ROCKET LAB SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYS SATELLITE FOR SYNSPECTIVE, CAPS OFF YEAR WITH 60% INCREASE IN LAUNCHES YOY - Mahia, New Zealand. 22 December 2024 – Rocket Lab USA, Inc., a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it successfully completed the Company’s 16th launch for the year, deploying a satellite for Japanese Earth-observation constellation operator Synspective. The “Owl The Way Up” mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand on 22 December at 03:17 NZT deploying a single StriX satellite to orbit from the Electron launch vehicle.   More
(Source: Rocket lab - Dec 22)

ARISS SSTV EXPERIMENT 25 DEC 2024- 5 JAN 2025 - Just in time for the holidays and New Year, ARISS is planning an SSTV event from December 25 to January 5. Series 23 will consist in 12 pictures celebrating ARISS memories of 2024.
– starting time of transmsissions will be tentatively 25 December 2024 at 14.55 UTC;
– ending time will be tentatively 5 January 2025, 14: 20 UTC. On the ISS, will be used the Service Module radio, ISS callsign will be RS0ISS; images will be transmitted on 145.800 MHz FM, the SSTV mode will be PD120.   More
(Source: ISS Fan Club - Dec 22)

CHINA LAUNCHES COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY TEST SATELLITE - China successfully sent a test satellite for communication technology into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province on Friday. The satellite was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 11:12 p.m. (Beijing Time) and has entered the planned orbit. This satellite will be used for satellite communications, radio and television, data transmission, and other services. It will also carry out tests and verification of related technologies.   More
(Source: www.gov.cn - Dec 21)

RETIRED MILITARY WEATHER SATELLITE BREAKS UP - A defunct military weather satellite has broken up in orbit and created more than 50 pieces of debris, the latest in a series of similar incidents involving that line of spacecraft. The U.S. Space Force reported Dec. 19 that it had identified a “low-velocity fragmentation event” involving the DMSP-5D2 F14 spacecraft. The event took place at 9:10 p.m. Eastern Dec. 18 at an altitude of 840 kilometers, but the announcement did not disclose how much debris had been created by the event.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 21)

ROCKET LAB SCRUBS STRIX RADAR SATELLITE LAUNCH FOR SYNSPECTIVE OVER 'SENSOR DATA' - The spaceflight company Rocket Lab called off a planned launch of half a dozen commercial satellites due to concerns over sensor readings on Friday (Dec. 20). Rocket Lab scrubbed what was to be its 16th Electron rocket flight of 2024 less than 20 minutes before planned liftoff at 10:03 a.m. EST (1503 GMT) from the company's primary launch site on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Fueling of the rocket had already begun at the time of the scrub.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 21)

ABORT! SPACEX CALLS OFF LAUNCH OF 'MICROGEO' SATELLITES AT LAST SECOND - SpaceX's plans to launch four small communications satellites to a high Earth orbit were called off as the countdown reached T-0 seconds on Saturday (Dec. 1). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying four "MicroGEO" satellites built by San Francisco company Astranis had been scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at midnight EST (0500 GMT). An unspecified issue forced an abort just as the Falcon's Merlin engines were igniting.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 21)

CHINA NEARS RECORD LAUNCH YEAR WITH CERES-1 AND SAR SATELLITE MISSIONS - Chinese launch startup Galactic Energy conducted its fourth sea launch early Thursday as China continued its recent high launch cadence. The Ceres-1 solid rocket lifted off at 5:18 a.m. Eastern (1018 UTC) Dec. 19 from a converted mobile sea platform off the coast of Shandong province, near Rizhao city. The launch was streamed live from the coast.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 20)

WATCH RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS INSTALL NEW X-RAY DETECTOR DURING ISS SPACEWALK TODAY - Two Russian cosmonauts will venture out into the vacuum of space today, and you can watch it live. Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Russia's space agency Roscosmos will begin a spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (Dec. 19) beginning at 10:10 ET (1310 GMT). The spacewalk is expected to last six-and-a-half hours as the two Expedition 72 crewmates install a new instrument that will measure cosmic X-ray sources as well as new electrical equipment, according to NASA.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 20)

SPACEX INKS DEAL TO LAUNCH 2 MORE ASTRONAUT MISSIONS TO THE ISS - SpaceX has signed a deal to fly two more private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) using its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. The flights were booked by California company Vast Space, which is developing a private space station called Haven-1 that could reach orbit as soon as next year, also atop a Falcon 9.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 20)

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