On July 15, SpaceX’s long-awaited autonomous spaceport drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” (ASOG) arrived at Port Canaveral. A drone ship serves as an ocean-based landing platform for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster. However, unlike all previous drone ships, ASOG has the capability to autonomously navigate to the appropriate landing zone and make its way back to port! This is made possible by four new powerful thrusters that are located at each corner of this highly-sophisticated barge.

For this historic Port Canaveral arrival, Ethan took a helicopter tour to capture ASOG from an aerial perspective. This was his first-time viewing Cape Canaveral from the sky – it was quite an exciting experience. As we approached the drone ship, Ethan could make out the iconic SpaceX logo and the words “A Shortfall of Gravitas” wrapped around the edge. On one of our closest flybys of ASOG, he pointed his camera straight down to capture a bird’s eye view of the entire deck! For a sense of scale, two employees can be seen at the bottom right of the top-down image.

It was well worth the wait to witness this futuristic addition to SpaceX’s fleet. Many space enthusiasts are now looking forward to the day a booster returns to port onboard ASOG. This might be a while away, yet it should be a stunning sight when it does happen. Switching gears to launch news, the first all-civilian orbital flight, Inspiration4, is currently slated for NET (No Earlier Than) Sept. 15. The charismatic crew on this remarkable mission are Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Christopher Sembroski. We highly recommend attending this launch if you have the chance!