SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX kicked off the back half of 2026 with a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Wednesday night. The Starlink 17-46 mission added another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation that consists of more than 10,700 satellites. SpaceX launched... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 3)
PLANNED 1.7 MILLION SATELLITES 'DEVASTATING' FOR ASTRONOMY BY MAKING NIGHT SKY BRIGHTER - There are also concerns that huge amounts of space debris from satellites could increasingly crash into each other in a dangerous chain reaction known as "Kessler syndrome." The 1.7 million satellites that companies are aiming to launch into Earth's orbit in the coming years will have "devastatin... More (Source: Euronews - Jul 2)
ASTRONAUTS PREPARE TO EXIT STATION FOR ROBOTICS REPAIR SPACEWALK - Live coverage is underway as two NASA astronauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 8:35 a.m. EDT and last roughly six and a half hours. NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir will exit the station’s Quest airlock ... More (Source: NASA - Jul 1)
NASA TO LAUNCH RESCUE MISSION JUNE 30 TO SAVE SWIFT SPACE TELESCOPE FROM BURNING UP IN EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - An air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is scheduled to fly for the very last time early Tuesday morning (June 30), sending a private spacecraft on a rescue mission to save one of NASA's most iconic space telescopes from falling back to Earth. The Swift Boost mission will send the LINK... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 30)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 7.5-TON SIRIUSXM SATELLITE AS PART OF CONSTELLATION REFRESH - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Sunday carrying a multi-ton, radio-broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM’s to replace two aging satellites in geostationary Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:25 p.m. EDT (0225 UTC), the opening ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 29)
CHINA PLANS TO DOUBLE THE SIZE OF ITS TIANGONG SPACE STATION WHILE THE ISS NEARS ITS END - China is set to expand its space station from three to six modules in the coming years and add a co-orbiting Hubble-class space observatory, even as the International Space Station approaches the end of its lifetime. The three-module, T-shaped Tiangong space station was assembled in orbit across ... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 28)
A RUSSIAN MODULE CALLED ZVEZDA HAS BEEN VENTING THE SPACE STATION'S AIR THROUGH CRACKS SINCE 2019 — LOSING NEARLY 2 KILOGRAMS A DAY - The Zvezda service module, the Russian segment that has anchored the back end of the International Space Station since July 2000, has been quietly leaking air into space for nearly seven years. The cracks are in a narrow vestibule called the PrK tunnel, which connects Zvezda to an aft docking port w... More (Source: Space Daily - Jun 28)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 10TH SYNSPECTIVE SATELLITE - Rocket Lab launched a radar-imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective on June 26, a flight delayed by a responsive space mission. The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 1:43 p.m. Eastern on a mission called “10 Owl of 10” by the company.... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jun 27)
NASA WANTS TO DUMP THE ISS IN THE SEA. EXPERTS SAY THE PLAN 'RAISES SERIOUS CONCERNS FOR OCEAN HEALTH' - NASA's plan to deorbit the International Space Station in coming years has fallen under the scrutiny of a government watchdog group and stirred up a wave of reaction by a leading ocean conservation organization. As presently blueprinted by NASA, the International Space Station will be de-orbited ... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 26)
WHAT IS CHINA’S SPACESAIL, AND COULD IT RIVAL ELON MUSK’S STARLINK? - Elon Musk’s Starlink has long dominated the satellite internet industry, but a Chinese government-backed project is aiming to challenge its position. SpaceSail has just a few hundred satellites in low Earth orbit compared with Starlink’s 10,000-plus. But the company says it now has enough sat... More (Source: The Guardian - Jun 26)
NASA, BOEING COMMITTED TO STARLINER-1 LAUNCH DESPITE UNCLEAR TIMELINE - More than four months after NASA released a report classifying the 2024 Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as a Type A mishap, the timing of the return to flight mission remains up in the air and could be as far as a year away. During a public meeting of the Aerospace Saf... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 25)
WEST COAST FALCON 9 LAUNCH CONTINUES EXPANSION OF SPACEX’S STARLINK NETWORK - Spacex launched another 24 satellites for its Starlink internet service from the West Coast Wednesday evening. Liftoff of the Starlink 17-45 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 8:30 p.m. PDT (11:30 p.m. EDT / 0330 UTC). ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 25)
SPACEX LAUNCHES REENTRY CAPSULE DEMO MISSION CALLED ‘STARFALL’ - As the sun rose over Florida’s Space Coast on Tuesday, so too did SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying onboard a demonstration of its new uncrewed reentry capsule named ‘Starfall’. The company had been tight-lipped about the payload and its mission profile, cutting off its public-facing, po... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 25)
NASA WANTS TO DUMP THE ISS IN THE SEA. EXPERTS SAY THE PLAN 'RAISES SERIOUS CONCERNS FOR OCEAN HEALTH' - NASA's plan to deorbit the International Space Station in coming years has fallen under the scrutiny of a government watchdog group and stirred up a wave of reaction by a leading ocean conservation organization. As presently blueprinted by NASA, the International Space Station will be de-orbited ... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 24)
CHINA LAUNCHES EXPERIMENTAL SATELLITE - China launched a Long March 7A carrier rocket on Tuesday morning to deploy an experimental satellite into space, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. The State-owned space giant said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 10:10 am from a service tower at the Wenchan... More (Source: China Daily - Jun 24)
1ST-OF-ITS-KIND MISSION WILL ATTEMPT TO SAVE AGING SPACE TELESCOPE USING ROBOT SPACECRAFT - Satellites don't always stay in orbit. As they get closer to Earth, atmospheric drag can pull them lower and lower until they burn up, with solar activity speeding up the process. NASA's Swift Space Observatory is facing that fate -- its orbit is decaying, and if left alone, it will be destroyed ... More (Source: ABC News - Jun 24)
ROCKET LAB SHATTERS RESPONSIVE SPACE RECORD: LAUNCHES U.S. SPACE FORCE VICTUS HAZE MISSION IN 16 HOURS 42 MINUTES - Rocket Lab Corporation, a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it has successfully launched its Electron rocket and deployed its own Pioneer spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command’s (SSC) VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) missi... More (Source: RocketLab - Jun 23)
NASA’S NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE ARRIVES IN FLORIDA - NASA’s next great observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center aboard the agency’s massive Pegasus barge late Sunday morning. The spacecraft was nestled inside its protective case, which NASA nicknamed the “Chariot” in keeping with the “Roman... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 22)
'NO ONE THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE POSSIBLE.' A SPACE TELESCOPE IS FALLING OUT OF SPACE. THIS IS NASA'S DARING PLAN TO SAVE IT. - or over 20 years, NASA's Swift space observatory has been conducting prolific science in orbit, hunting for signs of gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful explosions in the universe. Now, it's falling to Earth, doomed to a fiery death by the end of the year as its orbit decays. But maybe not...... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 21)
