SPACE TELESCOPES ARE NOW OVERWHELMED BY SATELLITE TRAILS - Unfortunately, there's more bad news to report on the clear skies front. A new paper, available on the arXiv preprint server from researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center, reports that 73.3% of images the agency's new SPHEREx space telescope collected between May and September of last year were contaminated by at least one artificial satellite trail. And it's only going to get worse from here. More (Source: Phys.org - Jun 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 ROCKET BOOSTER ON RECORD-BREAKING 35TH FLIGHT - SpaceX continued to push its Falcon 9 rocket fleet to the next level by flying its flight leader, tail number B1067, on a record-breaking 35th flight Monday morning. It launched SpaceX’s latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station shortly before sunrise. The Starlink 10-35 mission added another 29 broadband internet satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation. It consists of more than 10,500 spacecraft currently. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 6:13:50 a.m. EDT (1013:50 UTC). The rocket flew on a north-easterly trajectory upon liftoff. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 9)
TESTS SUGGEST RUSSIAN SATELLITES CAN JAM GPS ON A CONTINENTAL SCALE - Russian satellites have been identified as the cause of mysterious, seconds-long bursts of GPS interference across Europe—a rare example of human-made GPS interference coming from space. But uncertainty still hangs over whether such interference is intentional and if it could be more powerfully weaponized as GPS jamming with continental reach in the future. More (Source: Ars Technica - Jun 9)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 2 STARSHIELD SATELLITES DURING SATURDAY NIGHT STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX launched a combination of 21 Starlink and two Starshield satellites on Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Starshield is an alternate version of the Starlink satellite architecture the government. SpaceX hasn’t announced which U.S. government agency ordered these two satellites or if they are for a foreign government. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 17-43 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:24:45 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 6 (12:24:45 a.m. EDT / 0424:45 UTC on Sunday, June 7). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 8)
ASTRONAUTS TOLD TO RETURN TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AFTER SHELTERING OVER AIR LEAK REPAIRS - Astronauts have been told to return to the International Space Station (ISS) after sheltering in their spacecraft while repair works were carried out on new air leaks in the Russian segment of the station. The five crew members had been told to assume an "elevated safety posture" as two Russian cosmonauts attempted repairs on the Zvezda service module's transfer tunnel. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 6)
ASTRONAUTS ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TAKE SHELTER IN SPACEX DRAGON AS COSMONAUTS TRY TO FIX AIR LEAK - NASA ordered five astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter in an attached SpaceX Dragon spacecraft today while Russian cosmonauts tried to fix a concerning air leak on the orbiting lab. "Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency's SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway," NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said via X this morning. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 5)
SPACEX LAUNCHES SUNRISE STARLINK MISSION FOLLOWING WEATHER SCRUB - The second time proved to be the charm as SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday morning. It came about 24 hours after a scrub on Wednesday due to poor weather that proved insurmountable. The Starlink 10-43 mission will add 29 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation. It consists of more than 10,000 spacecraft. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at Thursday, June 4, 6:26:30 a.m. EDT (1026:30 UTC). The Falcon 9 rocket flew on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the pad. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 5)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG - SpaceX is set to launch a batch of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base Wednesday morning. The Starlink 17-47 mission added another 24 broadband internet to its low Earth orbit constellation. There are currently more than 10,000 satellites in orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled for 8:40:39 a.m. PDT (11:40:39 a.m. EDT / 1540:39 UTC). The Falcon 9 rocket will fly on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 5)
FRENCH ASTRONAUT TO FLY TO COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION UNDER DEAL - Two French astronauts are to blast into space next year, one of whom will stay on board the world's first commercial space station, under a new deal sealed between France and the U.S. company Vast. "This confirms France's space ambitions," President Emmanuel Macron said on X late Monday after announcing the deal on the sidelines of a Paris conference. More (Source: Phys.org - Jun 4)
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