AST Spacemobile has confirmed an unrecoverable failure.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

Mixed result for 3rd flight of @BlueOrigin's New Glenn rocket: Reflown stage 1 successfully launched & landed. Stage 2 underperformed & left @AST_SpaceMobile's Bluebird-7 sat in off-nominal orbit. Final orbital elements not yet released, but I'm not optimistic.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/new-...

Welcome back to Earth, Artemis II (Integrity)!

Mission accomplished! Well done!

Humanity is finally back on the way to the Moon. The Artemis-2 mission with the crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch & Jeremy Hansen has successfully started their 10 day voyage on a SLS Bl.1 rocket to fly around the moon.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/...

Lijian-2 (Kinetica-2) Lijian-2 or Kinetica-2 is a Chinese liquid-fueled medium launch vehicle developed by CAS Space, a rocket manufacturer affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yesterday China successfully conducted the maiden flight of the Lijian-2 (Kinetica-2) liquid fueled launch vehicle. It carried three satellites, among them the prototype of the Qingzhou transporter to be used to supply the Chinese Space Station.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/liji...

Sad to report the passing of Mike Melvill, pilot of the 1st commercial suborbital spaceflight. He flew 1st SpaceShipOne mission above the Kármán line & with SS1 spinning I didn’t expect him to return alive. He stayed calm, returned safely & flew a 2nd time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl3Y...

Firefly-Alpha (Firefly-α) Firefly is a small liquid fueled orbital launch vehicle, which is being developed by Firefly Aerospace, Inc.. Both stages are Kerosene and LOX fueled and pressurized by Helium.

Firefly Alpha successfully returned to flight. The last flight of the Block 1 version tested systems for Block 2 and put a Lockheed Martin Technology Test payload (possibly similar to the one lost in the last launch failure) in orbit.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/fire...

HEO (@heospace) has imaged @AST_SpaceMobile 's Bluebird 6 satellite in orbit. It looks significantly different from the illustrations on AST Space Mobile's website.

x.com/heospace/sta...

EchoStar 25 EchoStar 25 (EchoStar XXV) is a direct broadcasting communications satellite manufactured by Maxar Technologies (United States) for EchoStar Corpor...

A SpaceX Falcon-9 booster has launched the large EchoStar 25 direct broadcasting satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The 6800 kg satellite was built by Lanteris (formerly Maxar).

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ech...

KAIROS KAIROS (Kii-based Advanced & Instant Rocket System), developed by Space One, is an advanced launch vehicle, featuring a propulsion system comprising solid fuel for its three stages and a liquid prope&...

Space One's KAIROS small solid fueled launch vehicle has launched for the 3rd time from Spaceport Kii and again failed to reach orbit. About 1 min into the flight an energetic event was observed.
5 small satellites were lost.
space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/kair...

The number of launches and especially of individual satellites have drastically increased in 2025.

And here are the launch statistics for 2025 by launch vehicle families:

Note:
* includes the marginally suborbital Starship launches
* includes Iranian Zoljanah launch, which is unclear, if it was orbital attempt

As every year, here are the launch statistics for 2025 by country.
Note:
* includes the marginally suborbital Starship launches
* includes Iranian Zoljanah launch, which is unclear, if it was orbital attempt
* RocketLab launches are listed as New Zealand / USA

Wow - the Musk-Trump-bromance turns into a full-bloom divorce battle.
Collateral damage may be crewed spaceflight, as Musk threatens to decommission the Dragon crewed spacecraft.
I did not see this escalating so fast...

This leaves a small number of LEO sats:

USA 320, ..., 323
USA 328, ..., 331
USA 350, 351
USA 485, 486

Any thoughts?
(2/2)

Rise Of Space-Based Aircraft Tracking Spells Threat To USAF E-7As | Aviation Week Network A top U.S. military official confirmed that satellites are demonstrating aircraft tracking as the E-7A program faces a cancellation threat from the Pentagon.

