Gunter Krebs

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.

According to North Korea, the launch was successful. But independent confirmation is still pending.

Chollima-1 Chollima-1 (천리마-1), also transcribed Cheonlima-1, is a new North Korean orbital launch vehicle.

North Korea has launched the 3rd Chollima-1 orbital rocket today with apparently the 3rd Malligyong-1 spy sat ahead of the announced launch window. Two launches in May and August both failed to reach orbit.
The outcome of today's launch is not yet known.
space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/chol...

A highlight from today from my email inbox: Some guy threats to start legal actions against me if I do not stop using my satellites to monitor him and to manipulate his brain waves.

Shenzhou 8, ..., 17 (SZ 8, ..., 17) The SZ (Shenzhou) is the first crewed spacecraft of the Peoples
 Republic of China. It owns much of its basic design to the Russian Soyuz
 ...

Yesterday China launched a new crew towards the Chinese Space Station. Shenzhou-17's crew consists of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie & Jiang Xinlin.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sz-...

Lotos-S1 (14F145) The Russian Lotos-S1 (14F145) satellites are one component of the next generation ELINT
 satellite system Liana. A development version was flow...

Russia has successfully launched the military Kosmos-2570 satellite on a Soyuz-2-1b rocket. Launch site was Plesetsk. The satellite is most likely the 7th Lotos-S1 ELINT satellite. It is expected to deploy a small subsatellite after circularizing orbit.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/lot...

Psyche (Discovery 14) The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about t...

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket has launched NASA's Psyche probe towards the eponymous metal-rich asteroid (16) Psyche.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/psy...

MLM-U (Nauka, 77KSM) MLM-U (Mnogozelewoi Laboratorny Modul - Usovershenstvovanny, Multipurpose Laboratory Module - Upgrade) is a multipurpose module of the Russian segm...

The Nauka (MLM-U) lab module on the Russian segment of the ISS has suffered a coolant leak on the external back-up radiator. Roskosmos reports the leak didn't affect the usual crew schedule and that the primary radiator operates normally.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/mlm...

Vega Vega is an ESA project for a small, solid-fueled launcher for low earth orbit payloads. It is compatible with payload masses ranging from 300 kg to 2500 kg, depending on the type and altitude of th�...

An Arianespace Vega has launched a cluster of 12 small satellites (10 of them CubeSats) into orbit. This was the penultimate flight of the standard Vega version.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_fam/...

Miura-1 Miura-1 (formerly called Arion-1) is a reusable sounding rocket privately developed by PLD Space. It will carry a 100 kg payload to an apogee of 150 km.

PLD Space's Miura-1 reusable sounding rocket has conducted it's maiden flight to an altitude of 47 km.
An apogee of 50 km was planned (originally 80 km was planned, but the trajectory was changed for security reasons before the launch)

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/miur...

Atlas-5(501) (Atlas-V(501)) → complete Atlas-5 launch list

An Atlas-V(501) has successfully put the first 2 protoflight units of Amazon's Kuipersat constellation into orbit.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/...

Another successful suborbital Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo flight. Crew: Kelly Latimer (Cdr), Rick Sturckow (Plt), Beth Moses (AI) and passengers Ron Rosano (USA), Trevor Beattie (UK), Namira Salim (Pak).

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/ss2_...

#Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has launched its 3rd satellite Noor-3 into orbit using a Qased rocket. Launch site was likely again Sharoud. The success of the launch has not yet been independently confirmed.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/qase...

NASA's #OSIRISREx sample capsule has successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range, returning samples from Asteroid 101955 Bennu.
The remaining spacecraft has been diverted to a course to a rendezvous with asteroid 99942 Apophis in 2029.

space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/osi...