Two newly scanned declassified spy satellite images of Vozdvizhenka Airbase 1. Taken by a KH-7 GAMBIT on 1967-02-03: soaratlas.com/maps/140575?... 2. Taken by a KH-9 HEXAGON on 1977-08-18: soaratlas.com/maps/140577?...

Same news of a possible move up in launch date has now been reported by Ben Cooper (www.launchphotography.com/Launch_Viewi...) and he is listing a 5:30-7:30 pm EST (22:30-00:30 UTC) launch window on March 3, with sunset at 6:23 pm EST.

The F9 second stage reentered between about 0130 and 0330 UTC Feb 3, according to US Space Force.

OK, the new model is up on the page now, at the bottom of www.planet4589.org/space/con/co...

I've posted a modified set of shells based on a closer reading of the FCC documents, with just 30 deg and sun-sync inclinations

I've mocked up a set of constellation shells consistent with the limited available data on the mega-sat SpaceX orbital data center system and added them to planet4589.org/space/con/co... for a total of 1.7 million proposed satellites worldwide

And now we know why this looks like it does...

And finally two on-orbits illustrations

And two models

With captions

Oh nice, I'm trying to get some sleep and then the NRO releases declassified images of the JUMPSEAT SIGINT satellite... Source: www.nro.gov/foia-home/fo...

1978 Feb 25 : JS 5 or QUASAR 3 1978 Aug 5: QUASAR 3 or JS5 1980 Dec 13; QUASAR 4 or JS6 1981 Apr 24 : JS 6 or QUASAR 4 1983 Jul 31: JS7 or QUASAR 5 1984 Aug 28: QUASAR 5 or JS7 are still to be resolved.

We know JUMPSEAT 1,2,3,4 1971 Mar 21, 1972 Feb 16, 1973 Mar 21, 1975 Mar 10 and JUMPSEAT 8 (1987 Feb 12). But...

The NRO confirms our belief that there were 8 JUMPSEAT launches in 1981-87. and gives the dates for JUMPSEAT 1 and JUMPSEAT 8. Another program, QUASAR, had data relay satellites in the same orbit, and NRO has not released the dates for JS2 to 7 so we aren't sure which launch is which.

The US National Reconnaisance Office has declasslifed the JUMPSEAT program, which had signals intelligence satellites in Molniya orbit starting in 1971.

It gets much, much better! Airbus' Pleiades NEO 3 satellite captured 30cm resolution imagery of SLS rolling out to the pad today at 16:24:26 UTC. Incredible imagery! I've uploaded the full capture to @soaratlas.bsky.social: soaratlas.com/maps/140457

What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight in Quarter 1, 2026 - Anyone who's not suffering from brain overheating from what's happening in China?

The latest capture of my monthly satellite imagery updates of the Space Coast launch pads. Capture time: 2026-01-04 19:53:14 UTC. Interactive copy on @soaratlas.bsky.social: soaratlas.com/maps/140318

Jonathan's Space Report No. 852 published at planet4589.org/jsr.html - now completed 37 years of these reports!

My annual report, Space Activities in 2025, is now available at planet4589.org/space/papers...

Nice to see a happy colleague ! Orbital launch next ? :) #NS37

Nice pad lift-off shots of our launch :) 📸ESA - S. Corvaja #VA266 #Ariane6 #CSG #Galileo #ESA

I am still shocked at what I wrote 13 months ago LOL: forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?to...

Notice: planet4589.org is moving to a new server. Things may be rocky until the new address propagates through DNS.

@tskelso.bsky.social Sorry for this sudden question, but why are the predicted TLEs for Starlink Group 6-92 not on the @celestrak.bsky.social website? Thanks.

For those looking for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing today at 10:00 AM EST (12/3/2025) for NASA ADMIN nominee Jared Issacman: www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/11/chai...

The Chinese Orbital Access Armanda Is Coming - Index Threads for my new (and somewhat old, since 2015) Chinese launchers introductory threads, Coming Soon (TM) this December! (Models of ZQ-3, LM-12A & TL-3 by ASPT/Lekword: ​ bilibili.com/opus/1141643...)

thousands of man hours later, one successful mission to Mars. i'm so unbelievably proud to have worked on this thing. this is my rocket 🩵

A 3-tonne Chinese rocket stage (CZ-3B Y67 stage 3, object 44867) launched in Dec 2019 and abandoned in orbit, made an uncontrolled reentry over eastern Florida at about 1120 UTC Nov 8 and was widely observed.

Spacebook.com consolidates a comprehensive set of space object information and metadata. It draws upon a rich set of space object databases and historical archives, including Space-Track.org, CelesTrak, Jonathan McDowell’s (@planet4589.bsky.social) GCAT, and COMSPOC. (1/4)

Via ABC news, Planet imagery showing the change in the view from space of the White House over the past month

Me: "Samson said that while she doesn't see kinetic ASATs as being particularly useful, "we're seeing the line blurred between satellites conducting Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and those that are doing RPOs" www.space.com/space-explor...

Nice review article in Nature Astronomy celebrating 25 years of the Chandra mission www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is the motion of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) over a period of 53 minutes. #astrophotography

A satellite image of the launch pad at Chabahar Space Base, Iran, taken by Pleiades NEO on September 24, 2025. @soaratlas.bsky.social soaratlas.com/maps/139324?... @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social may be of interest to you

What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight, Quarter 4 2025 Issue - What The......?????

I don’t want to undermine the efforts by Blue Origin, but are we really thinking a company struggling to get their rocket flying a 2nd time for a whole year, which is required to get this *crew* lander (based on one that hasn’t even flown yet) to the Moon, can do that in 4 years?

LMAO Avio Group what even is this conglomeration of an Ariane 6/Vega-C rocket motor & you-know-what-must-not-be-named??? It's actually a pretty useful test config except, uh, that's just mini-Starship on top??? There, you need to re-do your homework...

NASA Marshall director steps down The director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has abruptly stepped down, becoming the third NASA center director to leave in recent months.

F9/Cygnus NG-23: Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship is closing in on the International Space Station, on track for a day-late capture by the lab's robot arm; the freighter's main engine has been working normally after a software update in the wake of two premature shutdowns Tuesday

During a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center last March, I was confronted with an environment of fear, uncertainty and discrimination which struck me as a troubling moral issue that also raises serious safety concerns. Read all about it here: www.thespacereview.com/article/5060/1

It's Copernicus Sentinel-1D! 🛰️ The satellite just arrived in French Guiana last week and will soon start to prepare for liftoff! Sentinel-1D will fly onboard an Ariane 6 rocket. 🤝 @esa.int @ec.europa.eu

Guess what's under there 👀

Hmm @rocketksc.bsky.social maybe you should take this to the Evening News department... x.com/CBSEveningNe...

thought i should post this launch video from a few nights back. as the rocket ascended through the cloud layers it refracted into a rainbow blob, which you can just barely see in the video.

SpaceX agrees to acquire EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses for up to $8.5B in cash and up to $8.5B in stock, resolving an FCC inquiry into EchoStar (Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Nice Ariane 6 Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) shots Source: ArianeGroup on the other site.

Personal announcement: I’m now on a somewhat longer term, if not semi-permanent movement to another side of the planet, so tweets posting time may change accordingly. 🙃

MaiaSpace has completed a six-month burst test campaign that pushed multiple subscale propellant tank prototypes to failure. europeanspaceflight.com/maiaspace-co...