CHINA LAUNCHES 8TH BATCH OF SATELLITES FOR 13,000-STRONG INTERNET MEGACONSTELLATION - China is ramping up construction of its national satellite-internet megaconstellation. A Long March 5B rocket lifted off from Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan on Wednesday (Aug. 13) at 2:43 a.m. EDT (0643 GMT; 2:43 p.m. local time), carrying a batch of satellites aloft for the... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 14)
ULA LAUNCHES VULCAN ROCKET ON FIRST SPACE FORCE MISSION - United Launch Alliance fired off it’s first fully operational Vulcan rocket Tuesday, boosting two military satellites into space in the first Space Force-sanctioned flight of a new launcher that eventually will replace the company’s Atlas 5 and already-retired Deltas. Equipped with four solid... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 13)
SPACEX RIVAL AST SPACEMOBILE PREPARES TO DEPLOY NEARLY FIVE DOZEN SATELLITES - Satellite designer AST SpaceMobile said it’s preparing to deploy nearly five dozen satellites to power cellular-based broadband networks, a move that establishes the company as a rival to Elon Musk’s dominant SpaceX. The company, based in Texas, released its second-quarter earnings after the ... More (Source: MSNBC - Aug 13)
LAUNCH ROUNDUP: VULCAN AND ARIANE TO LAUNCH AHEAD OF STARLINK MISSIONS - After a week of weather delays across the U.S, launch cadence increases as providers strive to catch up with the backlog. A navigational technology satellite and a classified payload are expected to launch atop Vulcan, followed by an Ariane 6 carrying a weather satellite, and a Chinese Chang Zhen... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES AMAZON’S PROJECT KUIPER SATELLITES ON FIFTH SCHEDULED ATTEMPT - After four scheduled and unsuccessful launch attempts, the fifth time proved to be the charm as SpaceX managed to launch 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet service from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday morning. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral S... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
BAD WEATHER FOR FALCON 9 BOOSTER RECOVERY PREVENTS LAUNCH OF AMAZON’S PROJECT KUIPER SATELLITES - For a fourth time in as many days, SpaceX was unable to launch 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet service from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Technical issues with the Falcon 9 rocket prevented launches on Thursday and Friday and poor weather stymied launch attempts on Satu... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 11)
CREW 10 RETURNS TO EARTH WITH PACIFIC OCEAN SPLASHDOWN - Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego to wrap up a five-month mission. Strapped into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance, commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 10)
HAM RADIO USERS EXPLAIN WHY THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT AST SPACEMOBILE'S SATELLITE PLANS - Ham radio enthusiasts have raised concerns about AST Spacemobile’s upcoming satellite operations, warning that expanded satellite communications might interfere with amateur radio frequencies and disrupt established communication channels. The debate centers on the technical challenges of frequenc... More (Source: PCMag - Aug 10)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITES FROM SEA - A Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) rocket lifted off on Saturday morning from east China's Shandong Province, sending the Geely-04 constellation of 11 satellites into planned orbit. The rocket blasted off from sea at 12:31 a.m. (Beijing Time) near the city of Rizhao. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center cond... More (Source: Global Times - Aug 10)
DRAGON UNDOCKS, CREW-10 DEPARTS STATION FOR EARTH RETURN - At 6:15 p.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov undocked from the forward-facing port of International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacec... More (Source: NASA - Aug 10)
EUROPEAN WEATHER SATELLITE READIED FOR LAUNCH ON ARIANE 6 ROCKET - The European Space Agency has cleared another hurdle on the road to launching the second generation of the MetOp (Meteorological Operational) Earth-studying weather satellites. In early August 2025, the team sealed the MetOp-SG-A1 within the fairing of its Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket. ... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 9)
ULA’S TORY BRUNO LAYS OUT PLANS FOR RAMPING UP LAUNCH CADENCE - United Launch Alliance is on the cusp of a significant milestone for its Vulcan rocket. The 202-foot-tall (61 m) launch vehicle is poised to take flight on its first national security mission as soon as Tuesday, August 12. Atop the two-stage rocket are a pair of missions for that are part of the ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 8)
NASA TO PROVIDE LIVE COVERAGE OF CREW-10 RETURN, SPLASHDOWN - NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 6:05 p.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 8, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission from the International Space Station. Pending weather conditions, splashdown is targeted at 11:33 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 9. Crew-10 will be the first mission to splas... More (Source: NASA - Aug 8)
FIRST NEXT-GEN GEO-BASED MISSILE WARNING SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING, ON TRACK FOR DELIVERY TO SPACE FORCE - The first of a new, more capable, more survivable missile warning satellite, designed by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) for today’s highly contested space domain, has successfully completed environmental testing. The first Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) Geosynchronous... More (Source: Lockheed Martin - Aug 7)
LOCKHEED MARTIN AIMS TO TEST A MISSILE-KILLING SATELLITE BY 2028 - With hundreds of billions of dollars potentially at stake, weapons maker Lockheed Martin said Monday it hopes to achieve a historic first: the test of a satellite weapon capable of destroying a highly-maneuverable hypersonic missile, within the next three years. The concept is perhaps the most pi... More (Source: Defense One - Aug 6)
STATION EXPANDS TO 11 BEFORE NEXT CREW LEAVES THIS WEEK - Four new crew members are adjusting to life on the International Space Station and gearing up for several months of microgravity research to benefit humans living on and off the Earth. Meanwhile, another quartet that has been orbiting Earth since March is packing up and handing over responsibilities... More (Source: NASA - Aug 6)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES PRIVATE JAPANESE RADAR SATELLITE TO ORBIT FROM NEW ZEALAND - Rocket Lab launched a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for the Japanese Earth-imaging company iQPS early Tuesday morning (Aug. 5). An Electron rocket carrying the QPS-SAR-12 satellite, nicknamed Kushinada-I, lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site Tuesday at 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 5)
WHY A NASA SATELLITE THAT SCIENTISTS AND FARMERS RELY ON MAY BE DESTROYED ON PURPOSE - NASA’s critical effort to monitor Earth’s carbon emissions is now in jeopardy as budget pressures and technical setbacks force a reevaluation of the mission’s future. For years, the satellite (Orbiting Carbon Observatories) has provided essential, high-resolution data on carbon dioxide levels ... More (Source: NPR - Aug 5)
STARLINK MISSION MARKS SPACEX’S 450TH FLIGHT-PROVEN FALCON BOOSTER LAUNCHED - SpaceX passed another milestone in rocket reuse when it launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the overnight hours of Monday, Aug. 4. The mission, dubbed Starlink 10-30, features the company’s 450th launch of a flight-proven booster. That stat is a combination of ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 5)
