled through 2027, each one tightening the orbit and adding coverage.

Read the full flight log

Flight log · recent dispatches

Artemis II SLS rocket climbing away from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, engine plume glowing bright orange against a grey sky. — NASA/Kennedy Space Center · Artemis II · 1 Apr 202616:9 · public domain

No. 04631 Jul

Artemis II clears the tower.

Crewed SLS launch from Kennedy Space Center — four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon.

Astronaut aboard the International Space Station holding a partially assembled Extravehicular Mobility Unit backpack, surrounded by station equipment. — NASA · ISS Expedition 10 · EVA hardware prep16:9 · public domain

No. 04524 Jul

A spare suit gets rebuilt in orbit.

Expedition 10 crew reconfigures Orlan hardware inside the Pirs airlock ahead of a scheduled EVA.

Carina Nebula star-forming region imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing towering columns of gas and dust lit by nearby young stars. — NASA/ESA/Hubble · Carina Nebula · Cosmic Cliffs16:9 · public domain

No. 04417 Jul

Webb resolves the pillars in infrared.

New near-infrared exposures of the Carina Nebula's star-forming columns, deeper than any prior optical pass.

Downlink · one dispatch, no scroll-bait

One dispatch. Every Friday. Five minutes, no scroll-bait.

Each issue covers one mission event in depth — a flyby, a burn, a landing, an instrument milestone — plus a shortlist of what else moved this week. Written from the flight log, not the press release.

Space Dispatch

dispatch@spacedispatch.mail

07:42

Dispatch 47: Europa Clipper’s first close pass

Issue 47 · 5 min read

T-plus six days. Europa Clipper crossed 2,750 km from the surface at 06:14 UTC, closest of the primary mission. Ice-penetrating radar was live for the full pass.

“We got radar returns through the crust on the first try. That almost never happens.”

REASON magnetometer confirmed a subsurface ocean signature at 40 km depth.
Nine more flybys scheduled through 2027, each tightening the orbit.
Next dispatch covers the thermal imaging pass over Tara Regio.

Full telemetry log and pass geometry below.

Copy checked,
Renata Voss
Mission desk, Space Dispatch

From the crew list

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Priya Raghunathan
Amateur radio operator, tracks ISS passes

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Tom Averill
Physics teacher, runs the school observatory club

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Devon Iyer
Backyard astrophotographer