THE 10 MOST EXPENSIVE SATELLITES CURRENTLY IN ORBIT - Satellites are perhaps the most wondrous piece of technology mankind has invented. The idea of creating an artificial device and launching it into space to orbit our planet is simply amazing. It is also rather expensive. Much of that cost is due to the logistics of the rocket launch itself. It ta... More (Source: BGR - Dec 15)
ULA POSTPONES ATLAS V ROCKET LAUNCH FOR AMAZON LEO TO TUESDAY, CITING WINDS - Facing a gusty, windy weather forecast, United Launch Alliance officials have postponed their date to launch an Atlas V rocket from Monday, Dec. 15, to Tuesday, Dec. 16, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA is now targeting 3:28 a.m. Tuesday for liftoff. The 29-minute launch window will l... More (Source: Florida Today - Dec 15)
FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCHES STARLINK SATELLITES BEFORE MAKING 550TH SPACEX LANDING - Almost 10 years to the day since it successfully landed its first rocket stage, SpaceX today (Dec. 14) recovered its 550th Falcon 9 booster. The touchdown came after the rocket's first stage had lofted 27 Starlink satellites into space, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg S... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 15)
FALCON 9 LAUNCH OF 29 STARLINK SATELLITE FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER IS ON HOLD - SpaceX has put on hold its plan to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Monday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A new launch date has not been announced. The Starlink 6-99 mission will add another 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to its broadband internet constellation in low Earth orbit. The compan... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 15)
SPACECRAFT FROM CHINESE LAUNCH NEARLY SLAMMED INTO STARLINK SATELLITE, SPACEX SAYS - One of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites just dodged a bullet in orbit. That bullet was one of the nine spacecraft that launched atop a Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket on Tuesday (Dec. 9) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. It zoomed dangerously close to a Starlink satellite, a... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 14)
STUDY: CURRENT, FUTURE MEGACONSTELLATIONS RISK SPACE-BASED ASTRONOMY - One of the biggest impacts to the low Earth orbit environment in the near-term and long-term future are satellite megaconstellations, according to a new study, published in the journal Nature. Companies, like Amazon, OneWeb and SpaceX, along with governments, like China and the United States are kee... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 13)
SPACE FORCE ROLLS OUT NEW NAMING SCHEME FOR SATELLITES AND SPACE WEAPONS - The U.S. Space Force is rolling out a new naming scheme for its satellites, cyber tools and other space-warfare systems, a move aimed at giving its arsenal the kind of recognizable identities long used across the military. In a keynote address at the Spacepower conference Dec. 11, Chief of Space ... More (Source: Space News - Dec 13)
SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS COULD OBSCURE MOST SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS BY LATE 2030S: 'THAT PART OF THE IMAGE WILL BE FOREVER LOST' - Rapidly growing swarms of satellites around Earth are no longer just a nuisance for ground-based observatories — the reflections they cause are now intruding on space-based telescopes as well, according to new research. Roughly 15,000 satellites currently circle the planet in vast internet-prov... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 13)
3 FOREIGN SATELLITES AMONG 9 LAUNCHED BY KINETICA 1 - CAS Space, a leading commercial rocket maker, launched the 11th Kinetica 1 carrier rocket on Wednesday afternoon, deploying nine satellites, including three for the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Nepal. The rocket lifted off at 12:03 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert... More (Source: China Daily - Dec 12)
SPACEX BREAKS LAUNCH PAD TURNAROUND RECORD WITH FLIGHT OF FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched another batch of 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit on its Falcon 9 rocket Thursday afternoon breaking its pad turnaround record by nearly five hours. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred shortly before sunset at 5:01 p.m. EST (2201 UTC... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 12)
AI HELPS PILOT FREE-FLYING ROBOT AROUND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR 1ST TIME EVER - Navigating in a microgravity environment is a challenge even for trained human astronauts, but it is even more challenging for autonomous robots, limiting their use in places like a space station. Now, however, Stanford researchers have used artificial intelligence to steer a free-flying robot ab... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 12)
CHINESE ASTRONAUTS CLAMBER OUTSIDE SPACE STATION TO INSPECT DAMAGED SPACECRAFT - Last month, Chinese astronauts on board the country’s Tiangong space station discovered cracks in the window of their return vehicle, the Shenzhou-20, which officials suspected were the result of a space debris strike. The Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was deemed not safe enough to return its crew aft... More (Source: Futurism - Dec 11)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 160TH FALCON 9 ROCKET OF 2025 - SpaceX executed a pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday morning. The flight was the 160th of a Falcon 9 rocket so far in 2025. The Starlink 15-11 mission added another 27 broadband internet satellites to its growing megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 11)
STATION TRIO BACK ON EARTH; EXPEDITION 74 KEEPS UP SCIENCE, MAINTAINS SYSTEMS - Expedition 73 has ended and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has returned to Houston and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky have returned to Moscow. The trio is now readapting to Earth’s gravity after living aboard the International Space Station in weightlessness for 245 days. E... More (Source: NASA - Dec 11)
‘GREETINGS, EARTHLINGS’: NVIDIA-BACKED STARCLOUD TRAINS FIRST AI MODEL IN SPACE AS ORBITAL DATA CENTER RACE HEATS UP - Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud trained an artificial intelligence model from space for the first time, signaling a new era for orbital data centers that could alleviate Earth’s escalating digital infrastructure crisis. Last month, the Washington-based company launched a satellite with an Nvidi... More (Source: CNBC - Dec 11)
JAPAN TO LAUNCH SATELLITE IN FEBRUARY TO COMPLETE 7-ORBITER GEOLOCATION SYSTEM - Japan's space agency will launch a satellite in February to enable the country to stably operate its own geolocation system akin to the U.S. Global Positioning System. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said that the Michibiki No. 7 satellite will be launch... More (Source: Japan Today - Dec 11)
SPACEX LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD FOR THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE - SpaceX launched its final national security payload of the year for the nation’s secretive spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. The Tuesday afternoon flight was also the final Falcon 9 booster recovery at Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission, du... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES STARLINK SATELLITES ON RECORD 32ND FLIGHT OF FALCON 9 ROCKET - The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just set a new record for a "flight-proven" booster, landing for the 32nd time after helping loft Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The company's Booster 1067 lifted off on Monday (Dec. 8), accelerating an upper stage and 29 broadband internet s... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 10)
SOYUZ SAFELY LANDS IN KAZAKHSTAN - A NASA astronaut and two cosmonaut crewmates strapped into their Soyuz ferry ship Monday evening, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to an on-target landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan early Tuesday to wrap up an eight-month mission. With Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhi... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 10)
