Latest news with #JonathanMcDowell
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX, ULA launch back-to-back rockets in under 5 hours at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Kicking off the workweek with an action-packed morning, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station hosted two rocket launches within four hours and 46 minutes on Monday, June 23. First, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:58 a.m. from Launch Complex 40. The Falcon 9 deployed 27 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit after ascending along a northeasterly trajectory. Next, shortly after sunrise, United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket sporting five solid rocket boosters at 6:54 a.m. on Amazon's second Project Kuiper internet constellation mission. That rocket also lifted off to the northeast from Launch Complex 41 at the Space Force installation. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral Amazon's Project Kuiper doubled in size from a modest 27 satellites to 54 with the June 23 launch. At the other end of the spectrum, more than 7,800 Starlink satellites are functioning in low-Earth orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Both rockets had scrubbed during previous unsuccessful launch countdowns the past week. The Falcon 9 aborted liftoff June 22 with only 58 seconds remaining in the launch countdown after an issue emerged with its autonomous flight termination system. Meanwhile, the Atlas V scrub occurred June 16 after an elevated purge temperature was detected within a booster engine. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch clocked in as the 52nd orbital rocket launch thus far this year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. ULA's Project Kuiper launch swiftly upped that running total to 53. The Starlink mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's 25th flight, SpaceX reported. The booster previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19 and 20 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the booster landed on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Nicknamed "The Bruiser," the Atlas V variant with five solid rocket boosters has now flown 16 times in that configuration since 2006. Atlas V rockets have previously launched the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto, the Juno orbiter to Jupiter, national security missions and the maiden Project Kuiper mission on April 28. ULA's next launch — which has not been scheduled yet — will be the USSF-106 mission, the first Vulcan rocket mission for the Space Force. Next on the Eastern Range schedule, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational advisory shows SpaceX is targeting a 4½-hour launch window Wednesday afternoon for another Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. More details: Launch window: 12:33 p.m. to 5:03 p.m. Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Sonic booms: No. Trajectory: Northeast. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Starlink, Amazon Project Kuiper satellites launch during same morning
South China Morning Post
13-06-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China's landmark orbital refuelling mission: why 2 US spy satellites hover nearby
China appears on the verge of carrying out a historic satellite-to-satellite refuelling mission in high orbit, a potential advance that has prompted the US to deploy two military surveillance satellites nearby to watch. The Shijian-25 satellite was launched this year to test on-orbit refuelling and mission-extension technologies, and has been drifting towards Shijian-21. The two satellites have nearly synchronised orbits and are primed for rendezvous and docking, according to public tracking data from the US military's website. Shijian-25 is expected to use its robotic arms to latch onto Shijian-21 and replenish its fuel. The latter used up much of its propellant in 2022 while towing a defunct BeiDou navigation satellite into a higher graveyard orbit. 11:05 Space race elevates Asia in new world order Space race elevates Asia in new world order Meanwhile, United States surveillance satellites USA 270 and USA 271 have flanked the two Chinese satellites from the east and west after conducting multiple manoeuvres last week and are positioned for optimal viewing angles, according to a social media post by COMSPOC, a Pennsylvania-based space situational awareness company. Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer and space historian, said the behaviour of the American satellites was highly uncommon. 'As far as we know, it is very unusual for this kind of close-range observation by coordinated US space assets – it hasn't been documented before,' he said on Wednesday. First conceptualised by Nasa in the 1960s, on-orbit refuelling technology is considered critical not only for extending satellite lifespans and reducing operational costs, but also for improving long-term sustainability in space by minimising orbital debris. In 2007, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully carried out the Orbital Express mission in low Earth orbit, performing the first-ever autonomous docking and fuel transfer between two specially designed test satellites.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX targets Friday morning Falcon 9 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
With missions bouncing around the Eastern Range schedule this week, SpaceX crews are prepping to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a Friday, June 13, morning Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 4½-hour launch window opens at 7:45 a.m. and extends until 12:16 p.m., a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows. The Falcon 9 will ascend along a southeasterly trajectory, then deploy a payload of Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit. As of Wednesday, June 11, the Starlink constellation had grown over the years to 7,711 functioning satellites, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. SpaceX Starship: Air Force: Starship to cause few environmental impacts at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station No Brevard County sonic booms are expected, since the rocket's first-stage booster will target landing aboard a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. For FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live blog coverage of the Starlink 12-26 mission, tune in to starting about 90 minutes before liftoff. Noteworthy calendar changes this week are shuffling launches on Florida's Space Coast: SpaceX stood down from Wednesday's Axiom Space's fourth crewed launch to the International Space Station, allowing time to repair a liquid-oxygen leak identified during post-static-fire booster inspections. No new launch date has been announced. Citing multiple weather delays during launch processing, United Launch Alliance pushed back its second Project Kuiper satellite mission for Amazon to 1:25 p.m. Monday, June 16. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp announced the second New Glenn heavy-lift rocket will launch no earlier than Aug. 15. No word yet on that rocket's payload. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX targets Friday for Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral
