Spaceflight Now reports, “Update 7:16 p.m. EST (0016 UTC): Rocket Lab confirms a successful payload deployment. Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) completed its second Electron rocket of the month and its 60th to date. The flight carried with it the first of BlackSky’s Gen-3 Earth imaging and analytics gathering satellites. Liftoff of the mission, dubbed ‘Fasten Your Space Belts,’ from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand happened at 12:17 p.m. NZDT on Feb. 19 (6:17 p.m. EST, 2317 UCT on Feb. 18).”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Tag: Satellites
Silent Barker Spacecraft Expected to Begin Operation in 2025
Aviation Week reports, “The first spacecraft from a joint U.S. Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) program to conduct space situational awareness are close to entering operation next year. The Silent Barker spacecraft were launched Sept. 10, 2023, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Since then, the satellites have been undergoing the test-and-checkout phase, which is nearing completion, U.S. Space Command chief Gen. Stephen Whiting told reporters Dec. 11.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Eutelsat Satellites from California
Reuters reports, “Eutelsat, the world’s third-biggest satellite operator by revenue, launched 20 satellites for its communications network on Sunday, using Elon Musk’s SpaceX in its first move since the merger of two European companies last year. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off with Eutelsat satellites from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 0513 GMT. ‘This is the first OneWeb launch of the satellites since the merger,’ CEO Eva Berneke told Reuters in an interview. ‘We will be launching more satellites over the coming years.’”
Full Story (Reuters)
Video
NASA’s Europa Clipper Launch (Launch at 1:06:40 mark)
(NASA; YouTube)
Airbus and Astroscale Expand Collaboration On In-Orbit Servicing
Space News reports, “Airbus is expanding its partnership with in-orbit servicing venture Astroscale to explore ways to collaborate beyond potentially removing space junk and refueling satellites. The companies announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) Aug. 12 — between Airbus Defense and Space and the Japanese venture’s British subsidiary — to focus on U.K.-based in-orbit servicing and manufacturing opportunities in particular.”
Full Story (Space News)
AI Improves NOAA’s GOES-R Weather and Environmental Satellites
Space News reports, “On June 25, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched the fourth and final satellite of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R program.” The GOES-R team has successfully leveraged “the power of AI and an application called the Advanced Intelligent Monitoring System (AIMS),” to improve both “operational efficiency and mission resilience.”
Full Story (Space News)
China Moving at ‘Breathtaking Speed” In Final Frontier According to Space Force
SPACE reports that China is ratcheting up its space capabilities at an impressive clip, with an eye toward potentially ending the United States’ long-held space supremacy, U.S. officials say. “Since 2018, China has more than tripled their on-orbit intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites,” said Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, on Tuesday at the 39th Space Symposium.
Full Story (SPACE)
USSF Considers New Satellites That Feature Self-Adjusting Orbits, Threat Response
Space News reports that the US military “has long relied on large, expensive satellites parked in fixed orbits above the Earth.” Some US Space Force leaders “believe it’s time to change that model in favor of more mobile and renewable satellites that can maneuver to avoid attack.” USSF Space Systems Command Commander Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein said, “We’ve got to be better at dynamic space operations.” Speaking Dec. 13 at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower conference, Guetlein “said the strategic competition with China in space will require the U.S. to shift its reliance on fixed assets in preset orbits to more ‘dynamic’ systems – satellites that can move, be upgraded and adapt their tasks as needed.” The concept “was first unveiled by US Space Command’s deputy chief Lt. Gen. John Shaw, who recently retired.” He “described it as the need for satellites to maneuver away from threats or towards objects of interest.”
Full Story (Space News)
India Launches Seven Satellites
Space News reports that India successfully “launched seven Singaporean satellites into low Earth orbit July 29 on its workhorse PSLV rocket.” The launch “was the nation’s sixth orbital launch of the year, which were all successful, and occurred two weeks after the launch of the Indian robotic lunar lander Chandrayaan-3, which is flying toward the lunar south pole for a soft-landing attempt between Aug. 23 and 24.” The four-stage PSLV rocket “lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 10:01 p.m. Eastern as scheduled.” The launch was “conducted by ISRO under a contract with New Space India Limited (NSIL), a commercial arm of the space agency.” The primary payload “was a 360-kilogram remote-sending satellite, named DS-SAR,” which “carries a synthetic aperture radar developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).”
Full Story (Space News)
Pentagon Gears Up for Potential Space Threats
The Wall Street Journal reports that as China and Russia grow closer and put more of their military resources into space, the Pentagon is putting US resources into satellites instead of orbiting crewed space weapons due to the logistics of supporting people outside of Earth’s atmosphere not being feasible.
Full Story (The Wall Street Journal – subscription publication)
SpaceX Successfully Launches New Starlink Mini Satellites
UPI reports that SpaceX launched 21 “V2 Mini” satellites to add to their Starlink Internet constellation from Cape Canaveral on Monday evening. SpaceX announced “Liftoff!” in a tweet at 6:16 p.m. EST, “showing the Falcon 9 rocket lift off from pad 40 against the sunset.” The launch “was delayed earlier Monday to allow radiation levels to drop following a solar storm.” Starlink’s new satellite design, called “V2 Mini,” holds “four times the communications capacity of early generations of Starlink satellites, known as Version 1.5,” SpaceX said.
Full Story (UPI)
Video
On Monday, February 27, at 6:13 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 21 second-generation Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
(SpaceX; YouTube)