LAUNCH DELAY: SPACEX PUSHES POLARIS DAWN ASTRONAUT LAUNCH DUE TO ‘A GROUND-SIDE HELIUM LEAK’ - A commercial astronaut mission of historic firsts is set to launch in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning. The four members of the Polaris Dawn flight will climb aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon to embark on a roughly five-day, free-flying mission orbiting the Earth. The crew, led by billionaire-entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, will go further than humans have ventured since the conclusion of the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago. They will also conduct the first commercial spacewalk in history.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 27)

NASA WILL BRING STRANDED ASTRONAUTS BACK ON SPACEX — NOT BOEING'S STARLINER - Boeing’s Starliner will come back to Earth empty, and the two astronauts who took it up into orbit on a test flight will return in a capsule built by a competing company, SpaceX. The long-awaited decision by NASA means the astronauts will have to cool their heels on the International Space Station until February. And it’s a stunning blow to Boeing's beleaguered Starliner program, which has been beset by delays and technical troubles.   More
(Source: NPR - Aug 26)

AMAZON AIMS TO LAUNCH FIRST PROJECT KUIPER SATELLITES BY YEAR'S END ABOARD ULA ATLAS V - Amazon hopes to launch its first full-scale Project Kuiper mission during the fourth quarter of the year — think October, November or December — aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. "We're going to continue to increase our rates of satellite production and deployment heading into 2025. And we remain on track to begin offering service to customers next year, which we're very excited by," said Brian Huseman, Amazon vice president of public policy and community engagement.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Aug 24)

SPIRE GLOBAL HAS LAUNCHED 7 LEMUR SATELLITES VIA THE SPACEX TRANSPORTER-11 MISSION - Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR), a global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, successfully launched seven satellites on the SpaceX Transporter-11 mission, which launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on August 16, 2024 — this marks Spire’s third launch of 2024 and the 41st in the company’s history, bringing the total of Spire satellites launched to 196 in number.   More
(Source: SatNews - Aug 24)

CHINA LAUNCHES CHINASAT-4A COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - China launched a new communications satellite towards the geostationary belt Thursday, but revealed very little information about the spacecraft. A Long March 7A lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island at 8:25 a.m. Eastern (1225 UTC) Aug. 22, rising into night skies above the coastal spaceport. State media Xinhua announced launch success around 45 minutes after liftoff. “The satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit and the launch mission was a complete success,” the terse news release stated.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 23)

HERE’S HOW NASA WILL DEORBIT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Although it may seem hard to believe, the International Space Station (ISS) is nearing the end of its operational lifespan. Some readers might’ve even been born after the first section of the ISS was launched in 1998 and have never lived in a world without it soaring overhead. The ISS took years to build and required a total of 37 U.S. space shuttle flights, as well as five Russian rocket launches, for the station to be completed.   More
(Source: Astronomy Magazine - Aug 23)

FCC APPROVES STARLINK FIRST GENERATION UPGRADE PLAN - SpaceX has secured permission to gradually replace first-generation Starlink satellites with larger spacecraft designed to provide more broadband capacity. The Federal Communications Commission Aug. 16 modified the license that permits SpaceX to operate up to 4,408 Gen1 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The modification allows SpaceX to deploy upgraded Starlinks under the Gen1 license with technology developed for the company’s second-generation constellation, which has a separate license permitting up to 7,500 more satellites in LEO.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 22)

SPACEX LAUNCHES NEW FALCON 9 ROCKET ON STARLINK MISSION FOLLOWING ‘WATER INTRUSION’ ISSUE - SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket carried 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit after launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) happened at 9:20 a.m. EDT (1320 UTC), which was the end of a four-hour launch window. The Starlink 10-5 mission was the 57th launch of the internet enabling satellites so far in 2024.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 21)

SA’S FIRST STATE SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO ORBIT - Kanyini – the first state government-funded satellite in Australian history – is now in space. The South Australian owned and manufactured satellite was successfully launched on Saturday 17 August onboard a SpaceX rocket (pictured below) from the United States. Built by a local team of South Australian-based companies – SmartSat CRC, Inovor and Myriota – Kanyini is part of a $6.5 million mission helping to create hi tech jobs in the state’s space sector and develop vital space capabilities in the State.   More
(Source: WE ARE SA - Aug 20)

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