CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE GROUP - China sent a new satellite group into space on Friday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. The satellite group, which will constitute the Spacesail Constellation – a commercial Chinese low-orbit satellite network, was launched at 3:08 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a modified Long March-6 carrier rocket and entered its preset orbit successfully. More (Source: CGTN - Oct 20)
SPACEX LAUNCHES A FALCON 9 ROCKET ON RECORD-BREAKING 31ST FLIGHT - SpaceX broke another reuse record on Sunday when it launched a Falcon 9 booster for a 31st time. The company’s most flown rocket was used to launch the Starlink 10-17 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 1:39 p.m. EDT (1739 UTC) towards the end of Sunday’s four-hour launch window. More (Source: SpaceFligh Now - Oct 20)
CHINA LAUNCHES INTERNET SATELLITES ON 600TH MISSION OF LONG MARCH ROCKET - China's Long March rocket family now has 600 flights under its belt. A Long March 8A lifted off on Wednesday (Oct. 15) from Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan at 9:33 p.m. EDT (0133 GMT and 9:33 a.m. local time on Oct. 16). The mission, which successfully lofted a batch of satellites for the Guowang broadband network, was the 600th ever for a Long March rocket. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 20)
VAST GEARING UP TO LAUNCH ITS HAVEN-1 PRIVATE SPACE STATION IN 2026 - Vast is moving into the final stages of building its Haven-1 private space station, readying for launch in 2026, in a move that could open up a new era in human spaceflight. In the past couple of weeks, the California-based startup has completed the final weld on the primary structure of Haven-1, followed by painting. Next steps include integrating the flight article's hatch and a domed window as the company moves closer to realizing its vision of a private space station in low Earth orbit (LEO). More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
SPACEX SENDS 28 STARLINK SATELLITES TO LOW EARTH ORBIT IN PREDAWN LAUNCH - An overnight launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station allowed SpaceX to continue bolstering its Starlink satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. The Thursday morning flight added another 28 V2 Mini satellites to the network of 8,600 currently on orbit, according to astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell. Of the more than 125 Falcon 9 launches in 2025, 91 have flown in support of SpaceX’s constellation prior to Thursday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 17)
NEW SPACE DEBRIS SHIELD? SATELLITES AND ASTRONAUTS COULD SUIT UP IN NOVEL 'SPACE ARMOR' - Humanity has a new tool in the fight against space junk — "Space Armor™," a multi-functional composite that could protect both spacecraft and astronauts. Space Armor is made via a proprietary fiber-to-resin manufacturing method courtesy of the company Atomic-6, which is based in Marietta, Georgia. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
A GIANT WEAK SPOT IN EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD IS GETTING BIGGER — AND IT COULD BE BAD NEWS FOR SATELLITES - A weak region in Earth's magnetic field has grown by an area roughly half the size of continental Europe in the last 10 years. That's according to data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm satellite constellation over the last 11 years. Swarm has been monitoring a region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly since 2014, and scientists have just published a new study of the area that reveals that, not only has the anomaly expanded eastward, it has actually been weakening more quickly since 2020. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 16)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 2ND BATCH OF SATELLITES FOR SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOLLOWING WEATHER SCRUB - The Space Development Agency added another 21 satellites to its burgeoning low Earth orbit constellation thanks to a launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It is the second of ten launches that the SDA booked onboard Falcon 9 so far. The T1TL-C mission was the second flight supporting what the SDA calls its Tranche 1 Transport Layer. It’s the latest piece of a satellite constellation dubbed the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 16)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 7TH STRIX EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES FOR JAPAN-BASED SYNSPECTIVE - Japan-based Earth observation company, Synspective, launched its seventh StriX satellite into low Earth orbit, part of a multi-launch deal with Rocket Lab. On Wednesday morning in Mahia, New Zealand (Tuesday afternoon on the East Coast of the U.S.), a Rocket Lab Electron rocket took flight from Pad A at Launch Complex 1 to begin a roughly 50-minute-long mission. Launch teams confirmed a nominal deployment of the satellite into a 583 km circular orbit. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 15)
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