ASTRONAUTS STRANDED IN SPACE ARE NOW ONE STEP CLOSER TO RETURNING HOME - On Saturday afternoon, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral for a mission that marked the first human spaceflight to lift off from the company's Space Launch Complex-40. The mission, however, will likely be remembered for something different. In August, ... More (Source: Smithsonian Magazine - Oct 3)
U.S. FACES STIFF COMPETITION FROM CHINA IN SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING - A new report by a group of national security think tanks sheds light on the rapidly evolving global commercial remote sensing industry and delves into the heated competition between the United States and China. Titled “Gold Rush: The 2024 Commercial Remote Sensing Global Rankings,” the repo... More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 2)
SPACEX DRAGON WITH CREW-9 ABOARD DOCKS TO STATION - NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived at the International Space Station Sunday, as the SpaceX Dragon Freedom docked to the orbiting complex at 5:30 p.m. EDT while the station was 260 statute miles over Botswana. Following Dragon’s link up to the Harmony m... More (Source: NASA - Oct 1)
SPACEX POSTPONES MONDAY’S ONEWEB SATELLITE CONSTELLATION LAUNCH DUE TO A BOOSTER MISHAP AFTER CREW-9 LAUNCH — TO RESUME AFTER “WE BETTER UNDERSTAND ROOT CAUSE” - The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to send up 20 microsatellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation from Vandenberg Space Force Base, originally planned for late Sunday night, has been postponed due to a mishap that occurred Saturday with the landing of a second stage booster associated with... More (Source: SatNews - Oct 1)
CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST REUSABLE, RETURNABLE TEST SATELLITE - China sent its first reusable and returnable test satellite, Shijian-19, into space on Friday, using a Long March-2D rocket for the launch, Xinhua reports. The rocket blasted off at 6:30 p.m. (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.... More (Source: Kazinform - Sep 29)
CHINA'S CAS SPACE LAUNCHES 5 SATELLITES WITH ITS 4TH ROCKET - A commercial Chinese rocket maker has completed its fourth solid rocket launch, sending five satellites into orbit. CAS Space's Kinetica-1 (also known as Lijian-1) solid rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 7:33 p.m. EDT on Sept. 24 (2333 GMT; or 7:33 a.m. ... More (Source: - Sep 29)
EUROPEAN TWIN SATELLITE MISSION BIDS TO CREATE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ON DEMAND - European scientists are preparing to launch a space mission that has been designed to create total eclipses of the sun on demand. The robot spacecraft Proba-3 will be launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in a few weeks in a mission which will involve flying a pair of satellites in close fo... More (Source: The Guardian - Sep 29)
SPACEX LAUNCHES TWO TO SPACE STATION, GIVING STARLINER ASTRONAUTS A RIDE HOME IN FEBRUARY - SpaceX launched a reduced two-man crew on a flight to the International Space Station Saturday, along with supplies and a pair of empty seats for two Starliner astronauts waiting to hitch a ride home in February after an unexpected eight-and-a-half-month stay in orbit. Running two days late becau... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 29)
EUROPE’S SPACE AGENCY WILL DESTROY A BRAND-NEW SATELLITE IN 2027 JUST TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS - The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a satellite into Earth’s orbit in 2027 to watch it get wrecked as it reenters the atmosphere. The project is intended to help understand how exactly satellites break apart so that scientists can learn how to prevent the creation of more space debris.... More (Source: The Verge - Sep 28)
H2A ROCKET SENDS JAPANESE RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - An H2A liquid-fuel rocket sent an information-gathering satellite into orbit Thursday following its launch from a southwestern Japan island, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said. Rocket No. 49's successful mission from the space center on Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, followed two po... More (Source: Kyodo News - Sep 27)
SATELLITES ARE PHOTOBOMBING ASTRONOMY DATA — COULD AI OFFER A SOLUTION? - Astronomers have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can detect satellite streaks in images of the night sky with high accuracy. The model makes data easier to interpret and could allow removal of the streaks, which are causing increasing problems in astronomy. The technology won’t solv... More (Source: Nature - Sep 27)
AMATEUR ASTRONOMER CATCHES FLEETING GLIMPSE OF SECRET SPY SATELLITE - An avid sky watcher from Austria photographed a top secret spacecraft launched by the Pentagon that’s like no other he’s seen before. Astrophotographer Felix Schöfbänker used a 14-inch Dobsonian telescope to capture the image of the satellite, which is known as USA 290. He shares his images... More (Source: Gizmodo - Sep 26)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 20 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE - SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 rocket on a Starlink mission as Tropical Storm Helene pushed back the launch of the next mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff of the Starlink 9-8 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 9:01 p.m. PDT (12:01 a.m. EDT, 04... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 26)
JIELONG-3 SEA LAUNCH SENDS 8 SATELLITES INTO ORBIT - China launched its fourth Jielong-3 solid rocket from a sea platform late Monday, putting eight remote sensing satellites into sun-synchronous orbit. The fourth Jielong-3 (Smart Dragon-3) lifted off at 10:31 p.m. Eastern, Sept. 23 (0231 UTC, Sept. 24) from a specially converted sea platform off t... More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 25)
SOYUZ BRINGS TWO COSMONAUTS, NASA ASTRONAUT BACK TO EARTH AFTER RECORD-SETTING MISSION - Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the world’s most experienced spaceman, first-time flier Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth Monday, closing out a record-setting mission with a picture-perfect landing in Kazakhstan. With the... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 24)
SPACEX'S CREW-9 ASTRONAUT FLIGHT FOR NASA LAUNCHES THIS WEEK. HERE'S HOW IT TURNED INTO A RESCUE MISSION - This week, NASA is sending up a rescue mission to the International Space Station. On Thursday (Sept. 26), NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia's space agency Roscosmos will launch to the International space Station (ISS) on SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. Two other NASA ... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 23)
CHINA LAUNCHES 4 TIANQI CONSTELLATION SATELLITES INTO SPACE - China launched four new satellites for the Tianqi constellation into space, state media reported on Saturday. A Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) carrier rocket, carrying the four satellites named Tianqi 29-32, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan province on Friday... More (Source: Anadolu Ajansı - Sep 22)
ELECTRON LAUNCHES SECOND SET OF KINéIS SATELLITES - An Electron launched a second set of satellites for French startup Kinéis Sept. 20, putting that company on track to begin offering Internet of Things services. The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 7:01 p.m. Eastern. The five satellites on board were dep... More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 22)
2 RUSSIANS SET RECORD FOR LONGEST SINGLE STAY ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Two Russians on Friday set a record for the longest continuous stay on the International Space Station, according to Russia's space agency. Roscosmos said Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub broke the old record of 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes, which was set in September 2023 by Russians Sergei ... More (Source: Yahoo - Sep 22)
