Mario Billiani

Never miss a launch with #GoogleCalendar for worldwide space launches! Reminders & #webcast links included: bit.ly/SpaceLaunchCalendar

Behold: The US Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report on challenges to security in space, including an NEI image of China’s spaceplane from Maxar, taken in 2024.

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with #Starlink Group 15-16 satellites & 1st stage droneship landing imminent. Watch live!

An unstoppable air leak on the ISS' Zvezda module forces permanent closure of its compartment, in turn requiring redocking of all future Russian cargo ships between two ports for cargo delivery and orbit corrections. DETAILS: russianspaceweb.com/2026.html#36

Very interesting analysis by COMSPOC using additional sensors KOSMOS 2612 (68762) walks up to ICEYE-X36 (59103) First pass: 14:02:59 UTC 16 October: 219 m (max uncertainty 490 m) Closest pass: 14:18:10 UTC 17 October: 59 m (uncert. 950 m) Third pass: 01:57:42 UTC 18 October: 262 m (uncert. 159 m)

Gravity 1 has a 100% success rate so far

Before taikonauts fly onboard the Lanyue lunar lander, an uncrewed scientific cargo-carrying mission to the Moon's surface will take place using the spacecraft, probably in 2028 Details -> www.china-in-space.com/p/lanyue-to-...

Another ground based view. The combination of a liquid kerosene core and four solid rocket boosters makes the Long March 6A’s "space jellyfish" completely unique.

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with #Starlink Group 15-15 satellites & 1st stage droneship landing imminent. Watch live!

Wow! This is the CZ-6A launch with the Yaogan 50-03 spysat at 10:15 UTC today. The shot of the tumbling boosters in the wake of the ascending rocket is amazing.

Multiple angles of the Long March 6A jellyfish as seen from airplanes: m.weibo.cn/detail/53572...

Satellite-shadowing intrigue in low Earth orbit: www.twz.com/news-feature...

Launch of @rocketlabcorp.com #Electron rocket with three #Cluster16 #Hawkeye360 satellites imminent. Watch live! #WereNotHawkingAround

Part 2 is enlightening as well. 👍

Russian companies have claimed to be operating radar-imaging satellites to fill gaps in limited Russian government systems. An examination of the links between these companies and China’s commercial space industry. www.thespacereview.com/article/5335/1

It's been several months, but Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 is back with a sea launch near Rizhao earlier today, carrying a single remote sensing satellite to image Guangzhou and surrounding regions Details -> www.china-in-space.com/p/guangzhou-...

Suspected Chinese rocket debris up to 30 feet across crashed into a palm oil plantation in Indonesia Indonesia’s space agency linked it to a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket stage that reentered on Oct. 18 No one was hurt. Workers had already left the area for the day

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with 32 payloads on #Bandwagon5 mission & 1st stage droneship landing imminent. Watch live!

Launch of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries #H3-24L rocket with #MMX Mars moon mission imminent. Watch live! #H3F10

JAXA is about to launch a planetary probe to Mars’s moon Phobos. The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to fly on Monday, Oct. 19, at 19:41 UTC from the Tanegashima Space Center atop an H3-24L rocket. Overview by Justin Davenport. www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/10/mmx-...

NASA says Orion's heat shield passed its Artemis II test, with about 10 times less damage than last time 🔥 Artemis I (left) vs. Artemis II (right)

New blogpost: "KOSMOS 2612 and ICEYE-X36: a worrisome cat-and-mouse-game in Space" sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2026/10/kosm...

According to current orbital elements, the Russian #KOSMOS 2612 satellite is now within 1-2 km of #ICEYE-X36. Based on current elements, it might come within meters of the latter within a few hours from now. This is an #RPO without consent. (cont.)

Possible space debris in Minnesota, close to the path of the Zhuque-2E upper stage reentry on Sep 15.

Newly-discovered asteroid 8NIQ001 approached from the daytime sky. It wasn't discovered until after a close approach of ~1000 km above the Arctic. The size of a compact car, it would have caused no damage had it hit. #astro 🔭

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket on #USSF481 classified mission & 1st stage droneship landing imminent. Watch live!

LandSpace's Zhuque-2E has brought eight new Three-Body Computing Constellation satellites into orbit to expand the leading constellation, alongside two laser communication test spacecraft Details -> www.china-in-space.com/p/three-body...

Rejected Space Mission Profiles xkcd.com/3310/

New simulations show that our now-moonless neighbor might once have had a satellite, but the moon crashed back into it. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with SpX-35 cargo #Dragon mission to the #ISS & 1st stage RTLS landing imminent. Watch live! #CRS35

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with #Starlink Group 15-25 satellites & 1st stage droneship landing imminent. Watch live!

During the IAC SpaceX had a presentation on Starlink and public ephemeris (location) data to help traffic coordination, (one could of course launch less crap but I digress..) it showed interesting on-orbit shots detailing some of the close approaches Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6gE...

An old defunct Soviet weather satellite, Meteor-2 7, has suffered a break-up event in orbit on 5 october 2026. Some tens of fragments have been detected. space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/met... x.com/shell_jim/st...

Update on Rassvet orbit raising: looks like Rassvet-3 No. 22 has belatedly begun orbit raising, but 23 and 17 continue to decay and 11 and 14 are stuck at 350 km

Launch of SpaceX #FalconHeavy rocket with #NROL97 classified mission & side booster RTLS landings imminent. Watch live!

This image of the #Crew13 launch, taken by astronaut Anil Menon on the ISS, shows how dirty the #Falcon9 exhaust actually is. 📷: x.com/astro_anil/s...

Launch of SpaceX #Falcon9 Block 5 rocket with Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Josh Kutryk & Sergey Teteryatnikov on #Crew13 Dragon mission to the ISS & 1st stage RTLS landing imminent. Watch live!

YTD orbital launch stats: 🇺🇸 123 🇨🇳 70 🇳🇿 16 🇷🇺 13 🇪🇺 7 🇯🇵 3 🇮🇳 3 🌍 235

On 23 September, the European-Chinese SMILE mission was declared ready for science operations, after launching on 19 May and reaching its target orbit on 20 June. The mission will study how Earth responds to the charged particles carried by the solar wind.

Europe's Jupiter probe skimmed past Earth yesterday, picking up a 7,800 mph speed boost Juice is now on course to reach Jupiter in 2031

A short clip of ESA's JUICE Earth flyby, recorded about 38 minutes before closest approach.

Tomorrow night, ESA's JUICE spacecraft will make a close pass by Neptune as seen from the U.S.—and along a narrow path across North America, it will transit directly across Neptune. JUICE should be around mag 12–13. Here's what the encounter will look like from different cities. #astro 🔭