SPACEX LAUNCHES 21 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM WEST COAST - SpaceX launched its latest batch of 21 Starlink satellites on a Thursday night Falcon 9 launch from California. The Falcon 9 rocket launch set a new record for Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking the first time that 31 orbital missions have taken off in a calendar year. Thirty of those launches were from SpaceX and one was from Firefly Aerospace. Liftoff of the Starlink 9-6 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 6:45 p.m. PDT (9:45 p.m. EDT, 0145 UTC). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 13)
POLARIS DAWN ASTRONAUTS PERFORM SPACEWALK - Astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission conducted the first spacewalk on a non-governmental mission Sept. 12, briefly emerging from their Crew Dragon spacecraft. Jared Isaacman, commander of the four-person crew, emerged from the hatch in the nose of the capsule at approximately 6:52 a.m. Eastern. Using a set of handholds and rails called a “skywalker” by SpaceX, he tested the mobility of the SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) suit while standing in the hatch. “Congrats to the huge team effort that it took to get us to this point. We know it’s just the start,” he said shortly before returning inside the spacecraft. More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 12)
NASA ASTRONAUT, 2 COSMONAUTS ARRIVE AT ISS ABOARD RUSSIAN SOYUZ CAPSULE - A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) this afternoon after a brief orbital chase. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA's Don Pettit and Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos docked with the ISS today at 3:32 p.m. EDT (1932 GMT), as the two spacecraft flew 260 miles (418 kilometers) over central Ukraine. That was just three hours, and two orbits of Earth, after their launch atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 12)
SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW US-RUSSIAN CREW OF 3 TO ISS - A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts launched toward the International Space Station today (Sept. 11). NASA astronaut Don Pettit joined Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 12:23 p.m. EDT (1623 GMT; 9:23 p.m. local Baikonur time). The trio will join the Expedition 71 crew for a half-year mission aboard the ISS. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 12)
BOEING PLOTS 2026 QUANTUM NETWORKING SATELLITE DEMO - Boeing plans to deploy a small satellite in 2026 to test technology needed for a quantum internet capable of connecting more advanced sensors and computers worldwide, the company announced Sept. 10. The microwave-sized Q4S satellite is being designed to demonstrate quantum entanglement swapping, a communication technique that transfers information between particles without physically moving them across a distance. More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 11)
ASTRONOMERS WORRIED BY LAUNCH OF FIVE NEW SUPER-BRIGHT SATELLITES - An unusually reflective prototype satellite that outshines almost every star in the sky will be joined by another five later this week. Astronomers warn the appearance of more and more bright objects in the night sky will severely hinder their work and could even limit our ability to spot asteroids heading for Earth. Texas-based AST SpaceMobile launched its first BlueWalker 3 satellite in 2022 and immediately drew criticism from astronomers who discovered that it was brighter than all but seven stars in the night sky. More (Source: New Scientist - Sep 11)
SPACEX SURMOUNTS CHALLENGING WEATHER, LAUNCHES POLARIS DAWN ASTRONAUT MISSION - Despite some challenging weather at the opening of the launch window, SpaceX managed to send the Polaris Dawn commercial astronaut mission up to low Earth orbit on the second of three available liftoff opportunities. The predawn launch began the journey for four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, named ‘Resilience.’ The Falcon 9 rocket supporting the flight lifted off Tuesday at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 UTC). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 10)
ESA PERFORMS TARGETED REENTRY OF CLUSTER SATELLITE - The European Space Agency successfully deorbited the first of four Cluster space science satellites Sept. 8, performing a first-of-its-kind “targeted reentry” over the South Pacific. The satellite, called Cluster 2 or “Salsa,” reentered a 2:47 p.m. Eastern in the South Pacific west of Chile. Spacecraft controllers had targeted this area to minimize the risk from debris surviving reentry. “Salsa’s reentry was always going to be very low risk, but we wanted to push the boundaries and reduce the threat even further, demonstrating our commitment to ESA’s Zero Debris approach,” Rolf Densing, director of operations at ESA, said in a statement. More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 10)
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)
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