SPACEX LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD FOR NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE - A classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office headed to orbit in the predawn hours of Thursday, July 30. The NROL-95 mission launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 31)
SPACEWALK PREPS, BIOPRINTING, AND EXERCISE RESEARCH TOP STATION SCHEDULE - Expedition 75 is gearing up for a busy August with three spacewalks planned at the International Space Station. The orbital residents are also printing living cells and tissues and studying how to increase the effectiveness of exercising in space. Mission managers discussed a series of spacewalks... More (Source: NASA - Jul 31)
NASA LAUNCHED THIS SPACECRAFT TO SAVE A SATELLITE. NOW, IT NEEDS SAVING TOO - Things aren't going so well for NASA's latest satellite rescue mission. NASA launched the Swift Boost mission on July 3, sending a specialized spacecraft to low Earth orbit on the final flight of Northrop Grumman's air-launched Pegasus XL rocket. The spacecraft is called LINK and was built by Ari... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 30)
AST SPACEMOBILE ANNOUNCES LAUNCH DATE FOR BLUEBIRD SATELLITES 11, 12, AND 13 - SpaceMobile, Inc., the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications, today announced that the launch of BlueBird 11, 12, and 13 satellites is currently scheduled for We... More (Source: Yahoo - Jul 29)
AMAZON SEEKS FEDERAL APPROVAL TO LAUNCH 5,105 SATELLITES FOR DIRECT-TO-DEVICE NETWORK - Amazon has asked federal regulators to approve a request to launch up to 5,105 internet satellites as part of a constellation that will provide direct-to-device connectivity. The company first telegraphed plans to launch a D2D network in April, when Amazon announced that it would acquire satellit... More (Source: CNBC - Jul 28)
NASA ASTRONAUT, 2 COSMONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH AFTER 241 DAYS ON SPACE STATION - A U.S.-Russian crew returned to Earth from the International Space Station early Sunday morning (July 26), after 241 days in orbit. A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos undocked from the orbiting... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 27)
NASA ‘HEARS’ FROM LOST SPACECRAFT AFTER NEARLY TWO YEARS - NASA re-established contact with a wayward sun-watching science satellite Sunday nearly two years after the spacecraft suddenly dropped off line during a test, the agency said in a statement Monday. NASA’s Deep Space Network, or DSN, “established a lock on the STEREO-B (spacecraft’s) downli... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 26)
LIGHTNING STRIKE ON CHINESE ROCKET CAPTURED IN EPIC LAUNCH PHOTO - Lightning struck a Chinese rocket shortly after liftoff this week, as seen in incredible video and photographs. A Long March-3B rocket lifted off from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday (July 23) carrying a communications relay satellite destined for geostationary orbit. Some 30 ... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 26)
SUPER HEAVY-STARSHIP ROCKET CHALKS UP MOSTLY SUCCESSFUL TEST FLIGHT - SpaceX launched it’s 13th Super Heavy-Starship rocket Friday, with the giant booster chalking up an on-target but “hard” splashdown off the Texas Gulf Coast while the Starship upper stage carried out a successful sub-orbital hop to the Indian Ocean. Powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engin... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 26)
SPACEX FALCON 9 LAUNCHES STARLINK SATELLITES FROM WEST COAST - A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from the West Coast Saturday, carrying another batch of satellites for the company’s Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 8:51 a.m. PDT (11:51 a.m. EDT / 1551 UTC). The Falcon 9 look a southerly trajectory on de... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 26)
COLLISIONS IN SPACE ARE A GROWING CONCERN. A PLAN TO ADDRESS IT IS REIGNITING A TURF WAR - As the number of satellites orbiting Earth continues to grow, so does the risk of crashes between these spacecraft. Such collisions could create fields of debris, potentially rendering entire areas of orbit useless. Objects in space have crashed, or had near misses, in the past. But while such i... More (Source: CNN - Jul 24)
CHINA'S RECORD-BREAKING GRAVITY-1 ROCKET LAUNCHES 9 SATELLITES FROM A SHIP AT SEA - The world's most powerful solid-fuel rocket just aced its third-ever mission. Gravity-1, a distinctively squat and stubby rocket, launched Tuesday night (July 21) from the deck of a ship stationed off the coast of Shanghai. Liftoff occurred at 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT and 10:54 a.m. Beijing ti... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 23)
JAPAN IS QUIETLY BUILDING A 100-SATELLITE SOVEREIGN EYE IN THE SKY - Japan’s IHI Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding with Finnish startup Kuva Space to explore building next-generation hyperspectral satellites for Tokyo’s sovereign Earth observation constellation, marking the latest foreign partnership stitched into a program that increasingly re... More (Source: Space Daily - Jul 22)
SPACEX LAUNCHES SATELLITE REPAIR DRONE WITH 10-FOOT ROBOTIC ARMS TO EARTH ORBIT - SpaceX launched a trailblazing satellite-servicing mission today (July 21). A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 5:15 p.m. EDT (2115 GMT). SpaceX called today's launch MRV-MEV, because it's sending up a Mission Robotic Vehicle and three Missio... More (Source: - Jul 22)
SPACEX LAUNCHES STARLINK MISSION FROM CALIFORNIA A DAY AFTER LAST-SECOND ABORT - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two dozen Starlink V2 Mini broadband internet satellites to its massive low Earth orbit constellation on Tuesday, a day after liftoff was scrubbed by a rare abort during engine ignition. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California came at 7:49 a.m. PDT... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 22)
NASA SETS BRIEFINGS FOR SPACEX CREW-13 MISSION TO SPACE STATION - NASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming crew rotation mission to the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Monday, Aug. 3, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Mission leadership will provide an overview of NASA’s SpaceX Crew‑13 mission at 12... More (Source: NASA - Jul 21)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES SECOND SATELLITE BATCH FOR ITS STARLINK RIVAL—THE MATH STILL LOOKS ROUGH - Russian company Bureau 1440 has launched a second group of communications satellites for Rassvet, Moscow’s planned low-Earth-orbit alternative to Starlink. The spacecraft successfully separated from their launch vehicle and established contact with the mission control center, the developer repo... More (Source: UNITED24 Media - Jul 21)
SPACEX SUFFERS RARE, LAST-SECOND FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCH ABORT - SpaceX suffered its second launch scrub in less than a week after its Falcon 9 rocket failed to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday. On-screen telemetry graphics showed all nine Merlin engines briefly ignited before quickly shutting down. SpaceX ended its broadcast prior to offering... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 21)
AN ARTIFICIAL 'SATURN'S RING' OF SATELLITES COULD SOON FILL THE SKY, ASTRONOMERS WARN - A bright "Saturn's ring" of satellites could circle the night sky if plans to launch a million data center spacecraft and tens of thousands of space mirrors come to pass. This ring, traversing the sky for hours after dusk and before dawn, would outshine every star and planet, and be visible from eve... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 21)
