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)
EUROPE'S 1ST REUSABLE SPACECRAFT 'SPACE RIDER' CLEARS KEY HURDLES ON THE ROAD TO LAUNCH - Before Europe's new spacecraft design can lift off on its first mission, the European Space Agency must first test the hardest parts of bringing it home. Space Rider, a novel spacecraft concept from the European Space Agency (ESA), is advancing toward its first flight, with new milestones tacklin... More (Source: Space.com - May 10)
RESCUE MISSION FOR NASA’S $500 MILLION SPACE TELESCOPE PASSES KEY TESTING MILESTONE - A mission to prevent a $500 million NASA space observatory from meeting a fiery demise just passed a notable prelaunch testing milestone. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2004, is at risk of falling back through the atmosphere and burning up without intervention. On Fr... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 9)
‘WHATEVER RUSSIA IS TESTING, IT’S SOPHISTICATED’: SATELLITES PASS WITHIN 3 METRES OF EACH OTHER - Astronomers have observed two Russian military satellites passing within 3 metres (10 feet) of each other in an unexplained manoeuvre. The COSMOS 2581 and COSMOS 2583 satellites, launched by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos in February 2025, performed the operation last week while orbiting at an... More (Source: Yahoo News - May 8)
CHINA'S TIANZHOU-9 CARGO SPACECRAFT SEPARATES FROM SPACE STATION, TO RE-ENTER ATMOSPHERE SOON - China's Tianzhou-9 cargo spacecraft, tasked with carrying supplies for China's space station, separated from the station combination on Wednesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The cargo craft has switched to independent flight and will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in a co... More (Source: CGTN - May 7)
NASA SETS COVERAGE FOR SPACEX 34TH STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH, ARRIVAL - NASA and SpaceX are targeting 7:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 12, for the next launch to deliver science, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This will be the 34th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital outpost for NASA. Carrying about 6,500 pounds of cargo,... More (Source: NASA - May 7)
SPACE JUNK FALLS TO EARTH FASTER WHEN SUNSPOTS PEAK, RESHAPING SATELLITE COLLISION FORECASTS - Solar emissions exert 'drag' on space junk orbiting Earth. From historical measurements across a period of 36 years, researchers have now shown that space junk begins to fall down much faster once the sun's activity across the solar cycle reaches approximately 67% of its peak. This result, which is ... More (Source: Phys.org - May 7)
THESE 2 COMPANIES WANT TO START REMOVING SPACE JUNK FROM ORBIT IN 2027 - Two private companies are partnering up to establish a repeatable debris removal service for low Earth orbit. The U.S. firm Portal Space Systems and Australian startup Paladin Space are working together to establish the commercial Debris Removal as a Service (DRAAS) for removing multiple debris o... More (Source: Space.com - May 6)
LOCKHEED MARTIN JOINS COLLABORATION WITH FIREFLY AEROSPACE AND SEAGATE FOR OFF-SHORE LAUNCHES - Lockheed Martin is joining in the effort to support a sea-based approach for launching Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket. The 29.48-meter-tall (96.7 ft) rocket currently only launches from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On Monday, Jonathan Caldwell, the vice... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its second Starlink mission in the month of May, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The Starlink 17-29 mission sent another 24 broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit, adding to a constellation of more than 10,000 spacecra... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)
WATCH SPACEX STARLINK TRAIN CIRCLE EARTH IN AMAZING SATELLITE VIDEO - A video captured by a newly launched SpaceX Starlink satellite shows us what it's like to zoom above our beautiful blue planet. The 3.5-minute-long video was posted on X on Monday (May 4) by Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX. It features footage from one of the 29 ... More (Source: Space.com - May 6)
CHILLING SPACE CRISIS THREATENS THE WORLD AS SATELLITE SWARM - When it all begins, we’ll be five days and 12 hours from disaster. But that unstoppable calamity would unfold over the course of decades. Some 600km above Earth is a rapidly intensifying cloud of satellites. They’re already indispensable. They enable our smartphones to navigate, research, ... More (Source: News.com.au - May 5)
FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND SATELLITE BY INDIAN START-UP FLIES ON SPACEX ROCKET - An Indian start-up, GalaxEye, rode on a SpaceX rocket this morning to launch a first of its kind satellite that is meant to fill a long-standing gap in space imaging. The satellite, aptly called Drishti, is equipped to take optical images, very much like a normal camera, as well as radar-generated i... More (Source: The Indian Express - May 5)
SPACEX LAUNCHES SOUTH KOREAN EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE, PLUS 44 MORE PAYLOADS ON MIDNIGHT FALCON 9 RIDESHARE MISSION - SpaceX launched 45 payloads on an overnight rideshare mission aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Station early Sunday morning. The mission, dubbed CAS500-2, is named for the primary payload called Compact Advanced Satellite 500-2 from the Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI). ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 4)
SPACEX ROCKET DEBRIS COULD SLAM INTO THE MOON: HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - Earth's moon is to be on the receiving end of a spent rocket stage in early August - the leftovers from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch last year. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on Jan. 15, 2025 and performed the first fully successful commercial lunar landing on... More (Source: Space.com - May 3)
NASA, PARTNERS UPDATE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 2026 FLIGHT PLAN - After reviewing the International Space Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are adjusting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions. This update to the schedule better aligns mission planning, logistics, and timing for upcoming flights to support space station operations. ... More (Source: NASA - May 2)
LOW-EARTH ORBIT IS A 'HOUSE OF CARDS' THAT IS JUST 2.8 DAYS FROM A CATASTROPHIC COLLISION - The phrase “house of cards” gets used a lot for politics and drama, but its original meaning is simpler and scarier: a system that looks stable right up until the moment it isn’t. Low Earth orbit used to be big and mostly empty, at least in practical terms. Mega-constellations changed that. ... More (Source: Earth.com - May 2)
RUSSIA'S NEW HOMEGROWN SOYUZ 5 ROCKET ACES DEBUT LAUNCH - Russia's new Soyuz 5 rocket has taken to the skies at long last. The Soyuz 5 lifted off for the first time ever on Thursday (April 30), rising off a pad at the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT; 11:00 p.m. local time in Baikonur). Things apparently went we... More (Source: Space.com - May 1)
