ARIANESPACE TO LAUNCH INTELSAT SMALL GEO SATELLITE - Arianespace will launch a small geostationary communication satellite for Intelsat on an Ariane 6 in 2026, a sign of a stable, but diminished, role for such satellites in the commercial launch market. Arianespace announced Sept. 12 it signed a contract with Intelsat to launch the IS-45 satellite in the first half of 2026. The satellite will fly with unnamed co-passengers on the more powerful version of the Ariane 6, the Ariane 64.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 13)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 21 NEW STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET - SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites early Tuesday (Sept. 12) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 21 Starlink craft from California's foggy Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday at 2:57 a.m. EDT (0657 GMT; 11:57 p.m. Sept. 11 local California time). The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth as planned for a landing in the Pacific Ocean, on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, about 8.5 minutes after launch.    More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 13)

CANADA'S TELESAT TAPS SPACEX TO LAUNCH ITS BROADBAND SATELLITES IN ORBIT - Canada's Telesat (TSAT.TO) on Monday said it has sealed an agreement with SpaceX to launch its low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites from 2026, with the aim of providing global broadband service from space in late 2027. LEO satellites operate 36 times closer to Earth than traditional ones so they take less time to send and receive information, leading to better and faster broadband service even in remote areas.   More
(Source: Reuters - Sep 13)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE - China on Sunday successfully launched a new remote sensing satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. A modified version of the Long March-6 carrier rocket carrying the satellite Yaogan-40 lifted off at 12:30 p.m. (Beijing Time). The satellite has entered the preset orbit. It will be used for electromagnetic environment detection and related technical tests. Sunday's launch was the 487th mission undertaken by the Long March rocket series.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Sep 11)

XRISM SATELLITE LAUNCHES TO STUDY THE UNIVERSE IN DIFFERENT COLORS OF X-RAYS - n Sept. 6, a new satellite left Earth; its mission is to tell us about the motions of hot plasma flows in the universe. Launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite will detect X-ray wavelengths with unprecedented precision to peer into the hearts of galaxy clusters, reveal the workings of black holes and supernovae, as well as to tell us about the elemental makeup of the universe.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Sep 11)

ULA’S ATLAS 5 LAUNCHES NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE MISSION - A National Reconnaissance Office mission flew to geostationary Earth orbit Sept. 10 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The rocket lifted off at 8:47 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch had been originally scheduled for August 29 but was delayed due to Hurricane Idalia. A second attempt on Sept. 9 was scrubbed due to a technical issue found during a pre-launch check. The NROL-107 mission, also known as SilentBarker, carried multiple sensor payloads for surveillance of objects in geostationary orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 11)

ATLAS 5 ROCKET RETURNS TO PAD FOR SPY SATELLITE AGENCY LAUNCH FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - ULA says launch has been delayed to “due to an issue found during a prelaunch ordnance circuit continuity check.” Liftoff is rescheduled for 8:27 a.m. EDT (1247 UTC) on Sunday. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket made its way back to the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday morning for a mission carrying national security mission payloads, collectively codenamed Silentbarker.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 10)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES IN NIGHTTIME LIFTOFF - SpaceX launched 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight (Sept. 8) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight (Sept. 8) at 11:12 p.m. EDT (0312 GMT). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff tonight, touching down on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 9)

SPACEX'S STARSHIP ROCKET SPOTTED FROM SPACE AHEAD OF KEY TEST FLIGHT - Starship even looks big from space. SpaceX stacked its latest Starship vehicle on Tuesday (Sept. 5), lifting an upper-stage prototype called Ship 25 atop a first stage variant known as Booster 9 on the orbital launch mount at Starbase, the company's site in South Texas. That same day, Maxar Technologies' WorldView-1 satellite captured a great photo of the newly stacked rocket, which stands nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall — and Maxar posted the shot on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all of us to see.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 9)

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