HOW US-INDIAN NISAR SATELLITE WILL OFFER UNIQUE WINDOW ON EARTH - The upcoming U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission will observe Earth like no mission before, offering insights about our planet’s ever-changing surface. The NISAR mission is a first-of-a-kind dual-band radar satellite that will measure land deformation from earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes, producing data for science and disaster response. It will track how much glaciers and ice sheets are advancing or retreating and it will monitor growth and loss of forests and wetlands for insights on the global carbon cycle.   More
(Source: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Jan 7)

TOP SATELLITE LAUNCHES TO WATCH IN 2025 - To kick off 2025, Via Satellite’s annual roundup of Top Launches to Watch is back, highlighting some of the top commercial satellites expected to launch this year. This list is not exhaustive. But first, a quick recap of 2024. We saw quite a few of the satellites on last year’s list take off throughout 2024 — Not just two, but four satellites for Maxar’s WorldView Legion; Ovzon 3 for Swedish operator Ovzon; the seventh and eighth satellites in SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation; the two-satellite Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ABSM); as well as five BlueBirds for AST SpaceMobile and four MicroGEOS for Astranis.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jan 7)

SPACEWALK PREPS, SCIENCE, AND CARGO WORK KICK OFF NEW YEAR - Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to exit the orbital outpost’s Quest airlock this month for a spacewalk to checkout a pair of astrophysics experiments attached to the outside of the space station, as well as conduct other tasks. First, the NICER X-ray telescope will be serviced with a patch to prevent unwanted sunlight from entering the instrument and corrupting research data. Next, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will be prepared for future upgrades tasked for spacewalks planned later this year.   More
(Source: NASA - Jan 7)

SPACEX TO ATTEMPT FIRST PAYLOAD DEPLOYMENT, ENGINE REUSE DURING STARSHIP FLIGHT 7 - SpaceX is launching into 2025 with what is poised to be a blistering pace of launch for its super heavy lift rocket, Starship. The company is angling for as many as 25 launches of the nearly 40-story-tall rocket, if approved by federal regulators. In a lengthy post to its website, SpaceX laid out a laundry list of objectives it hopes to check off during the first mission of the year dubbed, Flight 7. The company didn’t announce a launch date along with the mission description, but current maritime and aviation warnings posted publicly suggest Flight 7 could happen as soon as Friday, Jan. 10, at 4 p.m. CST (5 p.m. EST, 2200 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 6)

SMALL SATELLITE CONSTELLATION COULD REVEAL BLACK HOLES LIKE NEVER BEFORE - Researchers in South Korea are developing a constellation of satellites that could reveal what goes on in the vicinity of supermassive black holes like never before. The constellation, dubbed Capella, is a brainchild of Seoul National University astronomy professor Sascha Trippe. An expert in black holes, Trippe has grown frustrated with the limitations of humanity's existing instruments for observing black holes and concerned that unless major technological advances are made, research may soon reach a "dead end."   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 5)

ON A LONG-DORMANT PAD IN FLORIDA, A ROCKET THAT COULD CHALLENGE SPACEX’S DOMINANCE IS POISED TO LAUNCH - On a Florida launchpad that has been dormant for almost two decades, a new, roughly 320-foot (98-meter) rocket — developed by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin — is poised for its maiden flight. The uncrewed launch vehicle, called New Glenn, will mark Blue Origin’s first attempt to send a rocket to orbit, a feat necessary if the company hopes to chip away at SpaceX’s long-held dominance in the industry. New Glenn is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as early as next week.    More
(Source: CNN - Jan 5)

NASA SEES STRONG SUPPORT FOR STRATEGY TO MAINTAIN CONTINUOUS HUMAN PRESENCE IN LEO - NASA’s deputy administrator says there is nearly unanimous support for its low Earth orbit microgravity strategy that endorses keeping humans in orbit continuously during the transition to commercial space stations. NASA released Dec. 16 a final version of LEO Microgravity Strategy that backed a concept called “continuous heartbeat” by the agency, which calls for maintaining humans in LEO continuously as NASA shifts from the International Space Station to commercial stations.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 4)

SPACEX NOTCHES FIRST ORBITAL LAUNCH OF 2025 WITH MISSION FOR UAE-BASED SPACE42 - SpaceX kicked off the year of orbital launches around the globe when it completed its first Falcon 9 flight of 2025. Onboard was a telecommunications satellite designed to serve regions in Africa, Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Liftoff of the Thuraya 4-NGS (Next Generation System) mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened on Friday, Jan. 3 at 8:27 p.m. EST (0127 UTC), the opening of a four-hour launch window.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 4)

INDIA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST ON-ORBIT DOCKING DEMONSTRATION IN 5TH AND FINAL LAUNCH OF 2024 - India made another important leap forward in its space program with the launch of its first on-orbit docking demonstration mission on Friday, Dec. 30. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched a PSLV C60 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 10 p.m. IST (11:30 a.m. EST, 1630 UTC). The late night launch carried the primary payloads, named SDX01 and SDX02, which will carry out the mission.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 3)

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