DO ROCKETS STILL LAUNCH DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? HOW NASA COULD FEEL THE EFFECTS - Is it time for NASA to hang up those spacesuits and power down those rockets? NASA is far from immune to the effects of a looming government shutdown if congressional leaders fail to reach an agreement before midnight Oct. 1 to prevent one. At stake for the U.S. space agency if the federal g... More (Source: USA Today - Oct 2)
VIASAT-3 F2 SATELLITE ARRIVES IN FLORIDA AHEAD OF LATE OCTOBER LAUNCH - The ViaSat-3 Flight 2 spacecraft, the next geostationary satellite for communications company Viasat, arrived in Florida in the early morning hours of Tuesday. This six-ton (more than 13,000 lbs) satellite is the second in a three-vehicle series for the ViaSat-3 network. Its planned launch in lat... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 2)
SPACEX TARGETING OCT. 13 FOR NEXT STARSHIP MEGAROCKET LAUNCH - SpaceX's Starship megarocket will fly again less than two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX announced on Monday (Sept. 29) that it's targeting Oct. 13 for Starship Flight 11, which will be the final launch of the vehicle's current "Version 2" iteration. Liftoff will occur f... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 1)
CHINA SENDS EXPERIMENTAL SHIYAN-30 SATELLITES INTO ORBIT AS LAUNCH CADENCE INTENSIFIES - A Long March 2D rocket sent a new set of experimental satellites into orbit late Sunday, capping an intense month of Chinese launch activities. The Long March 2D lifted off at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Sept. 28 (0300 UTC, Sept. 29) from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, with the launch... More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 1)
GROUND TESTING ANOMALY DESTROYS FIREFLY AEROSPACE’S ALPHA BOOSTER INTENDED FOR NEXT FLIGHT - Firefly Aerospace suffered a setback on its road to resuming launches with its Alpha rocket. During acceptance testing at its facility in Briggs, Texas, on Monday, the booster designated for Alpha Flight 7 “experienced an event that resulted in a loss of the stage,” the company said in a stat... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 30)
CHINESE ASTRONAUTS ADD DEBRIS SHIELDING TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION DURING 6-HOUR SPACEWALK - China's Tiangong space station just got some more protection against debris strikes. Two astronauts from the three-person Shenzhou 20 mission installed additional shielding on Tiangong during a six-hour spacewalk on Friday (Sept. 26), according to the state-run broadcaster CCTV. It was the fou... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 30)
CHINA LAUNCHES LOW EARTH ORBIT SATELLITE GROUP - China successfully launched a new batch of low Earth orbit satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province on Saturday, marking the 597th mission of the Long March carrier rockets.... More (Source: CGTN - Sep 29)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX completed its final, scheduled launch of September Sunday evening. The Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base was the 16th launch for SpaceX this month. The Starlink 11-20 mission saw 28 of SpaceX’s broadband internet satellites deployed into low Earth orbit with deployment sch... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 29)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW FENGYUN METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE - China launched a new Fengyun meteorological satellite, which will also contribute to a global green mission, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday. A Long March-4C rocket, carrying the Fengyun-3 08 satellite, blasted off at 3:28 a.m., and sent the satellite into the... More (Source: Ecns.cn - Sep 28)
SPACE DEBRIS LIGHTS UP NIGHT SKY OVER CALIFORNIA - Fiery space debris lit up the night sky over the Golden State on Thursday, sparking hundreds of reports from residents and leaving many to wonder what they had witnessed. The American Meteor Society said that within the first 24 hours after the event, it received more than 200 accounts from witne... More (Source: Fox Weather - Sep 28)
SIERRA SPACE’S DREAM CHASER DEBUT MISSION DELAYED AGAIN, NO LONGER DOCKING TO STATION - The debut of Sierra Space’s cargo space plane Dream Chaser has delayed again and will no longer see a docking with the International Space Station. In a statement Thursday afternoon, NASA said the space agency and Sierra Space had agreed to a major modification of their space station resupply cont... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 27)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG - SpaceX launched its third Falcon 9 rocket in less than 41 hours. Completing the trio of flights, along with NASA’s IMAP and Starlink 10-15, was the flight of the Starlink 17-11 mission, which took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday night. Liftoff of the mission from Space Launch Comp... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 27)
THE WORLD’S FIRST COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION IS GETTING CLOSER TO LAUNCH - The International Space Station (ISS) is one of humanity’s greatest achievements, providing a habitat in orbit that has been occupied continuously for almost 25 years. Visited by almost 300 people from 26 countries so far, it is a shining example of international collaboration and a one-of-a-kind ... More (Source: CNN - Sep 26)
ULA LAUNCHES THIRD BATCH OF AMAZON’S PROJECT KUIPER SATELLITES FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - Roughly an hour past sunrise, an Atlas 5 551 rocket from United Launch Alliance took flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Onboard the rocket, flying in its most powerful configuration, were the next 27 Project Kuiper satellites from Amazon. This is the third batch of production satelli... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 26)
NASA-ISRO SATELLITE SENDS FIRST RADAR IMAGES OF EARTH’S SURFACE - The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth-observing radar satellite’s first images of our planet’s surface are in, and they offer a glimpse of things to come as the joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) approaches full science operations later this y... More (Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - Sep 26)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 3 PROBES TO STUDY SPACE WEATHER AND MAP THE BOUNDARIES OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM - SpaceX just sent three space weather probes to the final frontier. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (Sept. 24) at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT), carrying NASA's IMAP mission and and two other spacecraft. Each probe has its own objectives, but all three ... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 25)
RUSSIAN 'NOAH'S ARK' SATELLITE CARRYING 75 MICE AND 1,500 FLIES LANDS BACK ON EARTH - They came from outer space: 75 mice, over 1,500 flies, cell cultures, microorganisms, plant seeds and more. A Russian biological research satellite toting more than 30 experiments landed on Sept. 19 in the steppes of the Orenburg region after spending 30 days in Earth orbit. The Bion-M No. 2 desc... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 25)
NOAA GOES-19 SATELLITE CAPTURES PARTIAL ECLIPSE - A striking view of the partial solar eclipse that happened on September 21 was caught not just by photographers on Earth, but also by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-19 satellite orbiting high above. The images, highlighted in a post on X, show how satellites con... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 24)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 3 SPACE WEATHER PROBES EARLY ON SEPT. 24 - SpaceX will launch NASA's ambitious IMAP mission and two other space weather probes early Wednesday morning (Sept. 24), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT), carrying IMAP... More (Source: Space.com - Sep 24)
