December 2022 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launch of Israeli satellite marks company’s 61st mission of 2022

December 30, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched its 61st and final mission of 2022 Thursday night from California, placing an Israeli Earth-imaging satellite into orbit and tying a 1980 record for the most successful flights by a rocket family in a single year.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches Israeli satellite from California

December 30, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s final launch of the year has blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with a Falcon 9 rocket boosting a $186 million Earth-imaging satellite into orbit for the Israeli company ImageSat International. Liftoff occurred at 11:38 p.m. PST Thursday (2:38 a.m. EST; 0738 GMT Friday), and the Falcon 9 booster returned to Vandenberg for landing less than 10 minutes later.

SpaceX launches first mission for Starlink Gen2 constellation

December 28, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday with 54 more Starlink internet satellites, a mission to begin populating a new orbital shell authorized by federal regulators earlier this month for the company’s Starlink Gen2 network.

Astronauts unfurl fourth roll-out solar array outside International Space Station

December 22, 2022 Stephen Clark

Another roll-out solar array was installed and deployed by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada outside the International Space Station on on a spacewalk Thursday, a day later than previously planned after the space station needed to dodge a piece of space junk.

NASA’s InSight lander bows out after ground-shaking Mars mission

December 21, 2022 Clive Simpson

Dust-laden solar panels and darker Martian skies have finally sealed the fate of NASA’s InSight mission, the agency announced Wednesday, after the intrepid lander delivered its final message from Mars at the end of its history-making mission to reveal the secrets of the Red Planet’s interior.

Two Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging satellites lost in failure of Europe’s Vega C rocket

December 21, 2022 Stephen Clark

The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch from French Guiana Tuesday night, falling victim to a failure of a European Vega C rocket.

Live coverage: Vega C fails after launch with two Earth observation satellites

December 20, 2022 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Vega C rocket failed a few minutes after launch from French Guiana at 8:47 p.m. EST Tuesday (0147 GMT Wednesday), falling back into the Atlantic Ocean north of the launch site. Two Pléiades Neo high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellites for Airbus were destroyed in the failure.

Two Airbus Earth-imaging satellites poised for launch on Vega C rocket

December 19, 2022 Stephen Clark

Two Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus’s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe’s Vega C rocket, a mission delayed from November to change out suspect hardware on the launcher’s payload fairing.

Russians assess flight worthiness of damaged Soyuz docked at space station

December 19, 2022 William Harwood

Russian managers are assessing whether a damaged Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station can safely carry its three-man crew back to Earth in late March as planned or whether a replacement must be launched to take its place, officials said Monday.

Live coverage: Rocket Lab launch on hold due to unfavorable winds aloft

December 18, 2022 Stephen Clark

Unfavorable upper level winds kept Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher on the ground Sunday night in Virginia. Overnight the company announced it would not try again on Monday due to a continuing forecast for strong upper level winds. The Electron rocket is to carry into orbit three commercial radio frequency monitoring satellites for HawkEye 360.