EARTH OBSERVATION EVOLUTION: BIGGER SATELLITES PROMISE BIGGER PAYOFF FOR IMAGERY OPERATORS - Earth observation satellites are bulking up. “Everyone’s moving to these bigger satellites because the cost and volume constraints have changed,” said James Mason, Planet senior vice president of space systems. “All of our customers are demanding different types of data, higher quality and lower latency.” Capella Space’s latest generation of Acadia synthetic aperture radar satellites are 50 percent larger than their predecessors.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 16)

CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT RADAR SATELLITE - China launched what is thought to be the world’s first geosynchronous orbit synthetic aperture radar satellite on Saturday. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 1:36 p.m. Eastern (1736 UTC) Aug. 12. The Land Exploration-4 01 (Ludi Tance-4 (01)) satellite successfully entered geosynchronous transfer orbit, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., (CASC) announced within an hour of liftoff. Few details of the satellite were provided by CASC. However the group’s “blue book” outlining plans for 2023 released in January noted the launch of a “high-orbit 20-meter [resolution] SAR satellite.”   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 15)

THE SPACE FORCE IS LAUNCHING ITS OWN SWARM OF TINY SATELLITES - Four years after it was formed, the US Space Force has begun deploying its first satellite network. For the military, it marks a significant shift from relying on a handful of powerful, expensive satellites to a swarm of smaller, cheaper ones. From the Pentagon’s perspective, they’ll be a harder target for rivals to strike; a missile or a laser attack might take out an individual satellite, but would do little to weaken a whole swarm. “Historically, the Department of Defense has been investing in billion-dollar Battlestar Galacticas that are big juicy targets,” says Derek Tournear, director of the Space Force’s Space Development Agency. “We wanted to go to an architecture that gave us resilience against threats and that we could upgrade rapidly every two years.”   More
(Source: WIRED - Aug 15)

CHINA SENDS WORLD'S FIRST HIGH-ORBIT SAR SATELLITE INTO ORBIT, BOOSTING DISASTER MONITORING - China successfully sent the Land Exploration-4 01 satellite, the world's first high-orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, into a preset orbit via a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province at 1:26 am on Sunday. The Global Times learned from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which oversaw the organization of the launch and manages the satellite program, that the newly launched satellite is the world's first high-orbit SAR satellite that has entered the engineering implementation phase.    More
(Source: Global Times - Aug 14)

BOEING CONFIDENT IN ACHIEVING SIX FLIGHTS TO THE ISS DESPITE STARLINER DELAY - Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) which will carry astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) is now delayed to next year, with the earliest chance for launch in March. However, Boeing is still confident it will complete the six crewed flights ordered by NASA despite the planned demise of the ISS in 2030. NASA and Boeing shared the updated launch information in a press briefing on Monday, Aug. 7.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 14)

ASTRONAUT SHARES IMAGE OF BRIGHTON FROM SPACE - An astronaut has captured an out-of-this-world image of Brighton from above. Sultan Al Neyadi shared the image of the seaside city from the International Space Station, where he has been since March. Born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, Mr Al Neyadi studied at the University of Brighton. He graduated in 2004 in electronics and communications engineering before returning to the UAE to pursue a master's degree.   More
(Source: BBC - Aug 12)

22 STARLINK SATELLITES SOAR FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral early Friday morning carrying another 22 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit. Liftoff from pad 40 occurred at 1:17 a.m. EDT (0517 UTC), the last launch opportunity of the night after the Falcon 9 was put in place at the pad too late to make earlier launch attempts. The first stage booster, tailnumber B1069, was making its ninth flight. It previously launched the Cargo Dragon CRS-24, Eutelsat Hotbird 13F, OneWeb 1, and SES-18/SES-19 missions, plus four Starlink deployment flights. Its last flight was the Starlink 5-12 mission on 23 June 2023.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)

THE CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS OUT OF THIS WORLD (AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY - Concentrations of potentially harmful chemical contaminants on the International Space Station (ISS) could exceed those found in dust on floors in homes across the United States and Western Europe. That was the conclusion reached in a first-of-its-kind new study that looked at dust collected by the air filtration system on the orbiting space station. One day, this investigation's results could help engineers design and build spacecraft for long-term human jaunts to space.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 11)

SATELLITE IMAGES CAPTURE WILDFIRE DEVASTATION IN LAHAINA - Satellite images captured the devastation on Maui on Wednesday after a wildfire tore through Lahaina, a popular vacation destination on the island's west coast that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. In an image from Maxar Technologies, the historic area of Banyan Court — home to the island's oldest living banyan tree, at 150 years old — appears to have mostly been reduced to ash.   More
(Source: NBC News - Aug 11)

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