From the Institute
In the vast expanse of space, a revolutionary observatory no larger than a small car is quietly transforming our understanding of the cosmos. SPHEREx, NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, represents a remarkable achievement in astronomical engineering—a mission that delivers extraordinary science from a deceptively modest package.
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Tag: Astronautics
Juno Spacecraft Discovers Auroral ‘Footprints’ of Jupiter’s Moon Callisto
SPACE reports, “In a landmark observation by a team of international researchers, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has, for the first time, clearly detected the auroras of Jupiter’s moon Callisto. This discovery completes the set of auroral signatures we have from all four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.”
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SpaceX Marks 2,000 Starlink Satellites Deployed in 2025
Spaceflight Now reports the Starlink 17-9 mission added another 24 broadband satellites to its low Earth orbit constellation of more than 8,300. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg took place “Saturday morning … at 11:06 a.m. PDT (2:06 p.m. EDT / 1806 UTC).”
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Video
SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California on Falcon 9 (Launch at 30:04 mark)
Spaceflight Now; YouTube
Cargo Dragon Completes First “Boost Kit” Maneuver to Help Maintain Space Station’s Altitude
Aviation Week reports, “NASA’s 33rd SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply mission to the ISS has completed its first “boost kit” propulsion maneuver to help maintain the orbital laboratory’s altitude. The maneuver, conducted on Sept. 3, lasted 5 min. and 3 sec., raising the low point of the nearly 1 million-lb. ISS’s orbit by about 1 mi., a NASA mission update said. The maneuver positioned the orbital lab in a 260- by 256.3-mi.-high orbit as it circles the Earth at a 51.6-deg. inclination to the equator.”
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SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches 28 More Starlink Satellites into Orbit from Cape Canaveral
SPACE reports a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday morning, Sept. 3, carrying 28 Starlink wireless internet satellites “into low-Earth orbit (LEO), deploying the satellites about an hour after liftoff,” which took place at 7:56 a.m. EDT.
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Video
SpaceX launches 28 Starlink Satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Launch at the 0:14 mark)
VideoFromSpace; YouTube
Space Command Headquarters to Move from Colorado to Alabama
CBS News reports, “President Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that U.S. Space Command headquarters is moving from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama. In 2018 he had signed an order reestablishing U.S. Space Command, after it had been absorbed in 2002 into U.S. Strategic Command. Its main goal is to find ways to defend U.S. interests in space.”
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SpaceX Launches 1,900th Starlink Satellite to Orbit in 2025
Spaceflight Now reports SpaceX continued its blistering pace of orbital launches with its ninth and final Starlink launch of August. Liftoff of its Falcon 9 rocket “from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station” took place “at 7:49 a.m. EDT (1149 UTC). It flew on a north-easterly trajectory upon departure from Florida’s Space Coast.”
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Video
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral (Launch at the 1:00:28 mark)
Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 3 Opens in Virginia
Via Satellite reports, “Rocket Lab hosted the opening of its Launch Complex 3 in Virginia on Thursday. The site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport will serve as the test, launch, and landing facility for its Neutron rocket in development. Rocket Lab built the site in less than two years after starting construction in late 2023. It is the company’s fourth launch site — the launcher has two pads at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, and also operates Launch Complex 2 at the Virginia spaceport.”
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Video
Rocket Lab hosts the opening of its Launch Complex 3
Rocket Lab; YouTube
SpaceX Starship Completes Successful Test Flight After Previous Launch Setbacks
The New York Times reports, “After several disappointing failures, SpaceX’s Starship — the mammoth rocket that Elon Musk hopes to use to take people to Mars — made it all the way up to space and all the way back down to Earth during a 10th test flight on Tuesday night. The largely successful mission was a likely relief to both SpaceX and NASA, suggesting that the development program is back on track. NASA is counting on Starship as the lander to put its astronauts on the moon in the coming years.”
Full Story (New York Times – Subscription Publication)
Video
SpaceX Starship Completes Successful Test Flight (Launch at the 2:59:19 mark)
NASASpaceFlight; YouTube
AIAA Award Presented at International Conference on Environmental Systems
FROM THE INSTITUTE
The 2025 AIAA Jeffries Aerospace Medicine and Life Sciences Research Award was presented at the International Conference on Environmental Systems, 13-17 July in Prague, Czechia, to Christophe Lasseur, European Space Agency (retired). He was honored “For leadership of international advanced life support research toward development of safe and reliable closed loop regenerative systems for sustained human presence in space.”
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