SOUTH KOREA LAUNCHES NURI ROCKET CARRYING 15 SATELLITES, ITS 1ST LIFTOFF OF 2026 - South Korea just launched its first orbital mission of the year. The milestone came on Tuesday night (Oct. 6), when the homegrown Nuri rocket lifted off from the nation's Naro Space Center, carrying 15 satellites skyward. Liftoff occurred at 11:25 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT and 12:25 p.m. local time o... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 8)
FCC GREEN LIGHTS SPACEX'S 15,000 SATELLITES FOR STARLINK MOBILE - In a regulatory win, SpaceX has secured approval to launch and operate 15,000 next-gen satellites for Starlink Mobile, the company’s service to deliver satellite connectivity to phones. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission cleared the company’s request for the 15,000 satellite c... More (Source: PCMag - Oct 8)
3 FOR 3! FALCON HEAVY ROCKET LAUNCHES SECRET US SPY MISSION TO COMPLETE SPACEX TRIPLEHEADER - SpaceX launched a reconnaissance mission for the U.S. government on Thursday night (Oct. 1), the third liftoff for the company in less than 13 hours. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 GMT on Oct. 2), on a miss... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 7)
SPACEX SCRUBS LAUNCH ATTEMPT FOR 21 DATA TRANSPORT SATELLITES FOR THE SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY - SpaceX will have to wait at least another day before launching a new batch of data satellites to low Earth orbit on behalf of the United States Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA). The launch planned for early Monday morning was scrubbed in the final minute of the count as rocket was shif... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 6)
NASA, SPACEX SET NO EARLIER THAN OCT. 7 FOR CREW-12 DEPARTURE - Following a review weather and splashdown conditions off the coast of California, NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 1:05 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 7, for the undocking of the agency’s Crew-12 mission from the International Space Station. An Oct. 7 undock puts NASA astronauts Jessic... More (Source: NASA - Oct 5)
SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY TO LAUNCH 21 MORE DATA TRANSPORT SATELLITES NEXT WEEK - The Space Development Agency is set to launch 21 Tranche 1 data transport satellites on Oct. 5—its fourth Tranche 1 mission since last fall and the first to carry Northrop Grumman-built satellites. The launch is scheduled for 1:15 a.m. local time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on a ... More (Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine - Oct 4)
FIRST SATELLITE FROM SECOND BATCH OF RASSVET SATELLITES REACHES OPERATIONAL ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 500 KM - The first Russian Rassvet communications satellite from the second batch entered its operational orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, 68 days after launch. This was reported by Militarnyi, based on an analysis of data from the Satcat satellite tracking service. The Rassvet-3 No. 29 sa... More (Source: militarnyi.com - Oct 4)
CREW-13 MEMBERS ENTER STATION, JOIN EXPEDITION 75 - NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov have entered the International Space Station following Dragon’s hatch opening at 9:19 p.m. EDT. Crew-13 now joins Expedition 75 crew, which include... More (Source: NASA - Oct 4)
STATION CREW EXPANDS AS NASA’S SPACEX CREW-12 PREPARES TO DEPART - The Expedition 75 crew slept in Friday and spent the rest of the day relaxing following the Oct. 1 arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission. The four new crew members, who arrived after a record-setting 7-hour, 55-minute Dragon spacecraft flight from Florida, bring the number of people living aboa... More (Source: NASA - Oct 3)
FALCON HEAVY FLIES ITS FIRST MISSION FOR U.S. SPY SATELLITE AGENCY - A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Florida Thursday night on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency. Codenamed NROL-97, the mission blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 UTC). It ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 3)
SPACE FORCE PICKS TWO COMPANIES TO BUILD NEW ‘SPACE-TO-SPACE’ SATELLITES BY 2028 - The Space Force and the Pentagon have commissioned two companies to build new reconnaissance satellites capable of delivering high-resolution “space-to-space imagery” of objects more than 22,000 miles above Earth. Space Systems Command awarded the prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and T... More (Source: Defense News - Oct 2)
NOKIA AND ICEYE TO MAKE LOW-ORBIT SATELLITE SYSTEMS FOR DEFENCE, SECURITY - Nokia opens new tab and Iceye will develop satellite communications systems for governments and defence contractors, supporting missions from military and border security to emergency services and disaster response, the companies said on Thursday. The partnership will deliver secu... More (Source: Reuters - Oct 2)
THE RISK OF SPACE DEBRIS FALLING TO EARTH AND CAUSING DEATHS AND IS GROWING, EXPERTS SAY - Today's scenery in space is not a pretty picture. With the rate at which orbital launches are now occurring, some Earth orbits are so crowded and carry so many potentially dangerous, high-velocity pieces of defunct satellite litter and spent rocket stages that they could jeopardize humanity's fut... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 2)
STATION PREPARES TO WELCOME CREW-13 WHILE CONTINUING SPACE RESEARCH - Expedition 75 is getting the International Space Station ready for the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission scheduled to launch and dock to the orbital outpost on Thursday, Oct. 1. In the meantime, space research and lab maintenance rounded out the schedule keeping the astronauts and cosmonaut... More (Source: NASA - Oct 2)
FRESH CREW TAKES OFF FOR SIX-MONTH STAY ABOARD SPACE STATION - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off on a flight to the International Space Station Thursday carrying two NASA astronauts, a cosmonaut and a Canadian whose wife plans a launch of her own later this year, giving birth to the couple’s third child while her husband is away in space. Strapped into a S... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 2)
LAUNCH TRIPLEHEADER! SPACEX TO FLY 3 ROCKETS IN 13 HOURS TODAY - SpaceX has a very big day planned. Elon Musk's company is scheduled to launch three missions in a 13-hour span today (Oct. 1), a feat it has accomplished just once before. The action will start at 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 GMT) with the launch of the Crew-13 astronaut mission for NASA, which will h... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 1)
NASA PLANS UNPILOTED STARLINER TEST FLIGHT AT END OF YEAR - NASA is working with Boeing to launch an unpiloted Starliner capsule in the December-January time frame to test upgrades and improvements ordered in the wake of a 2024 mission that suffered multiple propulsion system failures, stranding two astronauts on the space station for more than nine months. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 1)
WOW! WATCH SPACEX'S STARSHIP MEGAROCKET DEPLOY SATELLITES INTO ORBIT FOR 1ST TIME EVER - Construction of SpaceX's next-gen Starlink satellite megaconstellation is officially underway. The milestone occurred today (Sept. 28), during the 14th test flight of the company's Starship megarocket. The 407-foot-tall (124 meters) Starship reached orbit for the first time ever on Flight 14 — ... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 30)
SPACEX'S STARSHIP SPLASHES DOWN IN PACIFIC OCEAN AFTER RETURNING TO EARTH EARLIER THAN PLANNED - A thunderous lift off, rapid satellite deployments and a fiery ending. That's how SpaceX's 14th launch of its Starship rocket panned out today. SpaceX - owned by Elon Musk - describes Starship as "the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed". SpaceX aims for it to be reusable and even... More (Source: BBC News - Sep 29)
