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Rob Ferl

American - (BO)

Occasional Spaceflight


Rob is a distinguished professor and director of the Astraeus Space Institute at the University of Florida. He has spent his career studying how living organisms respond to extreme conditions, especially microgravity. He and his colleagues have worked with NASA astronauts to conduct numerous experiments on the International Space Station that have shown that plants turn certain genes on and off in response to changes in gravity. They were also the first to prove that plants could grow in lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions. Ferl is also a national leader in space policy, having recently chaired a National Academies of Sciences committee on the direction of space biology research over the next decade.

New Shepard | NS-26

Blue Origin | United States of America
Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA
Aug. 29, 2024, 1:07 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Twenty-sixth flight of New Shepard carrying six passengers.

Suborbital NS-4 - Flight Proven ( ) Corn Ranch, West Texas
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CEO: Jeff Bezos

Blue Origin is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos with its headquarters in Kent, Washington. The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin currently launches its New Shepard sub-orbital vehicle from its West Texas launch site, they are currently constructing a launch pad for their orbital vehicle New Glenn at Cape Canaveral LC-36.


Falcon 9
Success
3 hours, 54 minutes ago
Starlink Group 10-10
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon Heavy
Success
17 hours, 58 minutes ago
Europa Clipper
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Europa Clipper is the first dedicated mission to study Jupiter's moon Europa. Mission is developed by NASA and comprises of an orbiter spacecraft, wh…


Starship
Success
1 day, 21 hours ago
Integrated Flight Test 5
Orbital Launch Mount A - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

Fifth test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle.


Long March 3
Success
4 days, 20 hours ago
WHG-03
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese communication satellite with name meaning "Satellite Internet - High Orbit Satellite 03" in Chinese. Details TBD.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Hera
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Hera is a space mission in development at the European Space Agency in its Space Safety program. Its primary objective is to study the Didymos binary…