AMAZON LEO SATELLITES EXCEED BRIGHTNESS LIMITS, STUDY FINDS - Seeing a satellite zip across the night sky can be a fascinating sight. However, what may be spectacular for people on the ground is becoming a major problem for astronomers. A new study published on the arXiv preprint server has found that satellites from Amazon's mega Leo constellation (originally known as Project Kuiper) are bright enough to disrupt astronomical research.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Jan 29)

SPACEX LAUNCHES GPS 3 SATELLITE FOLLOWING SWITCH FROM ULA VULCAN ROCKET - The U.S. Space Force sent its ninth third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite into medium Earth orbit on Tuesday night. The satellite rode to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after the government moved the spacecraft from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The mission, named GPS 3-9, saw the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 (SV09) payload deploy from the rocket’s upper stage nearly 1.5 hours after liftoff. This latest positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellite is equipped with what the Space Force calls M-Code technology, which it calls critical to “provide the warfighter with a significantly more accurate and jam-resistant capability.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 29)

NASA AND SPACEX MOVE UP LAUNCH OF CREW-12 ASTRONAUTS TO FEB. 11 AS RELIEF CREW AFTER ISS MEDICAL EVACUATION - NASA has announced an earlier-than-expected target date to launch the next astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The agency is now targeting Feb. 11 for liftoff of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, which will fly four astronauts to join the skeleton crew presently operating the orbital lab. A scant three are currently covering the maintenance and science investigations aboard the ISS, left behind on Jan. 14 by the early departure of Crew-11 on the station's first-ever medical evacuation.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 29)

EUROPE’S NEXT-GENERATION WEATHER SATELLITE SENDS BACK FIRST IMAGES - The first images from the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder satellite have been shared at the European Space Conference in Brussels, showing how the mission will provide data on temperature and humidity, for more accurate weather forecasting over Europe and northern Africa. The images from Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder (MTG-S) show a full-disc image of Earth as seen from geostationary orbit, about 36 000 km above Earth’s surface. These images were captured on 15 November 2025 by the satellite’s Infrared Sounder instrument.   More
(Source: European Space Agency - Jan 28)

WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH ADVANCED GPS SATELLITE FOR US SPACE FORCE ON JAN. 27 AFTER DELAY - SpaceX will launch an advanced GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force from Florida on Tuesday night (Jan. 27), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the GPS III-SV09 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday, during a 15-minute window that opens at 11:38 p.m. EST (0438 GMT on Jan. 28). SpaceX and the Space Force had been targeting Monday night (Jan. 26), but bad weather pushed things back a day.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 27)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 25 STARLINK SATELLITES TO POLAR, LOW EARTH ORBIT - SpaceX launched 25 of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites from California on Sunday morning. The Starlink 17-20 mission sent the broadband satellites into a polar low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket flew on a southerly trajectory upon leaving Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. EST / 1730 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 26)

AMAZON'S INTERNET-BEAMING SATELLITES ARE BRIGHT ENOUGH TO DISRUPT ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH, STUDY FINDS - The satellites in Amazon's new internet-beaming megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) are bright enough to disrupt astronomical research, a study has found. The study — which was posted on the online repository Arxiv on Jan. 12 but has not yet been peer-reviewed — analyzed nearly 2,000 observations of Amazon Leo satellites. It concluded that the spacecraft exceed the brightness limit recommended by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that aims to ensure harmless coexistence of satellite megaconstellation with astronomical research.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 26)

LAUNCH OF “RUSSIAN STARLINK” POSTPONED DUE TO SATELLITE PRODUCTION FAILURE - The launch of the first batch of 16 communications satellites, which was to be carried out by the Russian company Bureau 1440 at the end of last year, has been postponed. This was reported by The Moscow Times. In September 2025, Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov promised that by the end of 2025, the first 300 satellites would begin to be deployed in orbit as part of the Rassvet project.   More
(Source: militarnyi.com - Jan 25)

JEFF BEZOS' BLUE ORIGIN WILL REFLY BOOSTER ON NEXT LAUNCH OF POWERFUL NEW GLENN ROCKET - Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is about to show its reusability chops. New Glenn will loft one of AST SpaceMobile's huge Block 2 BlueBird internet-beaming satellites on its next mission, which is targeted for late February, Blue Origin announced on Thursday (Jan. 22). That flight will be the third overall for New Glenn, and the first to feature a flight-proven booster: It will reuse the first stage from New Glenn's second flight (NG-2), which launched NASA's twin ESCAPADE Mars probes on Nov. 13, Blue Origin said on Thursday.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 24)

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