AI HELPS PILOT FREE-FLYING ROBOT AROUND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR 1ST TIME EVER - Navigating in a microgravity environment is a challenge even for trained human astronauts, but it is even more challenging for autonomous robots, limiting their use in places like a space station. Now, however, Stanford researchers have used artificial intelligence to steer a free-flying robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS), potentially paving the way for more autonomous space missions in the future.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 12)

CHINESE ASTRONAUTS CLAMBER OUTSIDE SPACE STATION TO INSPECT DAMAGED SPACECRAFT - Last month, Chinese astronauts on board the country’s Tiangong space station discovered cracks in the window of their return vehicle, the Shenzhou-20, which officials suspected were the result of a space debris strike. The Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was deemed not safe enough to return its crew after the cracks were found, prompting an orbital game of musical chairs as the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) launched an emergency uncrewed replacement spacecraft, Shenzhou-22, to the station.   More
(Source: Futurism - Dec 11)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 160TH FALCON 9 ROCKET OF 2025 - SpaceX executed a pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday morning. The flight was the 160th of a Falcon 9 rocket so far in 2025. The Starlink 15-11 mission added another 27 broadband internet satellites to its growing megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 3:40 a.m. PST (6:40 a.m. EST / 1140 UTC). This was the third fastest turnaround of SLC-4E to date.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 11)

STATION TRIO BACK ON EARTH; EXPEDITION 74 KEEPS UP SCIENCE, MAINTAINS SYSTEMS - Expedition 73 has ended and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has returned to Houston and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky have returned to Moscow. The trio is now readapting to Earth’s gravity after living aboard the International Space Station in weightlessness for 245 days. Expedition 74 is now underway with veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke as commander leading six flight engineers including NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Chris Williams, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.   More
(Source: NASA - Dec 11)

‘GREETINGS, EARTHLINGS’: NVIDIA-BACKED STARCLOUD TRAINS FIRST AI MODEL IN SPACE AS ORBITAL DATA CENTER RACE HEATS UP - Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud trained an artificial intelligence model from space for the first time, signaling a new era for orbital data centers that could alleviate Earth’s escalating digital infrastructure crisis. Last month, the Washington-based company launched a satellite with an Nvidia H100 graphics processing unit, sending a chip into outer space that’s 100 times more powerful than any GPU compute that has been in space before. Now, the company’s Starcloud-1 satellite is running and querying responses from Gemma, an open large language model from Google , in orbit, marking the first time in history that an LLM has been run on a high-powered Nvidia GPU in outer space, CNBC has learned.    More
(Source: CNBC - Dec 11)

JAPAN TO LAUNCH SATELLITE IN FEBRUARY TO COMPLETE 7-ORBITER GEOLOCATION SYSTEM - Japan's space agency will launch a satellite in February to enable the country to stably operate its own geolocation system akin to the U.S. Global Positioning System. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said that the Michibiki No. 7 satellite will be launched on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on Feb 1. Together with another scheduled to be launched Dec 7, the satellite will complete Japan's seven-orbiter geolocation system, called the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System.   More
(Source: Japan Today - Dec 11)

SPACEX LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD FOR THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE - SpaceX launched its final national security payload of the year for the nation’s secretive spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. The Tuesday afternoon flight was also the final Falcon 9 booster recovery at Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission, dubbed National Reconnaissance Office Launch 77 (NROL-77), includes at least one payload, which the intelligence-gathering agency only described as being “designed, built, and operated by NRO.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 10)

SPACEX LAUNCHES STARLINK SATELLITES ON RECORD 32ND FLIGHT OF FALCON 9 ROCKET - The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just set a new record for a "flight-proven" booster, landing for the 32nd time after helping loft Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The company's Booster 1067 lifted off on Monday (Dec. 8), accelerating an upper stage and 29 broadband internet satellites skyward. The 5:26 p.m. EST (2226 GMT Dec. 8) launch from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida proceeded as planned after a one-day stand down due to poor weather conditions.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 10)

SOYUZ SAFELY LANDS IN KAZAKHSTAN - A NASA astronaut and two cosmonaut crewmates strapped into their Soyuz ferry ship Monday evening, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to an on-target landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan early Tuesday to wrap up an eight-month mission. With Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov strapped into the descent module’s center seat, flanked on his left by cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky and on the right by NASA’s Jonny Kim, the Soyuz MS-27/73S spacecraft undocked from the lab complex at 8:41 p.m. EST.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 10)

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