SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY TO LAUNCH 21 MORE DATA TRANSPORT SATELLITES NEXT WEEK - The Space Development Agency is set to launch 21 Tranche 1 data transport satellites on Oct. 5—its fourth Tranche 1 mission since last fall and the first to carry Northrop Grumman-built satellites. The launch is scheduled for 1:15 a.m. local time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Once in orbit, the 21 spacecraft will join 63 Tranche 1 satellites built by York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin. More (Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine - Oct 4)
FIRST SATELLITE FROM SECOND BATCH OF RASSVET SATELLITES REACHES OPERATIONAL ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 500 KM - The first Russian Rassvet communications satellite from the second batch entered its operational orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, 68 days after launch. This was reported by Militarnyi, based on an analysis of data from the Satcat satellite tracking service. The Rassvet-3 No. 29 satellite first reached its operational altitude, with an apogee of 507–508 km, on September 29, 2026, after which it stabilized at that altitude. By comparison, it took the first satellite from the first batch 78 days to reach this altitude. More (Source: militarnyi.com - Oct 4)
CREW-13 MEMBERS ENTER STATION, JOIN EXPEDITION 75 - NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov have entered the International Space Station following Dragon’s hatch opening at 9:19 p.m. EDT. Crew-13 now joins Expedition 75 crew, which includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Anil Menon, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina, and Andrey Fedyaev already aboard the orbiting laboratory. More (Source: NASA - Oct 4)
STATION CREW EXPANDS AS NASA’S SPACEX CREW-12 PREPARES TO DEPART - The Expedition 75 crew slept in Friday and spent the rest of the day relaxing following the Oct. 1 arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission. The four new crew members, who arrived after a record-setting 7-hour, 55-minute Dragon spacecraft flight from Florida, bring the number of people living aboard the International Space Station to 11. More (Source: NASA - Oct 3)
FALCON HEAVY FLIES ITS FIRST MISSION FOR U.S. SPY SATELLITE AGENCY - A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Florida Thursday night on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency. Codenamed NROL-97, the mission blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 UTC). It took a north-easterly trajectory on departure from Florida’s Space Coast. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 3)
SPACE FORCE PICKS TWO COMPANIES TO BUILD NEW ‘SPACE-TO-SPACE’ SATELLITES BY 2028 - The Space Force and the Pentagon have commissioned two companies to build new reconnaissance satellites capable of delivering high-resolution “space-to-space imagery” of objects more than 22,000 miles above Earth. Space Systems Command awarded the prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and True Anomaly under the Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance program, or GHOST-R, on Sept. 18. More (Source: Defense News - Oct 2)
NOKIA AND ICEYE TO MAKE LOW-ORBIT SATELLITE SYSTEMS FOR DEFENCE, SECURITY - Nokia opens new tab and Iceye will develop satellite communications systems for governments and defence contractors, supporting missions from military and border security to emergency services and disaster response, the companies said on Thursday. The partnership will deliver secure, sovereign and high-performance broadband low Earth orbit (LEO) communications systems, with the first satellites expected to be launched in 2028, the companies said in a statement. More (Source: Reuters - Oct 2)
THE RISK OF SPACE DEBRIS FALLING TO EARTH AND CAUSING DEATHS AND IS GROWING, EXPERTS SAY - Today's scenery in space is not a pretty picture. With the rate at which orbital launches are now occurring, some Earth orbits are so crowded and carry so many potentially dangerous, high-velocity pieces of defunct satellite litter and spent rocket stages that they could jeopardize humanity's future in space. That's the output from experts at the European Space Agency (ESA), waving a number of cautionary flags in its new Space Environment Report 2026. In brief, this disquieting appraisal from ESA points out that the number and scale of commercial satellite constellations continues to increase each year. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 2)
STATION PREPARES TO WELCOME CREW-13 WHILE CONTINUING SPACE RESEARCH - Expedition 75 is getting the International Space Station ready for the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission scheduled to launch and dock to the orbital outpost on Thursday, Oct. 1. In the meantime, space research and lab maintenance rounded out the schedule keeping the astronauts and cosmonauts busy on Wednesday. Crew-13 commander Jessica Watkins and pilot Luke Delaney, both NASA astronauts, along with mission specialists Johsua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Roscosmos will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 rocket at 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday. NASA+ begins its live launch coverage at 9:20 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Pad 40 in Florida. More (Source: NASA - Oct 2)
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