Jonathan McDowell

Last month, SpaceX announced that Starlink is now available across Alaska and Canada.Photo: SpaceXSpaceX is trying to squeeze in the debut of its second generation Starlink satellites by the end of the month, hoping the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will grant it temporary authority to loft its heftier broadband satellites. The aerospace company filed a request with the FCC this week, asking for a 60-day special temporary authority to connect Starlink terminals already in use to the new satellites it plans to…

Falcon 9 launching a pair of communication satellites on December 17.Photo: SpaceXSpaceX is finishing off the year strong, flying its Falcon 9 rocket three times in less than 34 hours to deliver various payloads to low Earth orbit.So far this year, the company has successfully completed 59 orbital launches. SpaceX still has two more launches scheduled before the end of the year, which would fulfill CEO Elon Musk’s goal of 60 launches for 2022. In June, SpaceX performed three Falcon 9 launches in 36 hours and 18 minutes,…

China’s Long March-5B Y3 rocket carried the Wentian lab module to China’s space station in July.Photo: LIU HUAIYU (AP)On November 12, China’s Long March 6A rocket broke apart after launch, scattering debris in low Earth orbit. Now, reports suggest that the disintegrated upper stage of the rocket has grown to a cloud of 350 pieces of space debris. The rocket launched at 5:52 p.m. ET on November 11 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China, carrying the Yunhai 3 environmental monitoring satellite.Shortly after…

The Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) mission is designed to use a solar sail to fly by an asteroid and gather images. Illustration: NASAJapan’s tiny lunar lander never got to touch down on the Moon, as it failed to communicate with ground controllers shortly after launching aboard NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The spacecraft was one of 10 cubesats that participated in the Artemis 1 launch, which endured several delays that may have affected the cubesats’ performance in space. On Monday, the Japanese space…

A Long March-2F Y12 rocket blasting off in June 2021. Photo: Ng Han Guan (AP)The saga of China’s spaceplane continues as the experimental vehicle just released a mystery object that’s now closely trailing behind in low Earth orbit. On Monday, the United States Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron tracked an object in a similar orbit to the spaceplane, SpaceNews first reported. The object appeared to be very close to the spaceplane. So close, in fact, that the Space Force unit had to make sure it was a separate…

China’s Long March 5B rocket heading to the launch pad on Tuesday. Screenshot: CCTV/CNSAChina rolled out its Long March 5B rocket on Tuesday in anticipation of its upcoming liftoff to place the third and final piece of the Tiangong space station in orbit. It’s all very exciting, but an out-of-control core module will likely result, as was the case on three previous occasions. The heavy-lift rocket was transported to the pad on Tuesday, carrying a 23-ton lab module named Mengtian (which translates to “dreaming of…

Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is all set to launch its 30th Starlink mission of 2022.According to Teslarati, no earlier than (NET) 10:50 am EDT (14:50 UTC) on Thursday, a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) LC-40 launch pad with 54 internet satellites in tow. Weighing in at 16.75 tonnes (36,900 lb), the batch of Starlink V1.5 satellites is one of just a few left for SpaceX to complete the second of five 'shells' that make up its first constellation.As per the report,…

Artist’s conception of a cubesat ad showing the Olympic rings. Image: Shamil Biktimirov/SkoltechA feasibility study suggests millions of dollars can be made by using fleets of bright cubesats to form advertisements high above Earth. It’s a clearly terrible idea, as it would tarnish our already-threatened views of the night sky. The purpose of the new paper, published in Aerospace, was to evaluate the “economic feasibility of a space advertising mission that would launch a formation of satellites into orbit to reflect…

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was ordered to return to the airlock immediately and connect to station power.Screenshot: NASA TVWednesday’s Russian spacewalk didn’t exactly go as planned as one cosmonauts’ spacesuit malfunctioned, forcing him to return to the International Space Station (ISS) due to an unexpected drop in voltage. About two hours into the spacewalk scheduled to install a giant robotic arm, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev reported that the voltage of his spacesuit battery was low. Mission control ordered Artemyev to…

USA 326 satellite launched in February onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.Photo: SpaceXRussia just launched a mysterious satellite that could be spying on an even more mysterious U.S. military satellite, with the Russian spacecraft predicted to make a close approach to its presumed target this coming Thursday. You Could Soon Get Cash Back for Your Canceled FlightBefore it launched on Monday, speculation already existed that the Russian satellite would be considered a so-called “inspector” satellite—one that stalks other…