In Case You Missed It // Spaceflight Updates // Aug 26, 2025

Hello everybody, welcome to tomorrow. While everybody is waiting for Starship to launch, there is a lot of things that have been happening in the spaceflight industry. So, in case you missed it, here's just a handful of highlights of things that have been happening that I'm really excited about. First off, on August 23rd, SpaceX launched the CRS33 Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. But this particular one was special. Yes, it had a whole bunch of supplies, including a whole bunch of tortillas, which the internet loves for some reason. But more interesting to me is the boost trunk. We finally got a look at what the boost trunk looks like with six small fuel tanks, a pressurization tank, a recognizable COPV tank in the center there, and then it also has two Draco thrusters in the back so that when they do the boost maneuver at the International Space Station, the thrusters are pointed in the correct d. For reference, the Dragon capsule has 16 Draco thrusters used for its attitude control system. But with this system right here, just the addition of this small handful of fuel tanks, they are able to do as many, if not more boosts than the Progress resupply vehicle. As a matter of fact, at a recent press briefing, SpaceX said that they could do essentially one and a half times the amount of boosts and the amount of delta V that the Progress vehicle does, which is just awesome. In that same press briefing, which I will link down below with a timestamp of the important part about this boost trunk, they said that the mounting hardware would be permanent. I misunderstood thinking that the boost trunk would be a permanent upgrade for the Dragon capsule, but rather the mounting points for the fuel tanks and the extra Draco thrusters will be a permanent addition to the boost trunk from now on. And if NASA wants to utilize that capability for future ISS reboosts or any other purpose, SpaceX can do so easily. which also means that other customers like Vast or Polaris could also utilize that extra capability. Moving right along though, Rocket Lab launched a mission for an unknown customer and the name of their mission is live, laugh, launch, which uh might be a little cringe, but also is kind of hilarious. In any case, we don't know who the customer was, but there was five small satellites on board this mission and apparently everything went off successfully for Rocket Lab's 70th mission with Electron overall. So, congratulations Rocket Lab. But in addition to that, Rocket Lab has finished the acquisition of another space company called Geost. And what Geost does is a lot of optical and infrared systems used for military satellites uh like for missile tracking which goes to show that Rocket Lab has their ambitions of getting into the military satellite game which they are already in because of their Victus Haze spacecraft that they're already building right now for the Space Force and might be launching as soon as early next year. So just another tick of boxes for capabilities that Rocket Lab now offers as an endto-end space company as they seem to be evolving in my opinion into a space agency. So keep it up Rocket Lab. Now, also there is another really interesting story that you might have missed when it comes to Firefly Aerospace who has signed an agreement with a Japanese aerospace company to potentially launch from Japan. There's a really great article about it over at the Launchpad Network. So, I'm going to link that in the description below because there's some really interesting information here. Uh this is a company that is based in Hokkaido in Taiko Town which is the same area where Honda recently tested their small reusable rocket and it's evolving into a real spaceport. As a matter of fact, they have outlined plans for where they are going to be launching. They have two launch pads right now. One of them is used already for small scale stuff and that might even be the same site where Honda did its uh small little re uh reusable test from. However, the agreement is studying the possibility of launching Fireflyy's Alpha rocket, their smaller rocket, uh the one that they're already launching today from the second, although it's called launch complex one. The first launch complex is called launch complex zero and launch complex one is where they're potentially studying the idea of having Firefly launch from. Now the company that is doing this with Firefly is called Space Cotan Limited. I've never heard of them before, but again this is another company that is based out of that same area of Taiki Town in the Hokkaido district of Japan. So really cool to see this um development and let's see if it goes anywhere. We probably won't find out for several years but cool possibility to potentially launch Firefly from three pads. Now they would be launching from Cape Canaveral from Wallops and if this goes through from Japan as well. Pretty cool. Now, in some astronomy news, you probably have heard about this, but apparently the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a new moon around Uranos. And yes, that is the correct pronunciation. Say it with me, Uranos. Or roll the tongue if you can. Uranos. It's not Uranus. It's not Uranus. It's Uranos. Not only is that proper and the dignified name, but it just sounds badass, too. Anyway, this new moon around Uranos is a small moonlit that is formed around its outer rings and is a pretty cool development. I'll also link the article to that in the description if you'd like to learn more. Meanwhile, in India, the Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO, has conducted a fullup test of the Gaganyan spacecraft doing a drop test from 3 kilometers in the full configuration. This is not a structural test article or some sort of dummy weight weighted system that would be around the same weight. This is the actual spacecraft or at least one of its early prototypes testing its full configuration of how its parachutes would deploy so that eventually their astronauts can return to Earth safely after space missions. If you'd like to know more about this, there's a really great article on ISRO's website, which I'll link in the description, that gives all sorts of really great details and discusses how this was a crucial test before moving on to the next big phase, which apparently at their national space day in India, uh several of their astronauts and leaders of their space program while being interviewed in front of this mockup of their first space module. This is just a mockup. This is not the real thing, but does give you a kind of sense of how large this thing actually is. Here's another picture of it from right here. And then here's a better picture of it that you can make out a couple of people standing next to it. And uh interesting uh looking docking port on the back there. I know that this is just a mockup model, but still interesting to see how big these things would actually be. Seems reasonable. Anyway, at this event, ISRO revealed that the first uncrrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyan crude spacecraft would happen possibly as soon as this December of 2025. And if things don't go according to plan, then early next year. But it's happening within months and soon India is going to join the club of nations capable of human space flight. And that's really cool. In any case, that's just a handful of things that I found really interesting that you might have missed while we're all caught up in the hype and anxiously waiting for Starship Flight 10 to happen. So far, has scrubbed twice, once due to a hardware issue and another because of weather. And hopefully we'll be launching on Tuesday, August 26th. I hope you'll be able to join me for a live stream where we can watch together and anxiously await the outcome of this highly anticipated flight. Hopefully everything goes well. It has to work, but I already talked about that in another video. Thank you for watching this video and be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell so that you're notified anytime we upload a new video. Thank you very much to everyone who has been supporting tomorrow through our membership program, which if you're not already, I would highly encourage you to sign up. We have tiers as low as a dollar a month to help us support making more space content and do some really cool things in the future. So, thank you to everyone who has been supporting us. And if you're not already, I hope that you'll support us in the future. My name is Space Mike. Thank you again for watching. And until the next time I see you guys, keep moving onwards and upwards. And don't forget, add Astra to the stars.