NASA Spaceflight
• Justin Davenport
The week of Aug. 17-23 will feature three SpaceX Starlink launches alongside China’s second test flight of the partially reusable ZhuQue-3 launcher and the robotic Chang’e 7 lunar mission. The schedule marks China’s return to launch activity after the previous week’s Chang Zheng 7A failure.
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The week of Aug. 17-23 will feature three SpaceX Starlink launches alongside China’s second test flight of the partially reusable ZhuQue-3 launcher and the robotic Chang’e 7 lunar mission. The schedule marks China’s return to launch activity after the previous week’s Chang Zheng 7A failure.
Australian Earth-observation company HEO will access Planet’s satellite constellation under a new agreement to capture imagery of objects in orbit. The partnership expands HEO’s ability to monitor and characterize spacecraft from space, underscoring the growing commercial role of satellite-based space domain awareness.
The European Union has sanctioned the head of a Roscosmos subsidiary involved in developing a synthetic aperture radar satellite system for the Russian military. The action expands pressure on Russia’s space industry and targets leadership linked to military space capabilities.
NASA says its FALCON system successfully demonstrated autonomous spacecraft navigation in low Earth orbit during the Starling CubeSat mission. The system uses onboard cameras and catalogs of known objects to determine position without relying on GPS, a capability aimed at enabling more resilient spacecraft operations.
Telesat says it is pursuing good-faith negotiations with bondholders suing to reverse a 2025 transfer of funds to its dedicated Telesat LEO subsidiary. The satellite operator is also confronting a $1.7 billion debt payment due in December, adding financial pressure to its LEO strategy.
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The articles combine two separate U.S.-led initiatives: a Space Force space-domain-awareness payload launched aboard Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite 7, and the FAA’s $74.3 million initial task order to AT&T under its multibillion-dollar Enterprise Network Services modernization program.
The Space Development Agency and Defense Innovation Unit selected three companies to develop designs for scalable satellite capabilities covering rendezvous, capture and deorbit operations. The effort points to a defense-led approach for building commercially enabled on-orbit servicing and debris-removal capacity.
China launched a new batch of Guowang megaconstellation satellites over the weekend, using a Long March 12 shortly after a Long March 7A failure. A separate Long March 2C mission carried a developmental satellite for the United Arab Emirates, highlighting continued launch activity across multiple vehicle families.
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