Author: starpathwp-production
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NASA crew briefly shelters inside Dragon capsule as Russia addresses new space station leaks
A computer rendering of the configuration of the International Space Station as of May 17, 2026. Six spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon, the SpaceX Crew-12 Dragon, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL, the Soyuz MS-28 crew ship, and the Progress 94 and 95 resupply ships. Graphic: NASA Previously unannounced repair…
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After 11 years at Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft went out with a whisper
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was in excellent shape when it disappeared behind Mars on December 6 of last year. The routine passage, called an occultation, was supposed to last less than an hour, but ground teams didn’t hear from the spacecraft when it was supposed to regain contact with Earth. The loss of communication triggered contingency…
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After New Glenn anomaly, Blue Origin keeps focus on upcoming Blue Moon and Mars missions
Following the damaging loss of New Glenn during hotfire testing at Launch Complex 36 in late May, Blue Origin is moving quickly to get its massive orbital rocket back to flight by the end of the year. New Glenn’s launch manifest remains filled, and several of its most important upcoming missions will launch Blue Origin’s…
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Aalyria to Support Orchestration for NASA SCaN Program
NASA has selected Aalyria to support orchestration for its Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, starting with the PExT demonstration mission. NASA’s PExT mission — Polylingual Experimental Terminal was launched in July of 2025 and completed more than 100 communication activities last year, before its mission was extended through April 2027. The spacecraft is conducting various…
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FCC Grants Amazon 50% Kuiper Deployment Extension to July 2027
How Did Amazon Secure Additional Time for Kuiper Deployment? The FCC granted Amazon a critical deployment deadline waiver for Project Kuiper on June 5, extending the company’s timeline to deploy 1,618 satellites—half its authorized satellite constellation—by July 30, 2027. The waiver comes with significant conditions limiting Amazon’s spectrum priority rights, potentially affecting the company’s competitive…
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FCC Gives Amazon Leo 50% Deployment Waiver, With Conditions on Spectrum Priority
The FCC granted Amazon a deadline waiver to launch half of its constellation by the end of July, but the waiver came with conditions on spectrum priority. Amazon has had an FCC deadline to launch half of its planned 3,232-satellite Amazon Leo constellation by July 30 – a deadline that was set in 2020 when…
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Rocket Report: Blue Origin explosion still making headlines; Impulse raises money
Welcome to Edition 8.44 of the Rocket Report! The news this week is decidedly weighted in favor of heavy-lift rockets, largely due to the fallout from last Thursday’s explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn on its launch pad in Florida. Blue Origin aims to resume launches at the badly damaged launch facility by the end…
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China launches new satellite group for commercial constellation
China launched a Long March-8 carrier rocket on Friday in the southern island province of Hainan, sending a new satellite group into space. The rocket lifted off at 2:34 p.m. (Beijing Time) from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site. The satellite group, which is the 12th batch that will constitute the Spacesail Constellation, entered into…
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China’s most powerful single-body rocket debuts
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation’s dominant space contractor, conducted the debut flight of its Long March 12B carrier rocket on Monday afternoon. According to the State-owned conglomerate, commonly abbreviated as CASC, the 24-story-tall rocket blasted off at 4:40 pm from a newly built service tower at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in…
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Behind China’s tallest rocket: Long March-12B
China’s Long March-12B carrier rocket made its maiden flight on Monday, marking a new step in the country’s efforts to support large-scale commercial space missions and low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations. Standing 72 meters tall and measuring 4.37 meters in diameter, the Long March-12B is currently the tallest newly developed Chinese rocket to complete a successful first…