China has another sea launch under its belt. One of the country’s Jielong-3 rockets (also known as Smart Dragon-3) lifted off from a floating platform off the coast of eastern China on Monday (Sept. 23) at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 GMT on Sept. 24). The Smart Dragon-3 carried eight remote-sensing satellites to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) …
Chinese Rocket Launches 8 Satellites To Orbit From Ship At Sea. Read More »
NASA cleared its next astronaut flight to the International Space Station for launch on Friday (Sept. 27), a weekend liftoff that will help return two Boeing Starliner astronauts home and break in a new launch pad for SpaceX. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch two Crew-9 astronauts, NASA veteran Nick Hague …
A commercial Chinese rocket maker has completed its fourth solid rocket launch, sending five satellites into orbit. CAS Space’s Kinetica-1 (also known as Lijian-1) solid rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 7:33 p.m. EDT on Sept. 24 (2333 GMT; or 7:33 a.m. Beijing time on Sept. 25). Aboard …
China’s CAS Space Launches 5 Satellites With Its 4th Rocket. Read More »
The most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way contains incredible images of over 1.5 billion objects within our galaxy. The 200,000 images were collected by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile over the course of over 13 years, from 2010 to 2023, as part of …
Record-breaking Milky Way Map Showcases 1.5 Billion Objects. Read More »
Starlink has announced that its high-speed internet is now operational in Burundi. This announcement comes after a presidential decree granted the satellite-based internet provider an operating license in May 2024. The permit was granted under the Telecommunications Regulation and Control Agency (ARCT) of Burundi, which will be responsible for executing the decree under the office …
Starlink Expands its Satellite Internet Operations to Burundi. Read More »
NASA and South Korea’s space agency have agreed to deeper cooperation in space exploration, science and aeronautics, including collaboration on a pioneering mission. NASA and the Republic of Korea’s newly created Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) signed a joint statement on advance cooperation on Sept. 19. Areas of potential cooperation include NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture, …
NASA, South Korea Plan Mission To Unexplored Region Of Deep Space. Read More »
Japan’s workhorse H-2A rocket flew for the second-to-last time early Thursday morning (Sept. 26). An H-2A topped with a secret spy satellite called IGS-Radar 8 lifted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday at 1:24 a.m. EDT (0524 GMT and 2:24 p.m. local Japan time). The rocket deployed the satellite as planned, according to …
Japan Launches Spy Satellite On Penultimate Mission Of H-2A Rocket. Read More »
Blue Origin carried out a hotfire test for its New Glenn rocket second stage on Monday (Sept. 23) as the company moves toward the huge vehicle’s debut flight. The 15-second hotfire test was conducted on Sept. 23 to validate interactions between the subsystems on the New Glenn second stage, its two BE-3U engines and the …
Blue Origin Fires Up 2nd Stage Of Huge New Glenn Rocket Ahead Of Debut Launch. Read More »
SpaceX launched 20 more of its Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, from California early Wednesday morning (Sept. 25). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California’s central coast, on Wednesday at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT; 9:01 p.m. on Sept. 24 California time). …
SpaceX Launches 20 Starlink Internet Satellites From California. Read More »
The United States Space Force is partnering with the Indian government to establish a new factory that will manufacture semiconductors, which are microchips essential for building next-generation technologies. Space-based sensors and spacecraft (not to mention nearly all computers, TVs, mobile phones, cars, game consoles, etc.) rely on semiconductors. The integrated circuits are perhaps more commonly …
US Space Force Partners With India To Open A Microchip Factory For Next-Gen Tech. Read More »
