The Overview — Interdisciplinary
Fueling the next generation of aerospace engineers
Interdisciplinary
The integration of two or more academic, scientific, or artistic disciplines to solve complex problems or generate new insights
Welcome back to The Overview! We’ve got an exciting edition for you this week, starting with a new announcement…
🔔 What’s New: The Overview Discord!!!
The Overview has always been about building a community to share aerospace knowledge, and now, we’re launching a new space to bring that mission to life:
🎉 Introducing The Overview Discord!
Come chat about the latest happenings in aerospace, emerging technologies, and new articles and podcasts — with the creators themselves! You’ll also get a chance to give direct feedback on what you want to see next.
More in this week’s issue:
🚀 Six rocket launches in just 18 hours by five different organizations — from Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper satellites to Chinese and European missions. This marks a new chapter in launch frequency and global space access!
🪐 ICYMI: Join Ian Fu, a Stanford PhD student at Stanford whose work bridges planetary sciences and aerospace engineering, as he explores why interdisciplinary thinking will shape the future of space exploration
🚀 Aerospace News
A recurring theme in this news section is that the aerospace sector is booming, which gives us a good batch of material for every newsletter. Well, this past week was no exception, and we saw a true glimpse into the future of the launch industry: an abundance of launches.
Six Rocket Launches in 1 Day
Source: Space.com
Yes, you read that right. In the span of a little under 18 hours, six rockets were launched by five different entities, from four different points on Earth, on April 28th-29th.
Probably what we are most used to are regular launches of Falcon 9 by SpaceX for their Starlink constellation. Indeed, this accounted for two rocket launches. There was one from Florida (Cape Canaveral) and one from California (Vandenberg), both growing the large operational Starlink internet constellation.
There was also a very important (and successful) mission from ULA and Amazon (note: not Blue Origin). This mission saw ULA launch an Atlas V to deliver the first 27 Amazon Kuiper satellites to their desired orbit. Kuiper is Amazon’s own internet constellation, and it plans to rival Starlink’s dominance.
Speaking of internet constellations, one of the launches was a Chinese Long-March 5B rocket, and it sent up a group of satellites for China’s own internet constellation: Guowang. Although it probably won’t compete with Starlink/Kuiper in western markets, it is interesting to see this growing trend in distributed space systems and mega-constellations. It seems like the growth of launch vehicle abundance and constellations has become a symbiotic relationship.
The fifth and sixth launches were the only non-Internet constellation payloads. From French Guiana, Arianespace launched its Vega-C rocket for the fourth time with a forest-monitoring satellite from the European Space Agency. And finally, Firefly Aerospace launched their Alpha rocket from Vandenberg in California with a Lockheed Martin demo satellite. Unfortunately, a mishap occurred on the second stage after stage separation, which prevented the satellite from reaching its intended orbit. More on that here.
Despite one of the launches failing, it is such an exciting time when so many different entities from around the world not only have the capability to reach space regularly but also have a wide variety of payloads to facilitate activity down on Earth. All of these launches were to low Earth orbit, but we are headed to a future where even GEO or deep space missions become a weekly or daily occurrence.
🪐 Featured Technology
Bridging Science and Engineering to Explore the Cosmos
When I was young, I wondered about life beyond Earth. I was told I had to choose: study it through science or engineer the tools for the exploration. But why not both? To me, it wasn't clear why those paths had to be different.
What does it take to explore the cosmos?
According to Stanford AeroAstro PhD student Ian Fu, the best explorers aren’t just engineers or scientists—they’re both. Drawing from his journey in planetary science and aerospace engineering, Ian reflects on:
The philosophical divide between scientists and engineers, and how it holds back discovery 🔧
Ian’s research on icy moons and spacecraft design that bridges both domains 🪐
A gripping story from NASA’s Galileo mission, where interdisciplinary teamwork saved the day 📡
How students, researchers, and institutions can build better collaborations 🤝
If you’ve ever felt caught between scientific curiosity and engineering impact—or if you simply want to learn about the planetary sciences, read the full article below:
💬 Quote of the Week
“This world is of a single piece; yet, we invent nets to trap it for our inspection. Then we mistake our nets for the reality of the piece. In these nets we catch the fishes of the intellect but the sea of wholeness forever eludes our grasp . . . It is not the nets that are at fault but rather our misunderstanding of their function as nets. They do catch the fishes but never the sea, and it is the sea that we ultimately desire.”
― Martha Boles, Universal Patterns
Thanks for joining us for The Overview — The Interdisciplinary Edition. Can’t wait to see you on our Discord!
If you enjoyed this edition, share The Overview with a friend or colleague who’s passionate about making aerospace an inclusive and welcoming community. Got any thoughts, questions, or topic requests? We’d love to hear from you — feel free to reach out at admin@theoverview.org!
Stellar vibes,
Ian, Tagg, Anshuk, Maggie, Isaac