SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON HEAVY ROCKET, X-37B MILITARY SPACEPLANE - The second time was the charm for SpaceX as it was able to launch the X-37B military spaceplane onboard its Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff of the USSF-52 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 UTC) on Thursday at the opening of a ten-minute launch window. The launch came after SpaceX and the U.S. Space Force had to delayed the mission from Dec. 11 due to “a ground side issue.” The Falcon Heavy was returned to its hangar on Dec. 14 with SpaceX no longer saying the vehicle remained ‘healthy’ in its social media posts.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 29)

SPACEX ACES MODERN-DAY LAUNCH TURNAROUND RECORD WITH FALCON 9 STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX completed double-header launch night as the end of the year approaches. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the Starlink 6-36 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC) on Thursday. This mission comes on the heels of the Falcon Heavy launch, sending the X-37B military spaceplane to orbit. The two missions launched 2 hours 48 minutes and 40 seconds apart, marking the fastest turnaround between orbital launches from Florida since the launches of the Agena Target Vehicle and Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966, which were 1 hour 40 minutes and 59 seconds apart.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 29)

RUSSIA EXTENDS CROSS-FLIGHT PROGRAMME WITH NASA UNTIL 2025 - ROSCOSMOS - Russia's space state agency Roscosmos said on Thursday that a cross-flight programme with NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) had been extended until 2025, Interfax news agency reported.   More
(Source: Reuters - Dec 29)

FIREFLY ALPHA UPPER STAGE MALFUNCTION PUTS PAYLOAD INTO WRONG ORBIT - A problem with the upper stage of a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket placed a Lockheed Martin technology demonstration satellite into the wrong orbit on a Dec. 22 launch. The Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:32 p.m. Eastern on a mission called “Fly the Lightning” by Firefly. The launch was originally scheduled for Dec. 20 but postponed two days because of weather.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 28)

NASA HAILS HISTORIC SPACE MILESTONES OF 2023 IN INSPIRING NEW VIDEO - t has been a busy year for NASA with the agency's solid list of historic missions and inspiring milestones that continue to push the limits of human exploration. The space agency shared a new video showcasing its 2023 achievements, ranging from the successful return of its first asteroid sample all the way to plans for a new nuclear thermal rocket engine meant for future crewed missions to Mars. It also outlines some of the progress made with the Artemis program, an ambitious endeavor aimed at returning humans to the moon.    More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 28)

HISTORIC SPACEX FALCON 9 BOOSTER TOPPLES OVER AND IS LOST AT SEA - A piece of America’s space history is now on the ocean’s floor. During its return voyage to Port Canaveral in Central Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster toppled over and broke in half. This particular booster, tail number B1058, was coming back from its record-breaking 19th mission when it had its fatal fall. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Dec. 23 carrying 23 Starlink satellites. The booster made a successful landing eight and a half minutes after launch on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ which was stationed east of the Bahamas. SpaceX said in a statement on social media that it succumbed to “high winds and waves.”    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 27)

CHINA LAUNCHES 3 SATELLITES FROM SEA - China on Tuesday successfully launched a Long March-11 carrier rocket into space, sending three satellites into planned orbit. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center launched the rocket from waters off the coast of Yangjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, at 6:39 a.m. (Beijing Time). The satellites, Shiyan-24C, will be mainly used for space science and technology experiments. It was the 503rd mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Dec 27)

PROJECT KUIPER: AMAZON'S ANSWER TO SPACEX'S STARLINK PASSES 'CRUCIAL' TEST - Amazon's upcoming satellite broadband network, dubbed "Project Kuiper," just passed a key test test that paves the way for a 2024 launch. Similar to SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper is Amazon's plan to provide high-speed internet by launching and connecting 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The firm launched two prototype satellites in October and began testing the systems required for the network to operate. One key test was validating the optical inter-satellite link (OISL) technology, which uses infrared lasers to send data between the spacecraft.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 27)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW BEIDOU SATELLITES, ROCKET BOOSTER LANDS NEAR HOUSE - China added a new pair of satellites to its Beidou positioning and navigation system late Monday, but spent stages from the launch landed within inhabited areas. A Long March 3B equipped with a Yuanzheng-1 upper stage lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10:26 p.m. Eastern Dec. 25 (0326 UTC, Dec. 26), successfully delivering two Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbit (MEO).   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 27)

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