LOCKHEED MARTIN TO LAUNCH 5G DEMONSTRATION ON FIREFLY ROCKET - Lockheed Martin announced plans to launch its Tactical Satellite (TacSat) aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket in 2025, marking the second mission in a multi-launch agreement between the aerospace giant and the upstart rocket company. The mission, funded internally by Lockheed Martin, aims ... More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 10)
SENTINEL 1C RADAR SATELLITE BEGINS OPERATIONS TO ENHANCE EARTH OBSERVATION - A major addition to Europe's Earth observation capabilities, the Sentinel 1C satellite, has been successfully launched into orbit. Supported by the UK and launched aboard a VEGA-C rocket from French Guiana at 21:20 GMT on Thursday, December 5, Sentinel 1C will orbit 700 km above Earth to deliver cri... More (Source: Space Daily - Dec 9)
EUROPE’S MOST ADVANCED WEATHER SATELLITE IS NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL - The first of EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites is now fully operational. MTG-Imager 1 also receives a new name – Meteosat-12 – to mark the occasion. The two main instruments on board Meteosat-12, the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and the Lightning Imager (LI), play a cr... More (Source: Eurasia Review - Dec 9)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 shortly after midnight on Sunday, adding 23 more Starlink satellites to its growing mega-constellation. The midnight hour launch features 13 satellites which have Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-5 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Sp... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 8)
WATCH SPACEX'S 31ST DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE HEAD BACK TO EARTH DEC. 12 AFTER DELAY - A SpaceX cargo capsule is set to head back toward Earth on Dec. 12, and you can watch the action live. A robotic Dragon freighter will undock from the International Space Station's (ISS) Harmony module on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 11:05 a.m. EST (1605 GMT), if all goes according to plan. An undocking ... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 7)
SPACE STATION TRAJECTORY DATA NOW AVAILABLE - Space Station trajectory data is now available to the public! This data, called an ephemeris, is generated by the ISS Trajectory Operations and Planning Officer (TOPO) flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. TOPO keeps track of where the ISS is, where it is g... More (Source: Phys.org - Dec 7)
SUPERHERO SATELLITE SENTINEL-1C SOARS INTO SPACE ON A MISSION TO PROTECT OUR PLANET - On the 5th December 2024, all eyes were on the skies as ESA’s Sentinel-1C satellite launched aboard a mighty Vega-C rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. As the third satellite in the Sentinel-1 series, it will continue the important work of monitoring our planet's land ... More (Source: - Dec 7)
IRAN LAUNCHES ADVANCED MODULE TO DEPLOY SATELLITES TO HIGHER ALTITUDES, MEDIA SAY - Iran sent into space on Friday its heaviest-ever payload using the Simorgh carrier rocket including an advanced module for transferring satellites to higher-altitude orbits, state television reported. The Samān-1 transfer module, along with a CubeSat and a research payload "were successfully place... More (Source: Reuters - Dec 7)
ROCKET LAB SETS THE LAUNCH WINDOW FOR SYNSPECTIVE SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT - Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has announced a launch window for an upcoming Electron mission to deploy the latest satellite in Synspective’s growing Earth Observation (EO) constellation. The “Owl The Way Up” mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand during a ... More (Source: SatNews - Dec 6)
LONG MARCH 6A LAUNCHES THIRD BATCH OF THOUSAND SAILS CONSTELLATION SATELLITES - China launched the third batch of 18 satellites for the Thousand Sails constellation late Tuesday as the firm behind the project aims for global services in 2025. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 11:41 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 4 (0441 UTC, Dec. 5) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China. ... More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 6)
ECLIPSE-MAKING DOUBLE SATELLITE PROBA-3 ENTERS ORBIT - A pair of spacecraft were launched together today from India with the potential to change the nature of future space missions. ESA’s twin Proba-3 platforms will perform precise formation flying down to a single millimetre, as if they were one single giant spacecraft. To demonstrate their degree of... More (Source: European Space Agency - Dec 6)
ISRO'S PSLV-XL LIFTS OFF WITH EUROPE'S PROBA-3 MISSION TO SPACE - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Europe's twin Proba-3 spacecraft on Thursday. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C59) in a picture-perfect launch began its journey to space a day after the launch was postponed. ... More (Source: India Today - Dec 6)
SPACEX LAUNCHES LATEST BROADCAST SATELLITE FOR SIRIUSXM ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - With a Thursday late morning liftoff, SpaceX sent the latest satellite in the radio broadcast fleet owned by SiriusXM on geostationary transfer orbit trajectory. The SXM-9 satellite lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at the opening of the 90-minute launch windo... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 6)
WILL THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION'S 2031 DEATH DIVE CAUSE POLLUTION PROBLEMS? - The International Space Station is something of a problem child. The orbital outpost is plagued by cracks, coolant and air leaks, even a surprising smell that recently wafted into the station from a just-arrived Russian Progress cargo ship. And the station has high-speed, close encounters with sp... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 5)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW REMOTE-SENSING SATELLITE - China on Wednesday launched a new remote-sensing satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Launched at 12:46 p.m. (Beijing Time) by a Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) carrier rocket, the remote-sensing satellite, equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), has... More (Source: gov.cn - Dec 5)
EUROPE’S MOST ADVANCED WEATHER SATELLITE IS NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL - The first of EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) geostationary satellites – called Meteosat-12 - has become fully operational. It gives an important and welcome boost to the ability of the WMO community to forecast extreme weather and monitor climate change. The two main instruments on bo... More (Source: World Meteorological Organization WMO - Dec 5)
CHINA LAUNCHES CLANDESTINE TJS-13 SATELLITE, ROCKET REACHES MILESTONE - China launched a new communication engineering test satellite early Tuesday, adding to a series of satellites potentially for undisclosed military purposes. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 12:56 a.m. Eastern (0556 UTC) Dec. 3 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China. The Chi... More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 4)
NASA TO COVER ITS 31ST SPACEX RESUPPLY MISSION STATION DEPARTURE - NASA and its international partners are set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 5, for its return to Earth. NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure begins at 10:50 a.m. EST on NASA+. ... More (Source: NASA - Dec 3)
FRUIT FLIES IN SPACE! CHINESE ASTRONAUTS SHOW OFF EXPERIMENT ON TIANGONG SPACE STATION - China's Shenzhou 19 astronauts have some winged companions to oversee aboard the country's space station. The astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station on Oct. 29, beginning their six-month-long stay in orbit. They have since been joined by 15 adult fruit flies and 40 pupae, which arrived ... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 3)
