Astronomy News 20 June 2025 - 3 July 2025

MTG-S1, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Sentinel-4, will provide continuous 3D atmospheric profiles from geostationary orbit and hourly high‑resolution air‑quality data. MethaneSAT, funded by Jeff Bezos and the Environmental Defense Fund and launched in March 2024, stopped responding in June 2025 and is considered irrecoverable, despite revealing methane leaks up to ten times higher than official estimates in some regions. Starlink 10-25 mission from Cape Canaveral deployed 27 satellites, marking SpaceX’s 500th Falcon 9 mission and booster B1067’s 29th flight. ESA’s Biomass satellite, launched in April 2025, uses a P-band radar to penetrate forests and

Space Coast launches set records with 93 launches in 2024 and up to 156 projected for 2025, driven by SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin. SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation has surpassed 7,900 satellites in orbit. Two Falcon 9 missions deployed 53 Starlink satellites within 13 hours, marking SpaceX’s 81st launch of 2025 and the 468th booster recovery. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has 54 satellites in orbit toward a planned 3,200-satellite constellation, with AWS data processing integration. Japan’s H-2A rocket completed its 50th and final mission, deploying the greenhouse gas monitoring satellite GOSAT-GW, as the H3 rocket begins to replace H-2A. The Vera C.

Rocket Lab completed two Electron launches within 48 hours at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, including the Get the Hawk Outta Here mission that deployed four satellites: three Hawkeye 360 RF geolocation microsatellites and the Kestrel-0A experimental satellite. Amazon expanded Project Kuiper by launching 27 new satellites into low Earth orbit, while SpaceX’s Starlink added 80 satellites in a single week, pushing its active constellation past 7,900. Japan marked the 50th and final H-2A launch by deploying the GOSAT-GW greenhouse gas and water-cycle satellite, part of a fleet that achieved 66 launches (63 successful) over 31 years. South Korea’s

China’s Zhongxing-9C satellite was launched on June 20, 2025, atop a Long March 3B from Xichang, marking the full localization of Chinese broadcast satellites in the 582nd Long March flight. SpaceX launched the Starlink 10-34 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, deploying 27 Starlink satellites and bringing the active constellation to nearly 8,000, with the booster marking its fifth flight. Rocket Lab’s Get The Hawk Outta Here mission placed four HawkEye 360 satellites into orbit, including three microsats for RF geolocation and the experimental Kestrel-0A. EarthDaily launched its first satellite to begin a ten-satellite constellation delivering AI-powered daily global