Starlink has over 4.6 million users and a constellation of nearly 7,900 satellites in orbit as of mid-2025. The EU Space Act would unify space regulation with debris mitigation, cybersecurity, and environmental standards, with existing Starlink satellites exempt through 2030 but future deployments subject to the Act. France’s SNCF plans to deploy satellite internet on…
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Boeing won a $2.8 billion U.S. Space Force contract to develop two Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (ESS) satellites, with options for two more, for NC3 in geostationary orbit, with first delivery targeted for 2031. MethaneSAT, a $134 million satellite funded by the Environmental Defense Fund and Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund, was lost after 15 months…
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Europe launched its first geostationary atmospheric sounding satellite, MTG-S1, as part of the Meteosat Third Generation program, equipped with a hyperspectral infrared sounder and Copernicus Sentinel-4 for air-quality monitoring, with a 9–12 month commissioning phase. Russia’s Kosmos-2558 approached the U.S. reconnaissance satellite USA-326, with a sub-satellite ‘Object C’ displaying high maneuverability and potential anti-satellite capabilities.…
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SpaceX marked its 500th Falcon 9 launch with the deployment of 27 Starlink satellites and the 29th booster reuse. MTG-S1, Europe’s first geostationary hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounder, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 alongside the Sentinel-4 instrument for hourly air-quality data over Europe and North Africa. MethaneSAT, an $88 million climate satellite…
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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…
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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images from Cerro Pachón, Chile, featuring galaxies and the Trifid Nebula, and will generate 10 million alerts per night with the world’s largest digital camera. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged a Saturn-mass exoplanet orbiting the star TWA 7. MTG-S1, a 1.8-ton satellite carrying the Sentinel-4…
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The Vera Rubin Observatory began its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) with first light and a 3.2-gigapixel camera, aiming to image the southern sky every few days and catalog over 40 billion objects. Perseverance completed its 30th Martian rock analysis on a sample named Kenmore, using the gaseous Dust Removal Tool to study…
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NASA’s SWOT satellite, launched in 2022, has revealed over 100,000 previously unknown seafloor features, more than doubling the number of known seamounts from 44,000 to over 100,000. ESA’s Biomass satellite, equipped with a pioneering P-band radar, enables direct measurement of above-ground biomass and was scheduled to launch in April 2025. Muon Space and Earth Fire…
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Japan’s H-2A rocket completed its 50th and final mission on June 28 (US time), launching the GOSAT-GW (“Ibuki”) greenhouse gases and water-cycle satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit with an official 98% reliability rate for the H-2A family. Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-33 flight from Launch Site One in West Texas on June 29 carried six…
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ForgeStar-1 launched on June 12, 2025 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking the UK’s first in-space manufacturing mission. The Welsh-built ForgeStar-1 is a fully retrievable, reusable space factory designed to survive re-entry and be reused for multiple missions. The Pridwen deployable heat shield protects ForgeStar-1 during atmospheric re-entry and will…
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