FAILED NORTH KOREA SATELLITE LAUNCH ENGINE POINTS TO RUSSIAN ROLE, SAY SOUTH KOREAN LAWMAKERS - North Korea appears to have received assistance from Russia for its failed attempt in May to launch a reconnaissance satellite, South Korean lawmakers said on Monday, citing the country's spy agency. North Korea had said it used a new "liquid oxygen and petroleum engine" in the satellite, which exp... More (Source: Reuters - Jul 30)
SPACEX COMPLETES 300TH BOOSTER REFLIGHT DURING FIRST OF PLANNED BACK-TO-BACK FALCON 9 LAUNCHES - SpaceX continued its post-mishap resurgence with the first of planned back-to-back launches in the early morning hours of Sunday. It staged two of its Falcon 9 rockets to launch from its pads in both Florida and California. First up was the Starlink 10-4 mission, which added a batch of 23 Starlin... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 29)
SPACEX LAUNCHED 21 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE - Hours after a successful liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX completed a second Falcon 9 flight, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff of the Starlink 9-4 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 2:22 a.m. PDT (5:22 a.m. EDT, 0922 UTC).... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 29)
ISS ASTRONAUT CAPTURES AURORAS AND A METEOR IN STUNNING TIMELAPSE FROM SPACE - Auroras, stars and a fleeting meteor are captured in a mesmerizing new video from the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, commander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, shared a new timelapse of photos taken of Earth just before sunrise. This nighttime view includes auroras da... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 28)
ULA PREPARES FOR FINAL ATLAS 5 LAUNCH SUPPORTING A NATIONAL SECURITY PAYLOAD - United Launch Alliance is preparing for a seminole moment for its Atlas 5 rocket. The launch vehicle is preparing to launch its 58th and final national security mission on Tuesday. The United States Space Force-51 (USSF-51) mission will also be the 100th national security mission launch for ULA. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 28)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 RETURN TO FLIGHT MISSION FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - A two-week launch hiatus for SpaceX came to a close after midnight on Saturday with the Starlink 10-9 mission returning the Falcon 9 to flight after an upper stage mishap on a July 11 grounded the workhorse rocket. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space C... More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Jul 28)
AST SPACEMOBILE COMPLETES FIRST FIVE COMMERCIAL SATELLITES NOW READY TO SHIP IN AUGUST - AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), building space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications, successfully completed its first five Bluebirds commercial satellites. Each satellite has communications arrays... More (Source: SatNews - Jul 27)
50 DAYS AFTER LAUNCH TO ISS, BOEING STARLINER ASTRONAUTS STILL HAVE NO LANDING DATE - Boeing's Starliner will do a "hot fire" test in orbit soon, as NASA and the company continue to probe the cause of thruster failures and a helium leak in space. Starliner will conduct the test-fire of its 28-thruster reaction control system (RCS) on either Saturday (July 27) or Sunday (July 28) a... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 27)
IRAN PLANS TO LAUNCH TWO SATELLITES FROM RUSSIAN SPACEPORT — NEWS AGENCY - According to the agency, ISA head Hassan Salariyeh said on July 9 that the organization planned to launch within a year Kosar observation satellite and Hodhod communication satellite, designed and built by private companies. Kosar can be used for agricultural purposes, surveying and border demarcati... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 26)
US SPACE FORCE IS SET TO INSTALL 24 SATELLITE JAMMING STATIONS CAPABLE OF DISRUPTING RUSSIAN OR CHINESE COMMUNICATIONS - The US military is installing modular state-of-the-art satellite jammers capable of disrupting Russian or Chinese communications, should the need arise. Even though the hardware is ground-based, the US Space Force will oversee installation and operation. The technology is already past prototyping. T... More (Source: SatNews - Jul 25)
RUSSIA UNVEILS TIMELINE FOR BUILDING ITS NEW SPACE STATION, STARTING IN 2027 - Russia has unveiled a comprehensive roadmap for building its newest space station and associated Earth-based infrastructure, with the first modules expected to launch within three years. On July 2, the leadership of Russia's space agency Roscosmos described their upcoming mission to create the n... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 25)
SPACEX STARLINK SATELLITES MADE 50,000 COLLISION-AVOIDANCE MANEUVERS IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SPACE SAFETY? - Satellites in SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation made nearly 50,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in the last six months, about double the number made in the previous half-year. Although experts praise Elon Musk's space compay for its commitment to transparency, they warn about the implications... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 24)
ASTROSCALE UNLOCKS REMAINING SPACE AGENCY FUNDS TO DE-ORBIT ONEWEB SATELLITE - Astroscale has received the remaining government funds needed for a 2026 demo mission to remove a defunct OneWeb broadband satellite from low Earth orbit (LEO). The Japan-based venture said July 22 its British subsidiary secured around $15 million from the UK Space Agency and the European Space A... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 23)
NASA DELAYS ISS SPACEWALKS INDEFINITELY TO INVESTIGATE SPACESUIT COOLANT LEAK - NASA says its next spacewalk will be delayed indefinitely until engineers understand more about what caused a coolant leak on June 24. Tracy Dyson, a NASA astronaut, had a brief spacesuit leak a month ago while still in the hatch of the International Space Station (ISS). She and Mike Barrett had ... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 22)
NASA SETS BRIEFINGS FOR CREW-9 MISSION TO SPACE STATION - NASA will host a pair of news conferences Friday, July 26, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station. NASA will host a mission overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Tele... More (Source: NASA - Jul 22)
THERE ARE 10,000 ACTIVE SATELLITES IN ORBIT. MOST BELONG TO ELON MUSK - For the first time in human history, there are now 10,000 functioning satellites above our heads, whipping around the Earth at high speed. It’s a milestone that showcases decades of technical achievement but might also make it harder to sleep at night if you think about it for too long. The cou... More (Source: Forbes - Jul 20)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW GAOFEN-11 HIGH RESOLUTION SPY SATELLITE - China added a fifth Gaofen-11 high resolution satellite to its CHEOS constellation with a launch late Thursday. A Long March 4B rocket lifted off at 11:03 p.m. Eastern July 18 (0303 UTC, July 19) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China. The launcher carried the Gaofen-11 (05) high resol... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 20)
ENHANCED DRAGON SPACECRAFT TO DEORBIT THE ISS AT THE END OF ITS LIFE - paceX will develop a souped-up version of its Dragon spacecraft for NASA to handle the deorbiting of the International Space Station around the end of the decade. At a July 17 briefing, NASA and SpaceX officials provided new details about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) spacecraft NASA s... More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 19)
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEXT 25 YEARS OF PRIVATE SPACE STATIONS - Humans have occupied low Earth orbit (LEO) over the past half century thanks to the Salyut, Skylab, Mir and Tiangong programs and, of course, the International Space Station (ISS). Aside from providing incredible views of Earth, these space stations have proved that humans can live and work in space... More (Source: Space.com - Jul 19)