Gizmodo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
RIP to These NASA X Accounts, as U.S. Science Falls Off a Cliff
NASA is axing at least 23 X accounts run by the agency's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), citing a need to 'strategically reduce' its digital footprint. The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump's proposed funding cuts that could kill numerous research programs. NASA operates more than 400 social media accounts, 300 of which belong to SMD. It's fair to say that's a bit excessive. The agency believes its effort to consolidate these accounts—which began in 2018—will improve its social media impact through more cohesive messaging. Some followers, such as spaceflight photographer John Kraus, are welcoming the change. Kraus described the consolidation as 'long overdue.' But others disagree, arguing that shuttering these accounts will further limit public access and attention to research in Trump's America. 'In my view the core strength of social media is letting individual voices and their quirks find their individual audiences,' Harvard University astronomer Jonathan McDowell tweeted Tuesday, June 10. 'Making a bland uniform corporate account to replace individual [NASA] voices is a mistake.' The agency says the public won't lose access to social media updates about all the affected SMD programs, but their accounts will either be archived, merged into larger, thematic accounts or NASA's flagship channels, or rebranded to 'better align with strategic framework.' The NASA X accounts (formerly Twitter) that have been or are soon to be archived serve as critical outreach platforms for specific research programs, spacecraft, rovers, satellites, and other scientific initiatives. These are just some of the ones being nixed: Perseverance Mars rover: @NASAPersevere Curiosity Mars rover: @MarsCuriosity Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft: @NASAVoyager Commercial crew program: @Commercial_Crew Exploration ground systems: @NASAGroundSys International Space Station research: @ISS_Research Space Launch System (SLS): @NASA_SLS Orion spacecraft: @NASA_Orion Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS): @NASA_TESS Goddard Institute for Space Studies: @NASAGISS A few of these accounts, such as the Curiosity Mars rover's X page, have millions of followers. 'Don't worry, my mission isn't going anywhere,' Curiosity's account assured fans on Monday, but the same can't be said for all of these programs. Trump's 2026 fiscal budget request proposes to cut NASA's funding by nearly 25% in one year—one of the largest percentage cuts proposed in the agency's history. This includes a 47% cut to the agency's science program, a move that would 'decimate' NASA, according to the Planetary Society. If approved by Congress, the budget would kill at least 41 active and planned space missions. Voyager's funding, for example, would shrink from $7.8 million to $5 million in 2026, then drop to zero in 2029, the Washington Post reported. The Mars Sample Return (MRS) mission, which intends to return samples of the Red Planet's surface dutifully collected by NASA's Perseverance rover over the last few years, is also on the chopping block. The funding cuts would ultimately retire the Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, too, according to Ars Technica. The International Space Station (ISS) is already feeling the funding squeeze. The Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)—which operates the ISS National Lab—recently canceled an upcoming space station research conference due to 'the current regulatory and budgetary environment.' The proposal also includes sweeping staff cuts that would reduce NASA's workforce by roughly one-third. 'That would represent the smallest NASA workforce since mid-1960, before the first American had launched into space,' Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, recently told 'This is the extinction-level event we were warning people about,' Dreier added. With NASA's scientific future thrown into question, it's easy to see why the outreach rollback has struck a nerve with some, but this isn't the only federal science agency facing big changes to its online presence. the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website for its Climate Program Office, is expected to shut down after most of its staff were laid off on May 31, The Guardian reports. Affected staff told the publication that they believe the cuts were aimed at restructuring public-facing climate information. While NOAA and NASA face distinct challenges, both agencies are undergoing major changes that signal a shifting landscape for publicly available science—just when we need it most.
News18
10-06-2025
- Science
- News18
Scientists Warn Of Space Jam As Satellite Numbers Hit Critical Levels
Last Updated: As of May 2025, Earth is being circled by over 11,700 active satellites, a number that's climbing with astonishing speed SpaceX's Starlink accounts for 60% of active satellites. (News18 Hindi) Look up at the night sky and there's a good chance you're staring at more than just stars. As of May 2025, Earth is being circled by over 11,700 active satellites, a number that's climbing with astonishing speed. Data cited by Live Science revealed that more than 2,800 satellites were launched in 2024 alone, amounting to roughly one new launch every 34 hours. Much of this orbital rush is being driven not by governments, but by private space giants, with Elon Musk's SpaceX leading the charge. The company's ambitious Starlink program has already deployed more than 7,400 satellites, accounting for nearly 60% of all operational satellites currently in orbit. The surge is largely fueled by the rise of 'mega constellations", vast networks of satellites designed to deliver global internet and communication services, particularly in remote and underserved regions. Besides Starlink, other major contenders in the orbital broadband race include Amazon's Project Kuiper, the UK-based OneWeb, and a number of fast-expanding Chinese ventures. But while these projects promise to bridge digital divides, they're also triggering serious concerns about space sustainability. The region most affected is low-Earth orbit (LEO), the atmospheric layer extending up to 2,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. Scientists warn that LEO has a 'carrying capacity", a threshold beyond which safe satellite operations become increasingly difficult due to congestion and the risk of collisions. That number is estimated at around 1,00,000 active satellites. At the current rate of launches, experts caution we may hit that ceiling well before 2050. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics estimates the total satellite population, including inactive or defunct units, has already reached approximately 14,900. And as more commercial players enter the space race, that number is expected to explode. The implications are far-reaching. Beyond the immediate risks of in-orbit collisions and space debris, there are growing concerns over radio interference, light pollution affecting astronomical observations, and questions around regulatory oversight. First Published: June 10, 2025, 20:12 IST
