LAUNCH ROUNDUP: FALCON 9’S BUSY LAUNCH CADENCE CONTINUES - Following an extremely eventful week in Spaceflight, this coming week returns to “business as usual.” Two SpaceX Starlink missions, one each from Vandenberg and Florida, and a Falcon 9 launching a customer satellite make up the launches for the week. SpaceX is preparing Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center for the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U satellite on June 25. Due to this, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) is taking the full brunt of launches from the east coast and, in doing so, is seeing remarkable turnaround times for every launch.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 11)

THIS IS WHERE SATELLITES GO TO DIE - The sky is full of satellites, and they're central to modern life. The internet, GPS, and telecommunications all rely on the massive hunks of metal that are constantly orbiting the earth at thousands of miles per hour. More are being added every year, with Elon Musk's Starlink alone claiming to have over 6,000 active satellites as of early 2024.    More
(Source: SlashGear - Jun 10)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 20 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 FLIGHT FROM VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE - SpaceX kicked off the weekend with the launch of another batch of its Starlink satellites. The mission, dubbed Starlink 8-8, added 20 more satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation, including 13 that have Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened 5:58 a.m. PDT (8:58 a.m. EDT, 1258 UTC). The launch came less than 12 hours after SpaceX launched 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and roughly 48 hours after launching the fourth flight of its Starship rocket from southern Texas.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 9)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 FLIGHT FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX followed up its fourth test flight of its massive Starship rocket in southern Texas with a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Friday night flight marked the 344th Falcon 9 to launch, a little more than 14 years after its launch debut on June 4, 2010. The Starlink 10-1 mission added another 22 satellites to the massive constellation consisting of more than 6,000 active satellites in low Earth orbit, according to expert orbital tracker and astronomer, Jonathan McDowell. Liftoff from pad 40 happened at 9:56 p.m. EDT (0156 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 9)

STARLINER CREW WELCOMED ABOARD SPACE STATION - Working around multiple helium leaks and thruster problems, the crew of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft wrapped up a challenging rendezvous and a delayed-but-successful docking with the International Space Station Thursday in a major milestone for the new ship’s first piloted test flight. With commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams monitoring the Starliner’s automated approach, the Starliner’s docking mechanism engaged its counterpart on the front of the station’s forward Harmony module at 1:34 p.m. EDT as the two spacecraft were sailing 260 miles above the Indian Ocean.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 8)

THRUSTER GLITCHES AND HELIUM LEAKS CAN'T STOP BOEING'S STARLINER ASTRONAUT TEST FLIGHT — BUT WHY ARE THEY HAPPENING? - When NASA astronauts tried to dock Boeing's first crewed Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station Thursday (June 6), they had to wait. Five aft thrusters on the Starliner service module were out. And that was after flight controllers found workarounds for two new helium leaks on the spacecraft on top of one it already had. Also, its cooling system was using more water than expected, and another helium leak would be detected later after Starliner docked with the space station. So what gives? Why all the glitches?   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 7)

SPACEX ACCOMPLISHES FIRST SOFT SPLASHDOWN OF STARSHIP, SUPER HEAVY BOOSTER ON FLIGHT 4 MISSION - For a fourth time in a little more than a year, SpaceX launched a test mission of its massive Starship rocket from its development facility in southern Texas called Starbase. The launch, dubbed Flight 4, push the launch vehicle towards its goal of being a mostly reusable rocket. Similarly to the previous three launches, Flight 4 did not include a payload and flew a suborbital trajectory. Unlike the preceding missions, Flight 4 saw a soft splashdown of the Super Heavy Booster (Booster 11) and of the Starship upper stage (Ship 29). Liftoff took place at 7:50 a.m. CDT (8:50 a.m. EDT, 1250 UTC), near the opening of a 120-minute window.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 7)

TANAGER-1 IS READY FOR LAUNCH: PLANET’S FIRST HYPERSPECTRAL SATELLITE - We are proud to announce today that our first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1—made possible by the Carbon Mapper Coalition and its philanthropic partners—is ready for launch. The spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 3rd in preparation for liftoff as early as July on board the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX. Tanager-1 will be the first of a next-generation hyperspectral fleet which will expand Planet’s imaging capabilities in the spectral domain to complement the existing imaging capabilities in the temporal and spatial domains offered by the PlanetScope, SkySat, and Pelican missions.   More
(Source: Planet Labs - Jun 7)

NASA LAUNCHES SECOND SMALL CLIMATE SATELLITE TO STUDY EARTH’S POLES - Data from the pair of CubeSats will offer new insights into how much heat the Arctic and Antarctica radiate into space and how this influences global climate. The second of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) two satellites is communicating with ground controllers after launching at 3:15 p.m. NZST, Wednesday (11:15 p.m. EDT, June 4). Data from these two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, will better predict how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world — providing information to help humanity thrive on our changing planet.   More
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - Jun 6)

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