NASA ROLLS OUT ARTEMIS 3 SLS ROCKET'S HUGE CORE STAGE TO GEAR UP FOR 2027 LAUNCH - A week and a half after the epic Artemis 2 mission splashed down, the biggest piece of NASA's next moon rocket is on the move. On Monday (April 20), NASA rolled out the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will launch Artemis 3, the next mission in the agency's Artemis program of moon exploration.   More
(Source: NASA - Apr 23)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its 40th Starlink mission of the year when its Falcon 9 rocket took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Wednesday night. The Starlink 17-14 mission will add another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation, which consists of more than 10,200 spacecraft. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 8:23:09 p.m. PDT (11:23:09 p.m. EDT / 0323:09 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 23)

ROSCOSMOS PROGRESS 93 CARGO SPACECRAFT DEPARTS STATION - The unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 93 spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 6:08 p.m. EDT Monday, backing away for a deorbit maneuver and a planned destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew.   More
(Source: NASA - Apr 22)

SPACEX LAUNCHES FINAL GPS III SATELLITE FOR THE U.S. SPACE FORCE - The U.S. Space Force launched its final Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite into medium Earth orbit in the predawn hours of Tuesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 2:53:25 a.m. EDT (0653:25 UTC). The mission was delayed a day due to poor weather in the recovery zone for the first stage.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 22)

CHINA RAMPS UP SATELLITE PRODUCTION CAPACITY AMID CONSTELLATION AMBITIONS - China is rapidly building a broad, diverse satellite manufacturing base capable of producing thousands of spacecraft annually, but faces bottlenecks in launch and uncertain demand. The country has already established dozens of facilities spanning state-owned institutes, commercial firms and regionally-backed clusters, with further future factories expected to take capacity to around 7,000 satellites per year, according to a space industry assessment.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 21)

ARTEMIS 2 AND TIANGONG SPACE STATION ASTRONAUTS SET RECORD FOR FARTHEST DISTANCE BETWEEN HUMANS - Here's another record that Artemis 2 broke. For a few moments on April 6, the four Artemis 2 moon astronauts and the three crewmates aboard China's Tiangong space station were farther away from each other than any other humans had ever been. Astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell noted the occasion in a series of X posts, in which he calculated the distances between Artemis 2's Orion capsule, named "Integrity," and Tiangong.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 20)

BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET REUSABLE BOOSTER LANDS BUT SATELLITE MISSES ORBIT - The reusable booster of the New Glenn rocket launched from Florida on Sunday by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin touched down ​successfully but the rocket failed to deploy the AST SpaceMobile, opens new tab communications satellite it was carrying into the correct orbit. The launch was ‌the latest chapter in Blue Origin's intensifying rivalry with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The rocket lifted off at around 7:25 a.m. ET (1125 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, with the booster touchdown coming about 10 minutes later.    More
(Source: Reuters - Apr 20)

'GLOBAL, 24/7, ALL-WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE COVERAGE': CHINA DEPLOYED "EYE OF SAURON" SATELLITE THAT CAN TRACK SHIPS — AND THE US NAVY — FROM ITS SAFE SKY ABODE - China has released radar images showing a geosynchronous orbit satellite successfully tracking a moving maritime target for the first time. The satellite locked onto the Towa Maru, a 340 meter Japanese tanker traversing rough seas near the Spratly Islands, from an altitude of 35,800 kilometers above Earth. This breakthrough could give Beijing continuous surveillance of US naval fleets across every ocean.   More
(Source: TechRadar - Apr 19)

THREE ESA-BUILT SATELLITES ON SHOW IN FRANCE - Three Earth observation satellites, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with European partners, and due to launch later this year, have completed their functional and environmental tests and are ready to travel to the European spaceport in French Guiana. But first, journalists were invited to have one last look.   More
(Source: European Space Agency - Apr 18)

Next