LANDSPACE BECOMES FIRST COMMERCIAL CHINESE COMPANY TO LAND AN ORBITAL-CLASS BOOSTER - Chinese commercial launch company, LandSpace cemented its place in the race to rocket reusability as it landed the first stage booster of its ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3) rocket on Wednesday morning local time. The rocket lifted off from Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in the northwestern part of the country at 7:35 a.m. CST on Aug. 19 (7:35 p.m. EDT / 2335 UTC on Aug. 18) to begin the second flight in this rocket’s development.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 20)

SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 100TH MISSION OF THE YEAR, SENDS STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT - SpaceX has hit the century mark for the third year in a row. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday (Aug. 19) at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT; 9:01 p.m. on Aug. 18 local time). It was the 97th Falcon 9 launch of the year and the 100th mission of 2026 overall for SpaceX.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 20)

NASA, ESA ASTRONAUTS WRAP UP STATION SPACEWALK - NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station at 2:52 p.m. EDT. During the 6-hour, 23-minute spacewalk, Menon and Adenot completed the removal of a failed Space-to-Ground antenna and performed a long-duration tie down of the unit on the space station truss structure. The crew members needed more time than expected to disconnect electrical cables and loosen bolts, delaying work to install a replacement antenna. The installation work is expected to be completed during a future spacewalk.   More
(Source: NASA - Aug 19)

IF MILLIONS OF SATELLITES LAUNCH TO SPACE, IS CHAOS THE INEVITABLE OUTCOME? | - Earth’s low-Earth orbit is not an unlimited resource: although tens of thousands of satellites could potentially operate there, increasing satellite density—especially from megaconstellations—raises the risk of collisions, space debris, interference with astronomy, and other environmental impacts. The concern is that if growth continues without better international rules and debris mitigation, some orbital regions could approach a critical threshold where collisions generate cascading debris and make them increasingly difficult or impossible to use safely.   More
(Source: Scientific American - Aug 19)

BLUE ORIGIN ADDING SECOND PAD TO CAPE CANAVERAL LAUNCH COMPLEX AMID ROCKET EXPLOSION REPAIRS - Blue Origin plans to return its Florida launch site to a dual-pad facility to support its bigger, more powerful New Glenn "9x4" rocket, which is still under development. As facility repairs continue following the explosion of one of Blue Origin's New Glenn "7x2" rockets during tests at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex-36 in May, the company has announced its intent to expand the site with an additional pad. The company also plans to build operations infrastructure for the complex on land nearby, which will include a Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) for the New Glenn 9x4 vehicle, and a Payload Processing Facility (PPF).   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 18)

SATELLITE OPERATORS ARE IN PANIC MODE DUE TO A WORSENING LAUNCH CRISIS - This should be a golden era of launch. During the last three years, an average of 270 orbital rockets have launched from Earth, a more than threefold increase from only a decade ago. By every metric available, the launch industry is crushing it: Prices have never been more competitive, launches never more frequent, and access to space never more rapid.   More
(Source: Ars Technica - Aug 18)

NEW RECORD! SPACEX LAUNCHES 2 FALCON 9 ROCKETS JUST 38 MINUTES APART - SpaceX keeps setting spaceflight records. Elon Musk's company launches far more frequently than any other outfit, and it operates the largest satellite constellation ever assembled — the Starlink broadband network, which consists of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting). On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark — set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions — by 27 minutes.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 17)

SPACEX LAUNCHES RECORD-BREAKING BACK-TO-BACK FALCON 9 ROCKETS FOR GLOBALSTAR, U.S. SPACE FORCE - SpaceX launched back-to-back missions for Globalstar and the U.S. Space Force Saturday night, shrinking its time between launches down to a record 38.5 minutes. First up was a batch of eight satellites for Globalstar as part of its work to replenish its low Earth orbit satellite constellation. The first Falcon 9 rocket took flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:12 p.m. EDT (0112 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 16)

JAPAN LAUNCHES SOVEREIGN SATELLITE NAVIGATION NETWORK AS GPS CANNOT REACH ALL OF ITS COUNTRY - Mountainous terrain and densely packed city blocks across Japan can obstruct ordinary satellite positioning signals from reaching receivers on the ground. Standard Global Positioning System coverage was never built with those obstacles in mind, leaving gaps in accuracy across parts of the country. Japan has spent more than a decade building its own answer to that gap, and this week that effort reached a new milestone.   More
(Source: TechRadar - Aug 15)

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