CHINA'S LONG MARCH-8A ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW INTERNET SATELLITE GROUP - China launched a Long March-8A carrier rocket on Saturday in the southern island province of Hainan, sending a group of internet satellites into space. The rocket lifted off at 3:53 p.m. from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site. It successfully placed the payloads, the 14th group of low-orbit internet satellites, into preset orbit.   More
(Source: Global Times - Dec 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX closed out the weekend with a mid-morning Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Starlink 11-15 mission added another 28 broadband internet satellites to its massive low Earth orbit constellation. This was SpaceX’s 115th launch of Starlink satellites so far in 2025. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:58 a.m. PST (12:58 p.m. EST / 1758 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-easterly trajectory upon leaving the launch pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 8)

BOEING STARLINER MISSIONS CUT AFTER BOTCHED ASTRONAUT FLIGHT - NASA cut the planned missions of Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station from six to four, following a highly publicized botched test flight last year and as the orbiting lab heads for retirement by the end of the decade. Originally, NASA had contracted Starliner to perform six missions that would carry crew to and from the ISS for months-long stays. Now, NASA and Boeing are mutually modifying the contract, the space agency said on Monday, with Starliner now tasked with performing four definitive missions and two optional ones.    More
(Source: MSN - Dec 7)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PREPARES FOR NEW COMMANDER, HEADS INTO FINAL FIVE YEARS OF PLANNED OPERATIONS - After 25 years of continuous human presence, the International Space Station is heading into its final half decade of planned habitation. NASA and its international partners are planning to intentionally deorbit the orbiting laboratory around 2030 or shortly thereafter. SpaceX was contracted valued at up to $843 million to build the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), which will help guide the space station towards a splashdown in an uninhabited portion of the Pacific Ocean.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 6)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENGERG SFB - SpaceX completed a lunchtime launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday afternoon. The Starlink 11-25 mission launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East, delivering 28 more broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit. This was the fourth launch this month supporting the Starlink satellite constellation and the 114th such launch this year. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the California coastline at 12:42 p.m. PST (3:42 p.m. EST / 2042 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-easterly trajectory upon departure from the launch pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 5)

SUNSET SPACEX LAUNCH ADDS 29 MORE STARLINK SATELLITES INTO LOW EARTH ORBIT - SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than two days. The latest was late afternoon flight from its workhorse pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. The Starlink 6-95 mission was SpaceX’s 295th orbital launch from Space Launch Complex 40 and the 350th overall orbital launch from the site. Liftoff happened at 5:18 p.m. EST (2218 UTC) with the rocket flying on a south-easterly trajectory upon departure from Florida’s Space Coast.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 4)

SATELLITE SWARMS SET TO PHOTOBOMB MORE THAN 95% OF SOME TELESCOPES’ IMAGES - Even telescopes far above Earth can’t avoid the contamination caused by commercial satellites. Blurry streaks of light created by fast-moving artificial satellites are already known to mar images taken by ground-based observatories. Today, researchers report1 in Nature that space-based telescopes will not escape such interference as fleets of private satellites proliferate. The researchers found that in the next decade, satellite trails could taint roughly 96% of the images taken by some space-based telescopes, and a single image could contain as many as 92 streaks.   More
(Source: Nature - Dec 4)

SPACE STATION FIRST: ALL DOCKING PORTS FULLY OCCUPIED, 8 SPACECRAFT ON ORBIT - For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. The eight spacecraft attached to the complex are: two SpaceX Dragons, Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 3)

A DYING SATELLITE COULD USE ITS FINAL MOMENTS TO PHOTOGRAPH THE INFAMOUS ASTEROID APOPHIS IN 2029 - An Australian company wants to join efforts to study a rare space event, conducting its own flyby of the asteroid Apophis when it makes its close approach to Earth in 2029. Sydney-based HEO Robotics, a provider of commercial satellite-to-satellite imagery, wants to add to the international missions already planning to get up close to the 1,115-foot-wide (340 meters) asteroid Apophis as it zooms by Earth in April 2029 by buying a satellite near the end of its life up in geostationary orbit and use its remaining fuel.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 3)

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