This article confirms that the USA are already testing satellites to track aircraft as a replacement for AWACS. Question is which are the satellites? Likely not the NRO or SDA missions. Unlikely also GEO sats and small sats.
(1/2)

aviationweek.com/defense/airc...

Some users had problem accessing Gunter's Space Page during the past few hours. This was caused by an invalid certificate. The issue has now been corrected and accessing the website should work as usual now. Please let me know, if you still have issues.

space.skyrocket.de

Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip | CNN Politics President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US “will take over” the Gaza Strip, after saying earlier that he doesn’t think there is a permanent future for Palestinians in Gaza.

"Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip"
What the FCK is wrong with this guy? (Question is rhetorical!)
His ideas of diplomacy are equivalent to using a chainsaw for brain surgery!
We, the world, are so screwed!

edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...

I wonder, when SpaceX and Tesla will realize, that Elon Musk has become a massive liability for them.

Dear crowd,
does anyone know if the very first RocketLab Electron rocket ('It's a test') carried already the Kick Stage? IIRC, the Kick Stage was only announced on the 2nd flight.

Currently I have listed the 1st flight in my database as having no kick stage, but i still lack a solid confirmation.

I think, the number of museums per capita would be more interesting than the absolute numbers.

Wow, for the first time a got a KatWarn (a German catastrophe warning app) warning for reentering space debris (discarded ISS batteries).

Nova-C IM-1 (CLPS 2, TO2-IM, Odysseus) Nova-C is a lunar lander privately developed by Intuitive Machines for the Google Lunar-X-Prize and later offered commercially.

Intuitive Machines' Nova-C IM1 lander (Odysseus), the 2nd mission in NASA's CLPS program, has landed on the moon. A weak signal has been received, but it is too weak to transmit data. Let's see, if a communication can be established.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/nov...

Qaem-100 Qaem-100 (also transcribed Ghaem-100) is a new Iranian space launcher operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace force. It based on the Rafe' solid rocket motor.

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched the Suraya satellite (purpose unknow, possibly communications) on the 1st successful orbital flight of the Qaem-100 rocket, reaching a 750 km orbit. Launch site was the Shahroud Missile Test Site.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/qaem...

SLIM SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) is a Japanese technology demonstration lunar landing mission to demonstrate pin-point landing techni...

The Japanese SLIM lunar lander has successfully landed at Shioli crater. Both the LEV-1 nanohopper & LEV-2 the nanorover have been deployed. Unfortunately the solar array malfunctioned and the mission will only last until the batteries run out of power.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sli...

Yinli-1 (Gravity-1, YL-1) Yinli-1 or Gravity-1 is a medium solid fuel orbital rocket for the commercial market designed by OrienSpace.

Chinese company Orienspace has performed the maiden launch of their Yinli-1 (Gravity-1) solid-fueled launcher from a barge in the Yellow Sea. It successfully placed 3 Yunyao-1 earth observation sats into orbit.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/yinl...

Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander has suffered shortly after launch a propulsion failure which led to a critical loss of propellants. I think, this likely rules out a lunar landing. :-( But perhaps some engineering data can be gathered.

Peregrine 1 (CLPS 1, TO2-AB) Peregrine is a lunar lander privately developed by Astrobotic Technology for the Google Lunar-X-Prize.

Payload for the 1st Vulcan launch was @astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander - the first mission under NASA's CLPS program. It carries several payloads for NASA and
Additionally a @celestisflights capsule with human remains was attached to the Centaur stage.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/per...

Vulcan The Vulcan launch system, provisionally called NGLS (NGLS), is a replacement under development by ULA (United Launch Alliance) to replace both the Atlas-5 and Delta-4 families.

@ulalaunch Vulcan rocket has successfully conducted its maiden flight. It is powered by 2 @blueorigin built BE-4 engines fueled with LNG/LOX. 2 GEM-63XL solid fuel boosters provided additional thrust. A dual engine Centaur-5 was the upper stage.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/vulc...

The satellite and the upper stage have been tracked in orbit (493 km × 512 km, 97.43°). So the launch was successful.