This month in Space! - September 2023
This month has had over twenty rocket launches worldwide with some failures and hundreds of satellites placed into orbit. Here's a recap for September 2023. All dates are relative…
Writer
Jack Congram
40 articles for MTK News. Space nerd trying to follow all things space!
OSIRIS-REx returns asteroid samples to Earth!
After seven years in space and almost three years since collecting its samples the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off the sample return capsule to Earth while on a flyby of the…
SpaceX reuses a booster for the 200th time
Early on the 24th of September 2023 a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying twenty-two more Starlink satellites into low…
Three more astronauts board the ISS
On September the 15th at 15:44 UTC a Soyuz 2.1a lifted off carrying Soyuz MS-24 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soyuz MS-24 is carrying three crew members to the…
Firefly launches Alpha with 24-hour notice
Firefly Aerospace recently launched its Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the United States Department of Defense. Firefly was given the notice to…
ULA launches 'SILENTBARKER' for the USSF & NRO
At 12:47 pm UTC on the 10th of September 2023, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. United Launch Alliance provided…
SpaceX makes its 150th booster landing in a row!
Early on the 9th of September 2023 a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket was carrying twenty-two more satellites for SpaceX Starlink…
Japan launches a Lunar lander and space telescope
On the 7th of September at 8:42 a.m. Japan Standard Time, a H-IIA lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying the XRISM space telescope and the SLIM Lunar lander. This…
India launches its first solar observatory!
At 11:20 Indian Standard Time on the 2nd of September 2023, a PSLV, also called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre carrying the Aditya-L1…
This month in Space! - August 2023
This month has had well over a dozen rocket launches worldwide with a big focus on the Moon & a spacewalk on the International Space Station. Here's a recap for August 2023. All…
Crew-7 heads to the International Space Station
Early in the morning of August 26th, 2023, SpaceX launched Crew-7 to the International Space Station for NASA as part of its Commercial Crew Program. This is SpaceX's eleventh…
SpaceX fires 33 Raptor engines together for the first time!
At 12:36 CDT on August 25th 2023, SpaceX's Super Heavy Booster 9 fired up its engines for its second static fire test. This static fire saw all thirty-three engines fire together…
Rocket Lab re-flies an engine for the first time!
On August the 24th 2023 at 11:45 am NZST, Rocket Lab's Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The rocket deployed one of Capella…
India lands on the Moon!
At 12:32 UTC on the 23rd of August, Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the Lunar surface! The landing makes India the fourth country to successfully touchdown with a soft…
Luna 25 lander crashes into the Lunar Surface
On August the 19th 2023, Roscosmos reported that an orbital maneuver had started to lower the spacecraft to a pre-landing orbit but suffered an "emergency situation on board".…
Chandrayaan-3 & Luna 25 are in orbit around the Moon!
In recent days both Chandrayaan-3 and Luna 25 have entered orbit around the Moon ahead of landing on the Lunar surface. Luna 25 is planned to land on August the 21st 2023 at 69.54…
SpaceX looking at no earlier than August 31st for Starship IFT-2
Recently the United States Coast Guard published a notice to mariners around the water east of Brownsville, Texas. The notice from the United States Coast Guard reads as follows…
Linus Media Group hit with claims of workplace abuse alongside business malpractice
Article written by Stefanie Dietrich, Jack Congram, and Tyler G. We'd like to disclose that before you continue reading this article mentions self-harm and sexual harassment. If…
Astra shares its Q2 2023 financial results & Rocket 4 Update
(Article pretext: EBITDA - Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, GAAP - Generally accepted accounting principles.) Astra recently held its second quarter…
China launches world's first geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar satellite!
On August the 12th 2023, a Long March 3B/E lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the L-SAR4-01 (LTDC-4A) satellite into an inclined geosynchronous orbit. This…
Russia launches its first Lunar probe in 50 years
On the 10th of August 2023 at 23:10 UTC, Russia launched Luna 25 towards the Moon, its first since 1976. Luna 25 was launched atop a Soyuz 2.1b from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in…
Virgin Galactic launches its first private astronaut mission
At 15:17 UTC on the 10th of August 2023, VSS Unity was released from its carrier plane, VMS Eve, and successfully flew on a suborbital flight into space with six people onboard.…
America is in a space race with China says NASA administrator
During a press briefing about the Artemis 2 mission on the 9th of August 2023, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said; "We're in a Space Race with China" This is in reference to…
NASA provides an update on its nuclear propulsion plans
On the 26th of July 2023, NASA hosted a media teleconference to provide an update on its DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations) nuclear rocket development…