SPACE DEBRIS IS FORCING SATELLITES TO DODGE MORE OFTEN — COSTING US VITAL SCIENCE. 'THINGS WILL GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER' - On the morning of Jan. 8, 2025, a red dot popped up on NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System. It was the first sign of what would become one of California's worst wildfires in history, going on to claim a dozen lives and burn down thousands of homes in the Palisades. All the while, ... More (Source: Space.com - May 22)
SPACEX SCRUBS FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT OF ITS STARSHIP VERSION 3 ROCKET - SpaceX stood down from its first attempt to launch the third generation of its Starship rocket Thursday, May 21, from its company town in southern Texas, called Starbase. The company ran into multiple issues during the final minute of the countdown and ultimately scrubbed the mission at about 6:4... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 22)
SPACEX’S SUNRISE STARLINK LAUNCH ADDS 29 SATELLITES TO LOW EARTH ORBIT MEGACONSTELLATION - SpaceX launched a batch Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about 20 minutes before sunrise Thursday morning. The morning lighting illuminated the plume of the rocket in a so-called ‘jellyfish effect’ for those viewing the launch fro... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 22)
WATCH ROCKET LAB LAUNCH PRIVATE JAPANESE EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE EARLY ON MAY 22 - Rocket Lab will launch an Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company Synspective early Friday morning (May 22), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket carrying one of Synspective's Strix satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Friday ... More (Source: Space.com - May 22)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base Tuesday night to send a batch of its Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The mission, dubbed Starlink 17-42, added another 24 broadband internet satellites to a constellation of spacecraft that consists of more than 10,000... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 21)
NASA SATELLITE WILL TEST ORBITAL 'GAS STATION' TECH TO HELP ASTRONAUTS REACH THE MOON AND MARS - A new NASA satellite will test critical technologies for storing and transferring super-chilled, cryogenic fuels in space in order to help astronauts reach the moon and potentially Mars someday. The Liquid Oxygen Flight demonstration (LOXSAT) will launch to orbit around the Earth later this year ... More (Source: Space.com - May 20)
SPACEX STARLINK AND OTHER SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATIONS ARE CREATING AN 'UNREGULATED GEOENGINEERING EXPERIMENT', SCIENTISTS SAY - Space industry aficionados have big plans. They talk about the not so distant future when hundreds of thousands or even millions of satellites orbit planet Earth, beaming the internet to the unconnected, processing data in orbital computer centers, generating solar power and more. But this ambitious... More (Source: Space.com - May 19)
SPACEX DRAGON DOCKS TO STATION FILLED WITH NEW SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - At 6:37 a.m. EDT, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module, carrying nearly 6,500 pounds of food, supplies, and equipment for the Expedition 74 crew. This is the 34th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the space station... More (Source: NASA - May 19)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW BATCH OF SATELLITE FOR SPACESAIL CONSTELLATION - China launched a Long March-8 carrier rocket on Sunday in the southern island province of Hainan, sending a new satellite group into space. The rocket lifted off at 10:42 p.m. (Beijing Time) from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site. The satellite group, which is the ninth batch that will... More (Source: China Military - May 18)
SATELLITE LAUNCHES ARE FILLING UP THE ATMOSPHERE WITH POLLUTION, STUDY WARNS - The growing number of satellites in space poses a danger to Earth because of the pollution released in their launches, scientists have warned. In recent years, many companies including Elon Musk’s SpaceX have rushed to launch “megaconstellations” of satellites, using them to provide interne... More (Source: The Independent - May 17)
NASA, SPACEX LAUNCH DRAGON MISSION WITH 6,500 POUNDS OF SCIENCE AND SUPPLIES TO THE SPACE STATION - The third time was the charm as SpaceX successfully launched its Cargo Dragon spacecraft on Friday evening, loaded with 6,500 pounds of science and supplies for the International Space Station after two delays earlier in the week due to bad weather. Liftoff of the resupply mission, atop a Falcon ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 16)
SPACEX TARGETS MAY 19 FOR DEBUT OF STARSHIP VERSION 3, LAUNCH PAD 2 - SpaceX is now targeting no earlier than Tuesday, May 19, for the long awaited debut of the third major iteration of its Starship-Super Heavy rocket. The announcement came the day after it completed an integrated tanking test on Monday. The mission, dubbed Flight 12, will not only be the first lau... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 15)
SATELLITE LAUNCH POLLUTION IS RAPIDLY ACCUMULATING IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE - The potent pollution from so-called megaconstellation satellite systems launched en masse into space since 2019 will account for nearly half (42%) of the total climate impact of space sector pollution by the end of the decade, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. As described in Earth's Future,... More (Source: Phys.org - May 15)
CHINA LAUNCHES 18 MORE SATELLITES FOR SPACESAIL CONSTELLATION - China launched a satellite group for commercial constellation from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province on Tuesday. A modified Long March-6 carrier rocket, carrying the satellite group, blasted off at 7:59 p.m. and has sent the group into the preset orbit successfu... More (Source: CGTN - May 14)
SPACEX SCRUBS DRAGON CARGO LAUNCH TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION DUE TO BAD WEATHER - SpaceX will launch its Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station on Wednesday evening (May 13), and you can watch the action live. The robotic Dragon is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in Wednesday at 6:50 p.m. EDT ... More (Source: Space.com - May 14)
CHINA'S TIANZHOU 10 FREIGHTER DELIVERS 7 TONS OF CARGO TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION - A freighter carrying nearly seven tons of supplies has made its way to China's Tiangong space station. The robotic Tianzhou 10 cargo ship lifted off atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, on China's Hainan Island, on Sunday (May 10) at 8:14 p.m. EDT (0014 GMT and 8:14 a.m... More (Source: Space.com - May 13)
SPACEX LAUNCHES INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING SATELLITES FOR THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE - The National Reconnaissance Office flew its 13th mission supporting an intelligence-gathering constellation it calls the “proliferated architecture” on Monday night. As with the first dozen missions, this batch of satellites (of an undisclosed quantity) will fly to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 12)
CHINA LAUNCHES ROBOTIC CARGO MISSION TO SPACE STATION - China launched the Tianzhou 10 robotic cargo mission on Monday morning in Hainan province, sending supplies and propellants to the Tiangong space station. The cargo vessel's carrier — a 53-meter-tall Long March 7 rocket — lifted off at 8:14 am from a launch service tower at the Wenchang Space... More (Source: China Daily - May 12)
NO MORE ROCKETS: THE WILD NEW TECH LAUNCHING SATELLITES WITH ZERO EMISSIONS - Most rockets burn thousands of litres of fuel before they even clear the launch pad. SpinLaunch aims to skip that phase. Using a vacuum sealed centrifuge at Spaceport America, the California based company spins payloads to 8,000 kilometres per hour before releasing them skyward. A small rocket motor... More (Source: Futura - May 11)
