SPACEX'S STARSHIP PASSES DEVELOPMENT RUT, DEPLOYS FIRST MOCK SATELLITES - SpaceX's Starship rocket on Tuesday deployed its first batch of mock Starlink satellites in space and tested new heat shield tiles on its plunge through Earth's atmosphere, clinching development milestones that had been held up by a streak of previous testing failures. The giant 403-foot-tall (123 ... More (Source: Reuters - Aug 27)
SPACEX LAUNCHES LUXEMBOURG’S NAOS, 7 OTHER RIDESHARE SATELLITES FROM CALIFORNIA - SpaceX launched its 37th Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base this year, late Tuesday morning. The orbital flight features a defense satellite for Luxembourg along with multiple other rideshare payloads. The mission featured OHB Italia’s NAOS (National Advanced Optical System... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 27)
SPACEX DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE ARRIVES AT THE ISS WITH 5,000 POUNDS OF SUPPLIES - A SpaceX cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning (Aug. 25). The capsule successfully docked at the forward port of the International Space Station's Harmony module carrying about 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) of food, supplies and scientific experiments to t... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 26)
SPACEX POSTPONES 10TH TEST LAUNCH OF MASSIVE STARSHIP ROCKET - Space enthusiasts will have to wait awhile longer to see SpaceX attempt the 10th launch of its massive Starship rocket, the largest type of rocket ever built. The company had been targeting a one-hour window Sunday evening to launch Starship from a SpaceX facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas. ... More (Source: NPR - Aug 26)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 5,000 POUNDS OF CARGO TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, LANDS ROCKET AT SEA - A SpaceX cargo ship laden with 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) of supplies launched to the International Space Station early Sunday morning (Aug. 24). A robotic Dragon capsule lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canave... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 25)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 5 SATELLITES ON MYSTERY MISSION - Rocket Lab launched five satellites for a confidential customer this evening (Aug. 23) on the 70th overall liftoff of its Electron rocket. An Electron carrying the satellite quintet lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site today at 6:42 p.m. EDT (2242 GMT; 10:42 a.m. on Aug. 24 local New Zea... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 25)
SPACEX LAUNCHES SPACE FORCE’S X-37B SPACEPLANE TO DEMO LASER COMMUNICATIONS, QUANTUM NAVIGATION - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered off launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly before midnight, carrying with it a military spaceplane known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The launch Thursday night kicked off the eighth mission for the program, which began operation... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 23)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday. The Starlink 17-6 mission will add another 24 satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation. With a successful completion of this mission, SpaceX will have launched more tha... More (Source: SoaceFlight Now - Aug 23)
SOUTH KOREA'S K-RADCUBE RADIATION SATELLITE WILL HITCH A RIDE ON NASA'S ARTEMIS 2 MOON MISSION - South Korea's K-RadCube satellite has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida ahead of its launch toward the moon next year. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) announced the arrival of the K-RadCube in Florida on Aug. 13 via the social media platform X. The milestone comes ... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 22)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH X-37B MILITARY SPACEPLANE ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - The U.S. Space Force and SpaceX are preparing to launch the Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane on its eighth mission shortly before midnight on Thursday. The winged spacecraft, flying under the mission names USSF-36 and Orbital Test Vehicle 8 (OTV-8), will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NA... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 22)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES BION-M NO.2 RESEARCH SATELLITE - Russia launched the Bion-M No.2 satellite at 17:13 UTC on Wednesday, Aug. 20, aboard a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This biomedical satellite is a continuation of a Soviet and later Russian scientific program, which started with the launch of Bion 1 back in 1973.... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 21)
SPACEX PARTNERS WITH ASTRONOMERS TO PROTECT RADIO ASTRONOMY FROM SATELLITE INTERFERENCE - An automated data-sharing system co-developed by SpaceX and American radio astronomers promises to protect radio telescopes around the world from disruptive interference from satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Big constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink bring high-speed internet to people in r... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 21)
NEW NASA-ESA SEA LEVEL SATELLITE ARRIVES AT CALIFORNIA LAUNCH SITE - The Sentinel-6B satellite will soon start final preparation to ready it for launch later this year. After a trans-Atlantic journey on a cargo ship and a truck ride from Texas to California, the international sea level satellite Sentinel-6B arrived at a NASA facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base... More (Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - Aug 21)
NASA INVITES MEDIA TO NORTHROP GRUMMAN CRS-23 STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH - Media accreditation is open for the next launch to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. A Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft will launch to the orbital laboratory on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for NASA. The mission is known as NASA’s Nor... More (Source: NASA - Aug 20)
CHINESE ASTRONAUTS BEEF UP TIANGONG SPACE STATION'S DEBRIS SHIELD DURING 6.5-HOUR SPACEWALK - Chinese astronauts added more debris shielding to the Tiangong space station during a 6.5-hour spacewalk on Friday (Aug. 15), according to state media. Two astronauts from the three-person Shenzhou 20 mission ventured outside Tiangong to do the spacewalk, which concluded Friday at 9:27 a.m. EDT (... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 20)
NASA SETS COVERAGE FOR SPACEX 33RD STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH, ARRIVAL - NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:45 a.m. EDT, Sunday, Aug. 24, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This is the 33rd SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for NASA. Filled with more than 5... More (Source: NASA - Aug 20)
HIJACKED SATELLITES AND ORBITING SPACE WEAPONS: IN THE 21ST CENTURY, SPACE IS THE NEW BATTLEFIELD - As Russia held its Victory Day parade this year, hackers backing the Kremlin hijacked an orbiting satellite that provides television service to Ukraine. Instead of normal programing, Ukrainian viewers saw parade footage beamed in from Moscow: waves of tanks, soldiers and weaponry. The message was... More (Source: AP News - Aug 19)
SPACEX SENDS 24 STARLINK SATELLITES INTO ORBIT ON 100TH FALCON 9 LAUNCH OF THE YEAR - SpaceX sent another batch of its Starlink broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit today (Aug. 18), atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The launch, at 12:26 p.m. EDT (1626 GMT or 9:26 a.m. PDT local time) on Monday marked the company's 100th F... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 19)
CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NEW TEST SATELLITE - China on Sunday sent a new test satellite into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. The Shiyan-28B 02 satellite was launched at 4:55 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-4C carrier rocket and entered its preset orbit successfully.... More (Source: www.gov.cn - Aug 18)
