SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched two dozen of its Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday night. The Starlink 17-49 mission was SpaceX’s 51st flight from the West Coast so far this year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:46 p.m. PDT (12:46 a.m. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES TUESDAY NOONTIME STARLINK MISSION FOLLOWING MONDAY SCRUB - After a launch scrub on Monday morning, SpaceX flew its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to deliver another batch of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. The Starlink 10-19 mission represented the 72nd flight of these broadband internet satellites o... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
STATION CREW GEARS UP FOR NEXT SPACEWALK, KEEPS UP MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH - The next spacewalk outside the International Space Station is set to take place on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Two Expedition 75 astronauts will work in the vacuum of space to replace a space-to-ground antenna to maintain high-speed data and communication transmissions between the orbital outpost and mission ... More (Source: NASA - Aug 11)
SPACEX SCRUBS PLANNED MONDAY LAUNCH OF ITS FALCON 9 ROCKET; TARGETS TUESDAY MORNING - SpaceX was set to kick off the work week with a Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to deliver another batch of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. However, the mission was scrubbed hours before is scheduled liftoff at 12:20:09 p.m. EDT (1620:09 UTC) ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 11)
EXPLORING 'VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT': THE WORLD'S 1ST AIR-BREATHING SATELLITE THRUSTER COULD SOON GET A TEST RUN - A new way to move around Earth's outer atmosphere could soon get a field test. The Spanish company Kreios Space plans to launch into orbit the world's first satellite that uses scooped-up air to push it forward, the company announced on Tuesday (Aug. 4). The technology Kreios Space has been de... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 10)
NASA HAS CONTRACTED A PURPOSE-BUILT SPACECRAFT TO PUSH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OUT OF ORBIT IN LATE 2030 - There is an uncomfortable practical question inside every permanent-looking human project: who turns off the lights? For the International Space Station, the answer is now being built. NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, a heavily modified Cargo Dragon that will eventual... More (Source: Space Daily - Aug 10)
SPACEX WEST COAST LAUNCH SURGE CONTINUES WITH STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX’s West Coast surge in Starlink launches continued Saturday with another batch of satellites for its internet service going into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff of the Starlink 17-38 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 9:35 a.m. PDT (12:35 p.m. EDT / 1... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 9)
PLANNED SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATIONS COULD GENERATE RUNAWAY SPACE DEBRIS - Sixteen thousand satellites currently whiz above our heads on a 3D space superhighway. To the consternation of astronomers and dark-sky lovers, that number may increase 10-fold within the next decade as operators launch internet and telecoms satellites en masse. If SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gets his way,... More (Source: Science - Aug 8)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES JAPANESE EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE AFTER 5-WEEK DELAY - A Japanese Earth-observing satellite got to orbit early this morning (Aug. 6), five weeks later than originally planned. The spacecraft — a radar satellite that will be operated by the Tokyo-based company iQPS — lifted off atop a Rocket Lab Electron vehicle from New Zealand today at 5:18 a.m.... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 7)
SOUTH KOREAN SATELLITE CAPTURES BEFORE AND AFTER VIEWS OF SPACEX ROCKET’S MOON CRASH - A South Korean satellite has captured the first pictures of the moon’s fresh crash scene caused by a stray SpaceX rocket. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. D... More (Source: AP News - Aug 7)
SPACEWALK BEGINS FOR SOLAR ARRAY MODIFICATIONS - NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon began a spacewalk at 8:33 a.m. EDT outside the International Space Station to prepare the 3B power channel for the future installation of new roll-out solar arrays. Once installed, the arrays will provide additional power to support critical station operat... More (Source: NASA - Aug 7)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 3 AST SPACEMOBILE BLUEBIRD SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched the latest trio of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning. The Falcon 9 rocket carried satellites numbered 11, 12, and 13 in to orbit. The mission came about a month-and-a-half after SpaceX launched... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 6)
A SPACEX ROCKET IS ABOUT TO CRASH INTO THE MOON - Part of a SpaceX rocket used to launch a pair of robotic commercial lunar landers is expected to crash into the moon early Wednesday morning. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on January 15, 2025, carrying the Blue Ghost lander developed by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, as well as Tokyo-based Ispac... More (Source: CNN - Aug 5)
SPACEX WANTS TO LAUNCH NEXT STARSHIP THIS MONTH (AND CATCH IT, TOO), ELON MUSK SAYS IN 1ST EARNINGS CALL SINCE HISTORIC IPO - SpaceX will make some history this month, if all goes according to plan. The company aims to launch the 14th test flight of its Starship megarocket before August is out, Elon Musk said today (Aug. 4) during SpaceX's first-ever quarterly earnings call. Starship will deploy viable payloads into orb... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 5)
SPACEWALK PREPS, HEALTH RESEARCH ON STATION AS NASA INTRODUCES SPACEX CREW-13 - Spacewalk preparations and health research awaited the Expedition 75 crew aboard the International Space Station at the beginning of August. The next crew to visit the orbital outpost, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13, introduced themselves today during a news conference from Johnson Space Center in Houston,... More (Source: NASA - Aug 5)
THE 10 WORST SPACE DEBRIS EVENTS IN HISTORY - On the night of January 11, 2007, a missile launched from central China climbed 865 kilometers and struck a retired weather satellite nearly head-on. In a few milliseconds, Fengyun-1C went from one tracked object to thousands. Nineteen years later, two thirds of that shrapnel is still circling the p... More (Source: KeepTrack.space - Aug 4)
ISRO AIMS FOR SPACE STATION BY 2035, MOON MISSION BY 2040 - “ISRO is working towards establishing India’s own space station by 2035 and sending an Indian to the Moon aboard an Indian rocket by 2040,” ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said on Friday. He was addressing the inaugural session of the ‘ISRO Academia Connect @ AU’ programme, organised by Andhra U... More (Source: The New Indian Express - Aug 3)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its next batch of Starlink satellites from California on Friday night, four days later than original planned. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 8:08 p.m. PDT (11:08 p.m. EDT / 0308 UTC).... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 2)
CHINA LAUNCHES SECRETIVE TJS-27 PAIR, ORBITS NEXT-GEN TIANLIAN RELAY SAT - China sent a new pair of secretive satellites into a programmatically new orbit Wednesday, while also upgrading its on-orbit communications relay capabilities. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern July 29 (0100 UTC, July 30) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The China Aerosp... More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 2)
