SpaceX launching 24 Starlink satellites from Florida on Monday

SpaceX plans to launch 24 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast on Monday (Nov. 11). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday during a four-hour window that opens at 4:02 p.m. EST (2102 GMT). The launch had originally been planned for Sunday evening, but was delayed due to “unfavorable recovery weather conditions,” according to SpaceX. SpaceX will webcast the launch live via X, beginning about five minutes before liftoff. If all goes to…

Read More

NASA’s Roman space telescope gets ready to stare at distant suns to find alien planets

In a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, scientists have successfully integrated a crucial component onto the Roman Space Telescope. This device, known as the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, is designed to block starlight, enabling scientists to detect the faint light from planets beyond our solar system. This achievement marks a significant milestone for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a next-generation space observatory that will launch around May 2027. With a field of view at least 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope,…

Read More

Australian company Gilmour Space gets country’s 1st orbital launch license

Australia is poised to be the next country to take the giant leap into orbit. Aussie-based company Gilmour Space received the country’s first orbital launch license this week, as it prepares for the first test flight of its Eris rocket. A specific launch date is expected within the next few weeks, according to a Gilmour Space press release, with a liftoff from the company’s Bowen Orbital Spaceport, in northern Queensland. Gilmour Space opened its doors in 2015, and has since grown to more than 200 employees. Located on Queensland’s Gold…

Read More

NASA still mum about SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut’s medical issue

NASA is not yet ready to tell us why one of its astronauts was hospitalized shortly after returning to Earth last month. That astronaut was one of the four members of SpaceX‘s Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which ended with a splashdown off the coast of Florida on Oct. 25. Everything appeared to go well with the landing. Shortly thereafter, however, all four astronauts — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Alexander Grebenkin of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos — were taken to a Florida hospital for…

Read More

Russia sends 53 satellites to orbit on record-breaking launch (video)

Russia launched 53 small satellites into orbit on Monday (Nov. 4), a mix of Russian and international spacecraft. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Fregat upper stage lifted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East at 6:18 p.m. EST on Monday (2318 GMT; or 2:18 a.m. on Nov. 5 local time). “The hosted payload consisting of 49 Russian satellites, a Russian-Chinese satellite, a Russian-Zimbabwean satellite and two Iranian small satellites was delivered into the designated orbits and separated from the Fregat booster that was launched by a…

Read More

SpaceX launching 20 Starlink satellites from California early Nov. 9

SpaceX will launch 20 Starlink internet satellites from California early Saturday morning (Nov. 9). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft — 13 of which have direct-to-cell capability — is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, during a four-hour window that opens at 1:16 a.m. EST (0516 GMT; 10:16 p.m. Nov. 8 local time).  SpaceX will webcast the launch live via X, beginning about five minutes before liftoff. If all goes according to plan on Saturday morning, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back…

Read More

World’s 1st wooden satellite arrives at ISS for key orbital test

This new spaceflight tech has a very retro feel. The world’s first wooden satellite, a tiny Japanese spacecraft called LignoSat, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) today (Nov. 5) aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. LignoSat measures just 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, but it could end up having a big impact on spaceflight and exploration down the road. “While some of you might think that wood in space seems a little counterintuitive, researchers hope this investigation demonstrates that a wooden satellite can be more sustainable and…

Read More

Asteroid-mining company AstroForge gets 1st-ever FCC license for commercial deep-space mission

Asteroid prospecting company AstroForge has been awarded the first-ever commercial license for operating and communicating with a spacecraft in deep space, ahead of its Odin mission that’s set to launch and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid in early 2025. The license, granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Oct. 18, pertains specifically to setting up a communication network with radio ground stations on Earth, to enable commands to be sent up to Odin and data to be transmitted back to Earth. In this case, deep space is defined…

Read More

Watch 31st SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrive at the ISS today

The space station will receive a new shipment of supplies this morning (Nov. 5), and you can watch the event live. A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft laden with 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of food, equipment and experiments will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today around 10:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), if all goes according to plan. Coverage will run live on NASA+ and, if possible, Space.com will simulcast the events here. NASA’s broadcast will begin at 8:45 a.m. EST (1245 GMT). SpaceX launched the robotic Dragon aboard a…

Read More

Astronomers urge FCC to halt satellite megaconstellation launches

Over 100 astronomers from leading U.S. universities have signed an open letter calling for an assessment of potential impacts of satellite megaconstellations on Earth’s environment. The researchers urge the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which approves satellite deployments in the U.S., to halt megaconstellation launches and conduct a thorough assessment of their possible environmental impacts before awarding further licenses. U.S. government agencies are bound by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), which requires them to consider the environmental impacts of their decisions. A 1986 categorical exclusion, however, means that satellites…

Read More