SPACEX PLANS NROL-113 LAUNCH OF RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITES FOR SECRET GOVERNMENT MISSION - Monday, September 2, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will launch the third batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities. The launch will occur at 6:56 PM – 11:26 PM PDT. from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, California. Space Launch Complex 4E has witnessed the launch of 155 rockets, including 155 orbital launch attempts, while Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, has been the site for 767 rocket launches. More (Source: SatNews - Aug 30)
GALACTIC ENERGY LAUNCHES SIX SATELLITES WITH THIRD SEA LAUNCH - China’s Galactic Energy conducted its third Ceres-1 solid rocket sea launch Thursday, successfully sending six satellites into orbit. The Ceres-1 lifted off from a transport erector launcher on a mobile sea platform off the coast of Haiyang, Shandong province, at 1:22 a.m. Eastern (0522 UTC) Aug. 29. Galactic Energy confirmed launch success within an hour of liftoff. Aboard were six remote sensing satellites for commercial customers. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 30)
SATELLITE WATCHES AS HAZARDOUS WILDFIRE PARTICLES DRIFT INTO THE AIR - In May, satellites orbiting Earth watched hundreds of wildfires blaze across Canada and Mexico, the smoke from them so thick in some places that it obscured the water beneath. The news comes straight after scientists analyzed satellite images to see scorched land twice the size of Manhattan in Greece, which suffered its worst wildfire this year after being baked by consecutive heat waves. Researchers have concluded yet again that human-driven climate change is accelerating such extreme wildfires, disasters that have doubled in frequency and intensity over the past 20 years. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 30)
FAA GROUNDS SPACEX’S FALCON 9 ROCKET FOLLOWING LANDING MISHAP - SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration for the second time in less than two months, following the failed landing of a first stage booster, which had earlier helped launch a batch of satellites for the Starlink network. The booster, serial number B1062 in the SpaceX fleet, suffered a hard landing, at the tail end of its record-setting 23rd flight. It was consumed in a fireball on the deck of the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 250 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. The mishap was the first booster landing failure since February 2021. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 29)
SPACEX FALCON 9 BOOSTER COLLAPSES IN A FIREBALL ON THE DRONESHIP, ENDING A STREAK OF 267 SUCCESSFUL LANDINGS - For the first time in more than three years, SpaceX lost one of its reusable Falcon 9 boosters during a landing attempt amid the Starlink 8-6 mission on Wednesday morning. As it was touching down on the droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ a green flash could be seen around the Merlin engines before the engine section was engulfed in flames and the booster toppled over and exploded. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 29)
OBSERVERS’ REPORT: FIRST VIEWS OF THE CHINESE “THOUSAND SAILS” SATELLITES - Shanghai SatCom Satellite Technology launched the first 18 spacecraft of their Qianfan megaconstellation in early August. Qianfan means Thousand Sails and it will add 14,000 new communication satellites to the already crowded space in low-Earth orbit. Two more Chinese mega-constellations are planned to follow Qianfan. The Thousand Sails spacecraft are in polar orbits inclined 89° to Earth’s equator at altitudes near 800 kilometers (500 miles). That height is above the Starlink satellites, operated by SpaceX, and below those of the OneWeb constellation from Eutelsat. More (Source: Sky and Telescope - Aug 29)
SALSA'S LAST DANCE: THIS EUROPEAN SATELLITE WILL FALL FROM SPACE SOON IN A SPICY REENTRY - On Sept. 8, 2024, a satellite named Salsa will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. What makes this re-entry different is that its operators have carefully guided it down from 81,250 miles (130,000 km) to burn up safely over a hand-picked region of the South Pacific — if all goes to plan. Salsa will be the second satellite to meet its end in a planned and maneuvered "guided re-entry," following the reentry of ESA's Aeolus weather satellite last year. Such reentries could help satellite operators prevent debris from either floating in orbit or falling to Earth over unexpected and potentially populated areas. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 28)
EXPERTS WARN U.S. FALLING BEHIND IN SATELLITE IMAGING RACE: ‘WE’VE GONE BACKWARDS’ - The U.S. government’s support for the commercial remote sensing satellite industry is at a critical juncture amid growing military demand for real-time intelligence, industry experts said Aug. 27. The commercial remote sensing satellite industry is expanding, but it’s still not equipped to meet evolving U.S. military needs for tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), said David Gauthier, former head of commercial operations at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 28)
LAUNCH DELAY: SPACEX PUSHES POLARIS DAWN ASTRONAUT LAUNCH DUE TO ‘A GROUND-SIDE HELIUM LEAK’ - A commercial astronaut mission of historic firsts is set to launch in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning. The four members of the Polaris Dawn flight will climb aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon to embark on a roughly five-day, free-flying mission orbiting the Earth. The crew, led by billionaire-entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, will go further than humans have ventured since the conclusion of the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago. They will also conduct the first commercial spacewalk in history. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 27)
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