A FIERY SATELLITE WILL PLUMMET BACK TO EARTH THIS EVENING - An aging satellite made partly by UK scientists will plunge back to Earth tonight. The European satellite Salsa is due to reenter our atmosphere at 7.48pm UK time, where it will burn up, leaving a fiery trail and giving rare clues about how we can reduce space debris in future. Some pieces of it may reach the surface, but luckily they are unlikely to hit anyone because they will be coming down over the ocean in the South Pacific. This isn’t a lucky coincidence: the return is the first-ever ‘targeted’ re-entry for a satellite, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.   More
(Source: MSN - Sep 9)

SHOEBOX-SIZED SATELLITE DETECTS A GAMMA-RAY EXPLOSION - BurstCube, a shoebox-sized satellite designed by NASA, has made a historic breakthrough by detecting its first gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe. This achievement marks a significant step forward in the study of these cosmic phenomena, demonstrating the incredible potential of small satellite missions in space exploration.   More
(Source: Earth.com - Sep 9)

NASA REAFFIRMS DECISION TO CANCEL OSAM-1 - NASA is proceeding with plans to shut down a satellite servicing mission at the end of the month after rejecting a proposal to revise the mission to meet a 2026 launch date. In a statement posted online Sept. 5, NASA announced it would proceed with closing out the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project, ending work on the mission at the end of the current fiscal year, which concludes Sept. 30.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 8)

STARLINER LANDS SAFELY IN NEW MEXICO - Leaving its crew behind in orbit, Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station Friday and chalked up a successful unpiloted return to Earth, closing out a disappointing test flight with an on-target and apparently problem-free New Mexico touchdown. Despite NASA’s concerns about earlier thruster problems and multiple helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion pressurization system, the Starliner had no trouble undocking and moving away from the station at 6:04 p.m. EDT and executing a critical 59-second deorbit braking maneuver at 11:17 p.m. to drop out of orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 7)

NEW GALILEO SATELLITES OPERATIONAL AFTER SUCCESSFUL IN-ORBIT TESTING - Three months after their launch from Cape Canaveral, Galileo satellites 29 and 30 have reached their target positions at an altitude of 23,222 km, where they have been fully tested and declared operational. Both satellites have been deployed on the same orbital plane, one of the three that make up the Galileo constellation. Now two of the three Galileo orbital planes are fully populated, bringing the constellation one launch away from completion. The next couple of Galileo satellites are planned to launch in the coming weeks from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida onboard a Falcon 9.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Sep 7)

SPACEX LAUNCHES NEXT-GEN US SPY SATELLITES ON 2ND LEG OF SPACEFLIGHT DOUBLEHEADER - SpaceX continues to keep busy. One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight (Sept. 5) at 11:20 p.m. EDT (8:20 p.m. local California time; 0320 GMT on Sept. 6 ), sending a batch of next-gen spy satellites aloft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). It was SpaceX's second launch of the day; another Falcon 9 delivered 21 of the company's Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida's Space Coast this morning.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 7)

DISPATCH FROM THE CARBON MAPPER SATELLITE LAUNCH - The best things in life are worth waiting for. And after five years in the making, we have one more thing to add to this list: the launch of Carbon Mapper Coalition’s first (hopefully, of many) methane- and CO2-sensing satellite. The satellite, Tanager-1, built by Planet Labs with state-of-the-art technology from NASA JPL, was made possible by a first-of-its-kind philanthropically funded public-private partnership that RMI is proud to be a member of and High Tide Foundation is pleased to support. It’s part of a new generation of satellites adding valuable climate data from above and helping us scale solutions on the ground.   More
(Source: RMI - Sep 7)

NEW SATELLITE TO IMAGE THE EARTH AND STRENGTHEN EUROPE’S COPERNICUS PROGRAMME - The third satellite in the Copernicus Sentinel 2 mission, Sentinel-2C will generate valuable images and data to help respond to natural disasters, monitor pollution and inform action on climate change. The Sentinels are a fleet of satellites that look down on the planet and gather vast quantities of data (over 34 million gigabytes so far) that feeds into Copernicus, Europe’s Earth observation programme.   More
(Source: GOV.UK - Sep 6)

NASA TO SUPPORT DARPA ROBOTIC SATELLITE SERVICING PROGRAM - NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have signed an interagency agreement to collaborate on a satellite servicing demonstration in geosynchronous Earth orbit, where hundreds of satellites provide communications, meteorological, national security, and other vital functions.   More
(Source: NASA - Sep 6)

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