SPACEX LAUNCHES 450TH FALCON ROCKET ON STARLINK 12-14 MISSION - SpaceX launched its latest batch of 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit Friday morning. The Starlink 12-14 mission was the 450th launch of a Falcon rocket, accounting for 439 Falcon 9 and 11 Falcon Heavy flights. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:19 a.m. EST (1519 UTC). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 22)
MUSK CALLS FOR DEORBITING ISS “AS SOON AS POSSIBLE” - SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that NASA should deorbit the International Space Station “as soon as possible,” preferably in the next two years, to focus on missions to Mars. The sudden call by Musk to end the ISS years earlier than NASA currently plans, made on social media Feb. 20, threatens to further complicate the relationship between Musk, a close adviser to President Donald Trump, and the space agency and much of the space industry. “It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station,” Musk posted on X, the social media site he owns. “It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars.” More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 21)
NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL HELP SATELLITES AVOID COLLISIONS IN SPACE - Space is becoming more crowded every day, with over 11,000 active satellites and nearly 40,000 pieces of debris in low Earth orbit. But Los Alamos National Laboratory has just demonstrated a new, patented technology called Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier, or ELROI, that gives the space research community an innovative way to track satellites and avoid costly collisions. More (Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory - Feb 21)
MUSK SAYS US ASTRONAUTS ARE STRANDED ON SPACE STATION FOR ‘POLITICAL REASONS’—AS THEY REJECT CLAIM - Elon Musk suggested the two U.S. astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June last year—due to safety issues with their return vessel, the Boeing Starliner—were left abandoned there for “political reasons,” reiterating a claim originally made by President Donald Trump that the astronauts themselves recently denied. More (Source: Forbes - Feb 20)
GLOBALSTAR DETAILS NEXT-GENERATION LEO CONSTELLATION IN FCC FILING - Globalstar detailed plans for its next-generation Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation to support Apple satellite connectivity in a filing this week to the FCC. Globalstar said in the filing it has been working on the new satellite system, called C-3, since October 2023. Last week, Globalstar announced MDA Space as the prime contractor for the next-gen LEO constellation after announcing plans for the constellation in November. More (Source: Via Satellite - Feb 20)
SPACEX STICKS FIRST FALCON 9 BOOSTER LANDING IN THE BAHAMAS - SpaceX notched another spaceflight record as it completed the first orbital flight that featured a liftoff in one country and one in another. A little more than eight minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the Falcon 9 rocket booster landed on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions’ (JRTI) positioned off the coast of the island named Exuma in The Bahamas. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 10-12 mission happened at 6:21 p.m. EST (2321 UTC) on Tuesday, Feb. 18. This was SpaceX’s 21st orbital launch attempt of the year. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 19)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES BLACKSKY GEN-3 SATELLITE ON 60TH ELECTRON FLIGHT - 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). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 19)
CAPELLA SPACE EYES LATE 2026 FOR NEXT-GENERATION SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT - Capella Space plans to start deploying its next-generation satellites late next year as it looks to expand from its traditional X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) collection to other missions. “We will move beyond SAR,” Capella Space CEO Frank Backes said Feb. 16 on the sidelines of the International Defense Conference here. More (Source: Aviation Week - Feb 18)
THE SPACE STATIONS THAT COULD REPLACE THE ISS - The International Space Station (ISS) is approaching the end of its operational life. NASA has committed to operating the ISS through 2030, after which plans are in place for its decommissioning. NASA has contracted SpaceX to perform a "controlled reentry" by steering the station into a descent towards the Earth's atmosphere. During reentry, much of the ISS is expected to burn up, with any remaining debris falling into the designated remote ocean area. More (Source: Newsweek - Feb 17)
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