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)
AST SPACEMOBILE AIMS TO LAUNCH FM2, ITS SECOND PROTOTYPE SATELLITE, IN JANUARY - AST SpaceMobile is hoping to launch a second next-generation prototype satellite "as early as January" as it races to compete with SpaceX’s cellular Starlink service. The company disclosed the launch timing in a new Federal Communications Commission filing. AST is already on track to launch it... More (Source: PCMag Australia - Dec 9)
CHINA'S LONG MARCH-8A ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW INTERNET SATELLITE GROUP - China launched a Long March-8A carrier rocket on Saturday in the southern island province of Hainan, sending a group of internet satellites into space. The rocket lifted off at 3:53 p.m. from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site. It successfully placed the payloads, the 14th group of low-... More (Source: Global Times - Dec 8)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX closed out the weekend with a mid-morning Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Starlink 11-15 mission added another 28 broadband internet satellites to its massive low Earth orbit constellation. This was SpaceX’s 115th launch of Starlink satellites s... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 8)
BOEING STARLINER MISSIONS CUT AFTER BOTCHED ASTRONAUT FLIGHT - NASA cut the planned missions of Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station from six to four, following a highly publicized botched test flight last year and as the orbiting lab heads for retirement by the end of the decade. Originally, NASA had contracted Starliner t... More (Source: MSN - Dec 7)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PREPARES FOR NEW COMMANDER, HEADS INTO FINAL FIVE YEARS OF PLANNED OPERATIONS - After 25 years of continuous human presence, the International Space Station is heading into its final half decade of planned habitation. NASA and its international partners are planning to intentionally deorbit the orbiting laboratory around 2030 or shortly thereafter. SpaceX was contracted valu... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 6)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENGERG SFB - SpaceX completed a lunchtime launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday afternoon. The Starlink 11-25 mission launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East, delivering 28 more broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit. This was the fourth launch this month supp... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 5)
SUNSET SPACEX LAUNCH ADDS 29 MORE STARLINK SATELLITES INTO LOW EARTH ORBIT - SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than two days. The latest was late afternoon flight from its workhorse pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. The Starlink 6-95 mission was SpaceX’s 295th orbital launch from Space Launch Complex 40 and the 350th overa... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 4)
SATELLITE SWARMS SET TO PHOTOBOMB MORE THAN 95% OF SOME TELESCOPES’ IMAGES - Even telescopes far above Earth can’t avoid the contamination caused by commercial satellites. Blurry streaks of light created by fast-moving artificial satellites are already known to mar images taken by ground-based observatories. Today, researchers report1 in Nature that space-based telescop... More (Source: Nature - Dec 4)
SPACE STATION FIRST: ALL DOCKING PORTS FULLY OCCUPIED, 8 SPACECRAFT ON ORBIT - For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. The eight spacecraft attached to the co... More (Source: Space.com - Dec 3)
