BLUE ORIGIN READY FOR MAIDEN FLIGHT OF NEW GLENN - After years of development, Blue Origin’s semi-reusable heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, is due to launch on its maiden flight now on Jan. 13 at 1:00 AM EST (06:00 UTC) after recently completing its seven-engine hotfire and moving to the right due to sea state conditions for recovery.... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 12)
FOUR ASTRANIS GEO SATELLITES PASS INITIAL COMMISSIONING MILESTONE - Astranis said Jan. 10 that all four of its recently launched broadband satellites have passed early tests and begun using electric propulsion to reach geostationary orbit in the coming months. The satellites launched on a Falcon 9 rocket Dec. 29 and feature multiple upgrades over Arcturus, the Sa... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 12)
NASA’S 2024 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ACHIEVEMENTS - or more than 24 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth for the benefit of humanity. The space station is a springboard to NASA’s next great leaps in ex... More (Source: NASA - Jan 11)
SPACEX LAUNCHES, LANDS FIRST STAGE BOOSTER FOR RECORD-SETTING 25TH TIME DURING STARLINK FLIGHT - SpaceX maintained its rapid pace of launching an orbital mission on average every two days with its Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday afternoon. It also completed a record-breaking 25th landing of an orbital class rocket. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-12 mission from ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 11)
SPACEX LAUNCHES STARSHIELD SATELLITES FOR THE NRO ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CALIFORNIA - SpaceX completed its first West Coast Falcon 9 launch of the year Thursday night, which featured the latest batch of Starshield satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff of the NROL-153 mission from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:53 p.m. PST (10:53 p.m. E... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 10)
NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY EVACUATED DUE TO LA WILDFIRE - Devastating fires here have forced the closure and evacuation of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as flames came less than one mile away from the facility. JPL, which operates robotic spacecraft and the Deep Space Network used for planetary missions, is located in a mandatory evacuation zone bu... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 21 NEW STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA - SpaceX launched more of its internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast today (Jan. 8). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 GMT) on Wednesday.... More (Source: Space.com - Jan 9)
INDIA DELAYS 1ST SPACE DOCKING OF SPADEX SATELLITES, 'FURTHER VALIDATION' NEEDED - India postponed its first attempt to dock two spaceraft in Earth orbit to allow more time for tests as the country prepares for what will be a vital technology tests for its future ambitions in space. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, was expecte... More (Source: Space.com - Jan 8)
SPACEX: LOWERING STARLINK SATELLITE ORBITS REDUCES IMPACT ON ASTRONOMY - SpaceX has found a new way to prevent Starlink satellites from interfering with astronomy: Bring them closer to Earth. The satellites can reflect sunlight and accidentally photobomb astronomical observations. But last week, SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission that its effort to op... More (Source: PCMag - Jan 8)
JAXA’S FIRST WOODEN SATELLITE DEPLOYS FROM SPACE STATION - In December 2024, five CubeSats deployed into Earth’s orbit from the International Space Station. Among them was LignoSat, a wooden satellite from JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) that investigates the use of wood in space. Findings could offer a more sustainable alternative to convent... More (Source: NASA - Jan 8)
CHINA LAUNCHES SHIJIAN-25 SATELLITE TO TEST ON-ORBIT REFUELING AND MISSION EXTENSION TECHNOLOGIES - China has kicked off its 2025 launch activities with the successful launch of the Shijian-25 satellite, aiming to advance key technologies for on-orbit refueling and extending satellite lifespans. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Jan. 6 (2000 UTC), climbing into a night sky... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 7)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FIRST DEDICATED STARLINK MISSION OF 2025 - SpaceX completed its first Starlink mission of the year on the first Monday of 2025. Onboard the Starlink 6-71 mission were 24 V2 Mini satellites headed to low Earth orbit. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:43 ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 7)
HOW US-INDIAN NISAR SATELLITE WILL OFFER UNIQUE WINDOW ON EARTH - The upcoming U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission will observe Earth like no mission before, offering insights about our planet’s ever-changing surface. The NISAR mission is a first-of-a-kind dual-band radar satellite that will measure land deformation from earthquakes,... More (Source: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Jan 7)
TOP SATELLITE LAUNCHES TO WATCH IN 2025 - To kick off 2025, Via Satellite’s annual roundup of Top Launches to Watch is back, highlighting some of the top commercial satellites expected to launch this year. This list is not exhaustive. But first, a quick recap of 2024. We saw quite a few of the satellites on last year’s list take off... More (Source: Via Satellite - Jan 7)
SPACEWALK PREPS, SCIENCE, AND CARGO WORK KICK OFF NEW YEAR - Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to exit the orbital outpost’s Quest airlock this month for a spacewalk to checkout a pair of astrophysics experiments attached to the outside of the space station, as well as conduct other tasks. First, the NICER X-ray telescope will be serviced with a patch to pr... More (Source: NASA - Jan 7)
SPACEX TO ATTEMPT FIRST PAYLOAD DEPLOYMENT, ENGINE REUSE DURING STARSHIP FLIGHT 7 - SpaceX is launching into 2025 with what is poised to be a blistering pace of launch for its super heavy lift rocket, Starship. The company is angling for as many as 25 launches of the nearly 40-story-tall rocket, if approved by federal regulators. In a lengthy post to its website, SpaceX laid out... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 6)
SMALL SATELLITE CONSTELLATION COULD REVEAL BLACK HOLES LIKE NEVER BEFORE - Researchers in South Korea are developing a constellation of satellites that could reveal what goes on in the vicinity of supermassive black holes like never before. The constellation, dubbed Capella, is a brainchild of Seoul National University astronomy professor Sascha Trippe. An expert in bla... More (Source: Space.com - Jan 5)
ON A LONG-DORMANT PAD IN FLORIDA, A ROCKET THAT COULD CHALLENGE SPACEX’S DOMINANCE IS POISED TO LAUNCH - On a Florida launchpad that has been dormant for almost two decades, a new, roughly 320-foot (98-meter) rocket — developed by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin — is poised for its maiden flight. The uncrewed launch vehicle, called New Glenn, will mark Blue Origin’s first attempt to send... More (Source: CNN - Jan 5)
NASA SEES STRONG SUPPORT FOR STRATEGY TO MAINTAIN CONTINUOUS HUMAN PRESENCE IN LEO - NASA’s deputy administrator says there is nearly unanimous support for its low Earth orbit microgravity strategy that endorses keeping humans in orbit continuously during the transition to commercial space stations. NASA released Dec. 16 a final version of LEO Microgravity Strategy that backed ... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 4)
