EIRSAT-1, IRELAND'S 1ST SATELLITE, MAKES SPACE HISTORY - Ireland has joined the space club with the launch of its first satellite to low-Earth orbit, setting the stage for students of all ages across the Emerald Isle to get involved in space science. The Educational Irish Research Satellite-1 (Eirsat-1) blasted into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 1. Around an hour and a half after launch, the tiny satellite, which is not much larger than a house brick, unfolded and deployed its antenna.    More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 14)

CUBESAT OFFERS TEMPLATE FOR FUTURE ASTRONOMY MISSIONS - The first NASA-funded small satellite for exoplanet science is continuing to gather data well beyond its expected lifetime. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment, known as CUTE, a six-unit cubesat equipped with a telescope to funnel data to a spectrograph, traveled to sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit in September 2021 as a secondary payload on the NASA- U.S. Geological Survey Landsat 9 Earth-observation mission.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 13)

SPACEX SCRUBS FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH OF SECRETIVE X-37B MILITARY SPACEPLANE - SpaceX is standing down from its launch attempt of the USSF-52 mission due to “a ground side issue.” The scrub was followed by a delay of the Falcon 9 launch for the Starlink 6-34 mission as well. SpaceX said they are looking at a backup opportunity no earlier than Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 12)

PERFORMING EVASIVE MANEUVERS INCREASES SATELLITES' COLLISION RISK DOWN THE ROAD - Researchers have found that trying to avoid collisions in orbit increases the risk of future collisions in the aftermath of each avoidance maneuver. The reason? Current methods of space traffic management can't adequately deal with the growing numbers of satellites in space. Analysts with the Pennsylvania-based company COMSPOC (short for "Commercial Space Operations Center") found that, in the aftermath of every satellite collision avoidance maneuver, operators and space traffic observers have only a rough idea of where their objects are.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 12)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA DEC. 12 - SpaceX could give us a launch doubleheader on Tuesday night (Dec. 12). The company aims to launch 23 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday atop a Falcon 9 rocket, during a nearly four-hour window that opens at 11:02 p.m. EST (0402 GMT on Dec. 12). You can watch it live via SpaceX's account on X (formerly known as Twitter), beginning at about five minutes before the window open.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 12)

THIS COMPANY WANTS TO CREATE ‘GAS STATIONS IN SPACE’ - Since the dawn of the space age — the launch of the Sputnik I in 1957 — humans have sent over 15,000 satellites into orbit. Just over half are still functioning; the rest, after running out of fuel and ending their serviceable life, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still orbiting the planet as useless hunks of metal. As such, they pose a threat to the International Space Station and to other satellites, with the European Space Agency estimating that over 640 “break-ups, explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation” have occurred to date.    More
(Source: CNN - Dec 11)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE - China on Sunday launched a Long March-2D carrier rocket, placing a remote sensing satellite in space. The rocket blasted off at 9:58 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan and sent the Yaogan-39 satellite into the preset orbit. It was the 500th flight mission of the Long March series rockets.    More
(Source: China Military - Dec 11)

TOMATO LOST IN SPACE BY HISTORY-MAKING ASTRONAUT HAS BEEN FOUND - Perhaps nowhere in the universe is a fresh, ripe tomato more valuable than on the International Space Station, where astronauts live for months at a time subsisting mainly on prepackaged, shelf-stable goods. That’s why astronaut Frank Rubio became the central figure in a lighthearted whodunnit that has taken months to solve. After Rubio harvested one of the first tomatoes ever grown in space earlier this year, according to the astronaut, he admitted he misplaced it.   More
(Source: CNN - Dec 10)

CHINA LAUNCHES ZHUQUE-2 CARRIER ROCKET FOR THREE SATELLITES - China on Saturday successfully launched the Zhuque-2 Y-3 carrier rocket into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The carrier rocket blasted off at 7:39 a.m. (Beijing Time) and sent three satellites -- Honghu, Honghu-2 and TY-33 -- into planned orbit. It was the third flight mission of the Zhuque-2 carrier rocket.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Dec 10)

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