SATELLITE OPERATORS ARE IN PANIC MODE DUE TO A WORSENING LAUNCH CRISIS - This should be a golden era of launch. During the last three years, an average of 270 orbital rockets have launched from Earth, a more than threefold increase from only a decade ago. By every metric available, the launch industry is crushing it: Prices have never been more competitive, launches n... More (Source: Ars Technica - Aug 18)
NEW RECORD! SPACEX LAUNCHES 2 FALCON 9 ROCKETS JUST 38 MINUTES APART - SpaceX keeps setting spaceflight records. Elon Musk's company launches far more frequently than any other outfit, and it operates the largest satellite constellation ever assembled — the Starlink broadband network, which consists of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting). On Saturday evenin... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 17)
SPACEX LAUNCHES RECORD-BREAKING BACK-TO-BACK FALCON 9 ROCKETS FOR GLOBALSTAR, U.S. SPACE FORCE - SpaceX launched back-to-back missions for Globalstar and the U.S. Space Force Saturday night, shrinking its time between launches down to a record 38.5 minutes. First up was a batch of eight satellites for Globalstar as part of its work to replenish its low Earth orbit satellite constellation. Th... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 16)
JAPAN LAUNCHES SOVEREIGN SATELLITE NAVIGATION NETWORK AS GPS CANNOT REACH ALL OF ITS COUNTRY - Mountainous terrain and densely packed city blocks across Japan can obstruct ordinary satellite positioning signals from reaching receivers on the ground. Standard Global Positioning System coverage was never built with those obstacles in mind, leaving gaps in accuracy across parts of the country... More (Source: TechRadar - Aug 15)
SCIENTISTS HOPE TO SHED LIGHT ON YOUNG UNIVERSE BY USING FAR SIDE OF THE MOON - Little is known about what was happening shortly after the big bang, but now researchers are hoping to shed fresh light on the matter by harnessing the far side of the moon. Scientists plan to put a suitcase-sized satellite into orbit around the moon, using the data it collects as it passes the f... More (Source: The Guardian - Aug 15)
ONGOING SPACEWALK PREPS, EMERGENCY TRAINING KEEP CREW BUSY ON WEDNESDAY - Spacewalk preparations are ongoing aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts gear up to replace a high-speed antenna next week. The Expedition 75 crew members also practiced their emergency response skills in coordination with mission controllers on Earth.... More (Source: NASA - Aug 15)
SPACEX WANTS TO PUT 1 MILLION AI SATELLITES IN ORBIT. WHAT WOULD THAT DO TO EARTH'S CLIMATE? - Concentrations of dangerous pollutants from rocket launches and satellite reentries in Earth's upper atmosphere might reach treacherous tipping points if constellations of hundreds of thousands of orbiting data centers get deployed in the next decade, experts say. There's no question that Earth h... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 14)
SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS COULD CREATE SPIRALING SPACE DEBRIS - To date, close to 30,000 satellites have been launched into Earth's orbit, leading to mounting concerns over the debris created when they collide. In a new analysis posted to the preprint server arXiv, Hugh Lewis of the University of Birmingham shows that satellite constellations can grow so large t... More (Source: Phys.org - Aug 13)
H3 LAUNCHES NAVIGATION SATELLITE - A Japanese H3 rocket successfully launched a navigation satellite Aug. 10, more than seven months after a similar launch ended in failure. The H3-22S rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 3:23 p.m. Eastern, after several days of delays caused by a passing typhoon. The rocket’s upp... More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched two dozen of its Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday night. The Starlink 17-49 mission was SpaceX’s 51st flight from the West Coast so far this year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:46 p.m. PDT (12:46 a.m. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES TUESDAY NOONTIME STARLINK MISSION FOLLOWING MONDAY SCRUB - After a launch scrub on Monday morning, SpaceX flew its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to deliver another batch of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. The Starlink 10-19 mission represented the 72nd flight of these broadband internet satellites o... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
STATION CREW GEARS UP FOR NEXT SPACEWALK, KEEPS UP MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH - The next spacewalk outside the International Space Station is set to take place on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Two Expedition 75 astronauts will work in the vacuum of space to replace a space-to-ground antenna to maintain high-speed data and communication transmissions between the orbital outpost and mission ... More (Source: NASA - Aug 11)
SPACEX SCRUBS PLANNED MONDAY LAUNCH OF ITS FALCON 9 ROCKET; TARGETS TUESDAY MORNING - SpaceX was set to kick off the work week with a Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to deliver another batch of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. However, the mission was scrubbed hours before is scheduled liftoff at 12:20:09 p.m. EDT (1620:09 UTC) ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 11)
EXPLORING 'VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT': THE WORLD'S 1ST AIR-BREATHING SATELLITE THRUSTER COULD SOON GET A TEST RUN - A new way to move around Earth's outer atmosphere could soon get a field test. The Spanish company Kreios Space plans to launch into orbit the world's first satellite that uses scooped-up air to push it forward, the company announced on Tuesday (Aug. 4). The technology Kreios Space has been de... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 10)
NASA HAS CONTRACTED A PURPOSE-BUILT SPACECRAFT TO PUSH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OUT OF ORBIT IN LATE 2030 - There is an uncomfortable practical question inside every permanent-looking human project: who turns off the lights? For the International Space Station, the answer is now being built. NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, a heavily modified Cargo Dragon that will eventual... More (Source: Space Daily - Aug 10)
SPACEX WEST COAST LAUNCH SURGE CONTINUES WITH STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX’s West Coast surge in Starlink launches continued Saturday with another batch of satellites for its internet service going into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff of the Starlink 17-38 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 9:35 a.m. PDT (12:35 p.m. EDT / 1... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 9)
PLANNED SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATIONS COULD GENERATE RUNAWAY SPACE DEBRIS - Sixteen thousand satellites currently whiz above our heads on a 3D space superhighway. To the consternation of astronomers and dark-sky lovers, that number may increase 10-fold within the next decade as operators launch internet and telecoms satellites en masse. If SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gets his way,... More (Source: Science - Aug 8)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES JAPANESE EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE AFTER 5-WEEK DELAY - A Japanese Earth-observing satellite got to orbit early this morning (Aug. 6), five weeks later than originally planned. The spacecraft — a radar satellite that will be operated by the Tokyo-based company iQPS — lifted off atop a Rocket Lab Electron vehicle from New Zealand today at 5:18 a.m.... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 7)
SOUTH KOREAN SATELLITE CAPTURES BEFORE AND AFTER VIEWS OF SPACEX ROCKET’S MOON CRASH - A South Korean satellite has captured the first pictures of the moon’s fresh crash scene caused by a stray SpaceX rocket. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. D... More (Source: AP News - Aug 7)
