Weekly spotlights¶
While the Daily Broadcast covers everything, the Weekly Spotlights zoom in on two specific sectors each week: NASA and SpaceX. These are deeper dives—bigger articles, more analysis, more context—aimed at readers who want to understand the week's biggest story in each camp.
Two workflows, two days¶
The Mondays story on everything SpaceX, Starlink, and Starship.
This workflow publishes every Monday and focuses on SpaceX's operational and commercial activities:
- Starship test flights and development milestones
- Starlink deployment and constellation updates
- Commercial space contracts and partnerships
- Launch cadence and manifest changes
- Falcon 9 / Falcon Heavy missions
Sources¶
- SpaceFlightNews API (SNAPI) — news specifically tagged SpaceX
- Launch Library 2 (LL2) — SpaceX launch schedules and manifest
- SpaceX official RSS feeds (Starlink updates, company blog)
- Crawl4AI scrapers targeting SpaceX fan sites and community forums
- Reddit and Twitter signals (optional, if a story is gaining momentum)
Length & voice¶
1,500–2,000 words. Conversational but detailed. We assume you know what Starship is, but we explain novel developments (new engine tests, avionics changes, etc.). Heavy on timelines and technical specs. Slightly more informal than the NASA Overview—SpaceX is commercial, fast-moving, and personality-driven, so the tone reflects that.
Sample tone
"Starship Flight 7 just landed its booster for the 11th catch in a row—and this time, SpaceX caught the hot-staging engine test everyone's been waiting for. Here's what that means for the integrated flight test schedule and why this specific engine mode is a bottleneck."
The Friday deep dive on NASA's missions, announcements, and plans.
This workflow publishes every Friday and covers NASA's wide portfolio:
- Artemis program updates (Moon missions, SLS development)
- International Space Station operations and science
- Earth observation and climate missions
- Planetary science and deep space exploration
- JWST and astrophysics discoveries
- Center announcements and policy changes
Sources¶
- NASA official RSS feeds (all centers and programs)
- SpaceFlightNews API (NASA-tagged news)
- Launch Library 2 (NASA launch schedules)
- Crawl4AI scrapers for NASA blogs and research announcements
- Science journals and university press releases (for JWST and planetary science)
Length & voice¶
1,500–2,000 words. More formal and analytical than SpaceX Report. NASA is methodical, peer-reviewed, and politically complex, so the writing reflects that deliberation. We explain the why behind policy decisions and the how behind technical achievements. More focus on budget and timeline impacts.
Sample tone
"NASA just released preliminary findings from the Artemis 2 launch delay investigation. The delay pushes the Moon mission from 2025 to 2026—but the technical reasons matter more than the dates. Here's what they found about the core stage and why SLS development remains on a slower burn than SpaceX's cadence."
How they fit together¶
Both workflows follow the same editorial pipeline but with different author rules (tone, topic filters, length targets). Both are triggered on Wednesday (curation day) but publish on their scheduled days (Monday and Friday). Both include the standard fact-checking, human review, and source attribution.
The SpaceX Report and NASA Overview are not mutually exclusive. A single article might cover a NASA / SpaceX partnership or a Starlink launch facilitated by NASA infrastructure. In those cases, both workflows might reference the story—but with different angles.
Why split them?
We could jam everything into the Daily Broadcast. But weekly spotlights let us go deeper. NASA deserves thoughtful coverage of budget implications and multi-year timelines. SpaceX deserves analysis of the commercial race. Splitting them gives each the editorial real estate it needs.
Next: Monthly Deep Dives →