SPACEX LAUNCHES STARSHIELD SATELLITES FOR THE NRO ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG - The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched its ninth mission supporting its so-called proliferated architecture satellite constellation using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission, dubbed NROL-192, also marked a big milestone for SpaceX. It will be the 400th launch of a previously flown Fa... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 12)
A NEW SATELLITE WILL MAP THE CARBON CONTENT OF RAINFORESTS FROM SPACE, AND IT’S SET TO LAUNCH THIS MONTH - After more than ten years of development, the European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a satellite that will map the carbon content of the world’s rainforests. The probe, named Biomass, was recently shipped to French Guiana, where it’s slated to lift off from Europe’s Spaceport on... More (Source: Smithsonian Magazine - Apr 12)
NOAA BUDGET PROPOSAL WOULD AFFECT WEATHER SATELLITE, OTHER SPACE PROGRAMS - The White House’s budget proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would seek to make major changes in a weather satellite program as well as transfer space weather and space traffic management efforts. NOAA received a draft of the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal from th... More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 12)
SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCH OF STARLINK SATELLITES FROM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - SpaceX scrubbed the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket early Friday for undisclosed reasons. It had been scheduled to loft 21 satellites for the company’s Starlink network. Liftoff from pad 39A was rescheduled for later on Friday at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 UTC). This will be the 28th launch of the company... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 11)
CHINA AND PAKISTAN AGREE TO FLY 1ST FOREIGN ASTRONAUT TO CHINESE SPACE STATION - For the first time, the Chinese space program will train a Pakistani astronaut, who will also be the first foreign astronaut to visit China's space station. The agreement, called the "Cooperation Agreement on the Selection, Training of Pakistani Astronauts and Participation in China's Space Stati... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 11)
POOR WEATHER FORCES A SCRUB OF THE KUIPER 1 LAUNCH ON A ULA ATLAS 5 - A band of off-shore thunderstorms forced United Launch Alliance to scrub a launch attempt of the first of dozens of missions on behalf of its largest commercial customer, Amazon. Its Atlas 5 551 rocket will carry 27 Project Kuiper satellites onboard. The mission, referred to as Kuiper 1 by ULA an... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 10)
NEW CREW DOCKS TO STATION ABOARD SOYUZ SPACECRAFT - At 4:57 a.m. EDT, the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station’s Prichal module. NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky launched at 1:47 a.m. on April 8 (10:47 a.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ... More (Source: NASA - Apr 10)
RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE THREATENING SPACEX'S STARLINK SATELLITE CONSTELLATION, NEW REPORT FINDS - SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation is facing threats from Russia and China because it was tapped for military use in Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the nation in 2022, according to a new report evaluating the counterspace capabilities of a dozen countries over the past year. The re... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 9)
RUSSIA TAKES AN AMERICAN ASTRONAUT TO THE SPACE STATION - A Russian spacecraft safely delivered an American astronaut Jonathan Kim and two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, a flight hailed by Moscow as an example of fruitful Russia-U.S. space cooperation. The Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cos... More (Source: Reuters - Apr 8)
NOAA’S GOES-19 SATELLITE NOW OPERATIONAL, PROVIDING CRITICAL NEW DATA TO FORECASTERS - NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, the latest and final satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series, officially began operations as GOES East today. This milestone comes after its June 25, 2024 launch, and subsequent post-launch testing of its instruments, systems and data. GOES-19 replaces GOES-16 as GOES Eas... More (Source: NOAA - Apr 8)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH SECOND ACCELERATED GPS 3 SATELLITE MISSION IN LATE MAY - Following the successful accelerated launch of a Global Positioning System on a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-December, the U.S. Space Force, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX are preparing to launch another GPS 3 satellite on a fast tracked basis. The satellite, dubbed GPS 3 Space Vehicle 08 (SV-08), is targe... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 8)
U.S. SPACE FORCE AWARDS $13.7 BILLION IN NEW NATIONAL SECURITY LAUNCH CONTRACTS TO BLUE ORIGIN, SPACEX AND ULA - A long-awaited launch contract for national security missions was announced by the U.S. Space Force after close of business Friday evening. The mission spreads nearly $14 billion worth of missions between Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). The contract is known as Lane 2 of the... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 7)
VANGUARD 1 IS THE OLDEST SATELLITE ORBITING EARTH. SCIENTISTS WANT TO BRING IT HOME AFTER 67 YEARS - Decades ago during the heady space race rivalry between the former Soviet Union and the United States, the entire world experienced the Sputnik moment when the first artificial satellite orbited the Earth. Sputnik 1's liftoff on Oct. 4, 1957 sparked worries in the U.S., made all the more vexing b... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 6)
NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR TWO PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSIONS TO ISS - NASA’s latest call for proposals to conduct private astronaut missions to the International Space Station opens the door to having those missions commanded by someone other than a former NASA astronaut. NASA announced April 2 it issued a solicitation for the next two private astronaut missions,... More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 6)
WHAT WILL REPLACE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION? - NASA is planning to decommission the International Space Station by the end of 2030. The ISS, which began operations in 2000, is reaching the end of its lifespan and has become costly to maintain. NASA selected SpaceX to construct a vehicle that would “de-orbit” the football field-sized station,... More (Source: Science Friday - Apr 6)
FUEL-FREE TETHERS: THE BOLD NEW WEAPON AGAINST SPACE JUNK - PERSEI Space, a startup supported by the European Space Agency and UC3M, is developing a breakthrough solution to tackle space junk and extend satellite lifespans using innovative space tether technology. This fuel-free, scalable system uses electrodynamic tethers that harness Earth’s magnetic fie... More (Source: SciTechDaily - Apr 6)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON SATURDAY NIGHT FALCON 9 FLIGHT - SpaceX launched a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit on Saturday night. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-72 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 UTC).... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 6)
SPACEX'S PRIVATE FRAM2 ASTRONAUTS SPLASH DOWN ON EARTH, ENDING HISTORIC POLAR ORBIT EXPEDITION - The first four humans to orbit over Earth's north and south poles have safely returned to Earth. SpaceX's private Fram2 mission splashed down today (April 4) at 12:18 p.m. ET (1618 GMT), softly parachuting down into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Oceanside, California. Their return wraps up ... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 4)
CHINA’S THOUSAND SAILS SATELLITE PLAN AT PHASE 2 - While the planet now has global low Earth orbiting coverage from Elon Musk’s Starlink, China is quietly getting on with its own rival scheme, in the shape of its Qianfan (Thousand Sails) satellite constellation project.... More (Source: SatNews - Apr 3)
