CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE GROUP - China sent a new satellite group into space on Friday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. The satellite group, which will constitute the Spacesail Constellation – a commercial Chinese low-orbit satellite network, was launched at 3:08 p.m. (Beijing Time) ab... More (Source: CGTN - Oct 20)
SPACEX LAUNCHES A FALCON 9 ROCKET ON RECORD-BREAKING 31ST FLIGHT - SpaceX broke another reuse record on Sunday when it launched a Falcon 9 booster for a 31st time. The company’s most flown rocket was used to launch the Starlink 10-17 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 1:39 p.m. EDT (1739 UTC) towar... More (Source: SpaceFligh Now - Oct 20)
CHINA LAUNCHES INTERNET SATELLITES ON 600TH MISSION OF LONG MARCH ROCKET - China's Long March rocket family now has 600 flights under its belt. A Long March 8A lifted off on Wednesday (Oct. 15) from Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan at 9:33 p.m. EDT (0133 GMT and 9:33 a.m. local time on Oct. 16). The mission, which successfully lofted a batch of sa... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 20)
VAST GEARING UP TO LAUNCH ITS HAVEN-1 PRIVATE SPACE STATION IN 2026 - Vast is moving into the final stages of building its Haven-1 private space station, readying for launch in 2026, in a move that could open up a new era in human spaceflight. In the past couple of weeks, the California-based startup has completed the final weld on the primary structure of Haven-1,... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
SPACEX SENDS 28 STARLINK SATELLITES TO LOW EARTH ORBIT IN PREDAWN LAUNCH - An overnight launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station allowed SpaceX to continue bolstering its Starlink satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. The Thursday morning flight added another 28 V2 Mini satellites to the network of 8,600 currently on orbit, according to astronomer and expert... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 17)
NEW SPACE DEBRIS SHIELD? SATELLITES AND ASTRONAUTS COULD SUIT UP IN NOVEL 'SPACE ARMOR' - Humanity has a new tool in the fight against space junk — "Space Armor™," a multi-functional composite that could protect both spacecraft and astronauts. Space Armor is made via a proprietary fiber-to-resin manufacturing method courtesy of the company Atomic-6, which is based in Marietta, Geo... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
A GIANT WEAK SPOT IN EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD IS GETTING BIGGER — AND IT COULD BE BAD NEWS FOR SATELLITES - A weak region in Earth's magnetic field has grown by an area roughly half the size of continental Europe in the last 10 years. That's according to data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm satellite constellation over the last 11 years. Swarm has been monitoring a region known as ... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 16)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 2ND BATCH OF SATELLITES FOR SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOLLOWING WEATHER SCRUB - The Space Development Agency added another 21 satellites to its burgeoning low Earth orbit constellation thanks to a launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It is the second of ten launches that the SDA booked onboard Falcon 9 so far. The T1TL-C mission was the second flight supporting what the ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 16)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 7TH STRIX EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES FOR JAPAN-BASED SYNSPECTIVE - Japan-based Earth observation company, Synspective, launched its seventh StriX satellite into low Earth orbit, part of a multi-launch deal with Rocket Lab. On Wednesday morning in Mahia, New Zealand (Tuesday afternoon on the East Coast of the U.S.), a Rocket Lab Electron rocket took flight from P... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 15)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FINAL VERSION 2 STARSHIP-SUPER HEAVY ROCKET - SpaceX closed a chapter in its Starship saga on Monday. It launched what appeared to be a nearly flawless suborbital mission with its Version 2 Starship-Super Heavy rocket, the final flight for this iteration of the launch vehicle. The more than 400-foot-tall rocket thundered away from Pad A at S... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 14)
CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NEW TEST SATELLITE - China successfully launched a new test satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Monday. The Shiyan-31 test satellite was launched at 6:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-2D carrier rocket and entered the preset orbit successfully. This satelli... More (Source: Xinhua - Oct 14)
IS LOW EARTH ORBIT GETTING TOO CROWDED? NEW STUDY RINGS AN ALARM BELL - Hundreds of satellites may soon be flying in orbital regions that are already too packed to allow safe and long-term operations, a new study suggests. The study found that, while in 2019 only 0.2% of satellites in Earth orbit were forced to perform more than 10 collision-avoidance maneuvers per m... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 14)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 AMAZON KUIPER SATELLITES FOLLOWING DAYS OF WEATHER DELAYS - After more than a week of launch delays, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with two dozen of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites onboard Monday night. The mission came about an hour and a half following the splashdown of SpaceX’s Starsh... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 14)
CHINA LAUNCHES MULTIPLE SATELLITES FROM SEA - China launched multiple satellites Saturday aboard a Gravity-1 carrier rocket from waters near Haiyang, in Shandong Province on the eastern coast, state-run Xinhua News reported. The rocket took off at 10.20 am (0220GMT), successfully placing three satellites into their planned orbits. The missio... More (Source: Anadolu Ajansı - Oct 12)
ISS ASTRONAUT CAPTURES AMAZING VIDEO OF SPACEX STARLINK SATELLITE TRAIN CRUISING ABOVE AURORAS - An amazing new video shows flashes of sunlight sparkling off a batch of SpaceX satellites, with a green aurora glowing just below. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, an accomplished amateur photographer, captured the stunning "train" of SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites during his recent mission to th... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 11)
JAPAN PREPARES NEW ISS CARGO VEHICLE AS TRIO OF CARGO SPACECRAFT DELIVER NEW EXPERIMENTS AND HARDWARE - The International Space Station (ISS) recently welcomed three spacecraft that delivered much-needed cargo to support Expedition 73’s seven-member astronaut crew, ensuring the crew and Station are supplied with food, water, clothing, and equipment. Meanwhile, the crew continued with its usual colle... More (Source: NASASpaceflight.com - Oct 10)
SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCHING AMAZON’S PROJECT KUIPER SATELLITES AMID BACKDROP OF POOR WEATHER - SpaceX was preparing to launch 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites Thursday night, but punted the mission to Saturday as it faces challenging weather conditions during its initial window of opportunity. The mission, dubbed Kuiper Falcon 03 (KF-03), is the third and final... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 10)
CHINA IS DEVELOPING WAYS TO DE-ORBIT SPACE JUNK. SHOULD WE BE WORRIED? - China is developing the capability to remove space debris from orbit, according to a top official. In recent years, China's space activities have grown tremendously, with an operational space station in low Earth orbit (LEO), a greatly increased rate of launches and plans for multiple constellati... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES WITH A FALCON 9 BOOSTER FLYING FOR A 29TH TIME - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night, which added another 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to its megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. The Starlink 11-17 mission flew on a south-easterly trajectory upon departure from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 10)
