Spaceflight Daily Report, Wednesday 21st October 2026

Ceres-1S lifts off. Image credit: Galactic Energy.

Launch of Xiguang-4 01

Galactic Energy launched a Ceres-1S from the launch ship Dongfang Hangtian Gang just off the coast of Rizhao in Shandong at 0339 UTC, or 1139 local time (CST). This was carrying Xiguang-4 01, a remote sensing satellite operated by Guangdong Tianyuan Technology with support from the city government of Guangzhou and Guangzhou University, which will primarily focus on performing Earth observation tasks over Guangzhou. This was the 24th flight of the Ceres-1, and the 8th flight of the sea-launched 1S variant. [Source: Galactic Energy]

International Space Station Activities

Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina (both MS-29, Roscosmos) both participated in breathing research by recording how their breathing has changed in space, then Dubrov serviced an exercise machine and Kikina organised cargo and docking hardware in Progress MS-35. Anil Menon (MS-29, NASA) and Joshua Kutryk (Crew-13, CSA) cleaned spacesuit helmets, inspected tethers, and installed suit hardware in preparation for their two upcoming spacewalks. Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney (both Crew-13, NASA) reviewed procedures for their supporting roles in the spacewalks. Menon also performed agriculture research. Sergey Teteryatnikov (Crew-13, Roscosmos) serviced life support and communications equipment. [Source: NASA]

National Academies Recommend Lunar Destinations

NASA requested that the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine convene to recommend some non-polar destinations for future crewed Moon missions of "decadal-level" scientific value. Today, the Academies presented their recommendations. In order of priority they are:

• Bhabha Crater on the Lunar far side, where a crewed mission could study the crust of the far side and test operational independence from ground control on Earth.
• Mons Hadley on the near side, the landing site of the Apollo 15 mission, where a crewed mission could investigate how natural processes have changed a previously visited area.
• Orientale Basin on the border between the near and far sides, where a crewed mission could study the Moon's formation and deploy a gravitational wave observatory.
• Aristarchus Plateau on the near side, where a crewed mission could study ancient volcanism and establish a space weather observatory and a regolith shielding experiment.

The current priority for NASA's Moon Base programme remains the Lunar south pole. [Source: National Academies]

Other notes

• The launch of Starlink Group 15-15 aboard a Falcon 9 has been pushed back to no earlier than tomorrow. [Source: Spaceflight Now]
• The launch of "We're Not Hawking Around" aboard an Electron has been pushed back until no earlier than 23rd October (this Friday). [Source: Rocket Lab]
• The launch of Starlink Group 15-16 aboard a Falcon 9 has been pushed back to no earlier than 26th October (this Monday). [Source: SpaceX]
• UPDATE: ION SCV Absolute Andreas, launched on Transporter-18, deployed Planet Labs' Flock 4J-9 and -10 Earth observation satellites around today. [Source: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT]

Spaceflight Daily Report, Thursday 3rd September 2026

Image source: ISRO

Launch of EOS-05

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk II from Satish Dhawan in Andhra Pradesh at 2125 UTC, or 0255 Friday morning local time (IST). This was carrying EOS-05, also called GISAT-1A, a geosynchronous Earth imaging satellite designed to be used during disaster response. This was the second attempt at launching this mission, after the first attempt in 2021 failed to achieve orbit. It was the 19th flight of the GSLV, and the 13th flight of the Mk II variant. This was ISRO's first successful orbital launch of 2026. [Source: ISRO]

Separation of BepiColombo's MTM

At approximately 1200 UTC, BepiColombo jettisoned its Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), which provided propulsion during the cruise phase. This marks the beginning of the mission's arrival at Mercury following an eight year journey involving nine gravity assist manoeuvres around Earth, Venus, and Mercury. The spacecraft is planned to enter orbit around Mercury on 21st November, after which ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, also called Mio) will separate into two different spacecraft and adjust into their final orbits using their own propulsion systems. [Source: ESA]

Pallas-1 Absent from Tracking Data

The US Space Force have not catalogued an object in orbit following Tuesday's debut launch of Chinese company Galactic Energy's Pallas-1 (Zhishenxing-1) rocket. This indicates either a deliberate de-orbit of the second stage with the dummy payload still attached, some mistake or delay in the Space Force tracking data, or a launch failure. The latter explanation would be contrary to official statements from Galactic Energy, who said the flight was successful. [Source: Jonathan McDowell]

International Space Station Activities

NASA published their daily blog post on the crew's activities aboard the International Space Station. The crew are preparing for the departure of Progress MS-33, which will undock from the Poisk module next Monday and burn up in the atmosphere, and the arrival of Progress MS-35, which will dock to the vacated port two days later on Wednesday. This means they have been performing cargo and fluid transfers to the departing spacecraft, alongside their routine research and maintenance tasks. [Source: NASA]

Spaceflight Daily Report, Tuesday 1st September 2026

Image credit: NASA

US Spacewalk 99

American astronaut Jessica Meir and French astronaut Sophie Adenot performed a spacewalk today from the International Space Station, supported from inside the station by fellow astronauts Jack Hathaway and Anil Menon, and supported from the ground by Tess Caswell and Mark Vande Hei. The spacewalk began at 1240 UTC and concluded at 1929 UTC, lasting 6 hours 49 minutes. The procedure was nicknamed "triple-jump" by the astronauts, as it consisted of three main maintenance tasks on three different parts of the station. First, they installed a new retroreflector on the forward port of the Harmony module to support spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking. Second, they replaced a camera on the truss segment. And third, they prepared for the replacement of the radiator on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a science experiment for detecting antimatter in cosmic rays. Additionally, they swabbed various parts of the outside of the station to check for microbial leaks and installed jumper cables. It was a packed schedule and Adenot was having trouble with one of the arms on her spacesuit, so some of the radiator preparation and jumper cables have been deferred to a later spacewalk. This was Jessica Meir's 7th spacewalk, bringing her up to 49 hours 22 minutes of EVA time. It was Sophie Adenot's 3rd spacewalk, bringing her up to 19 hours 42 minutes of EVA time. It was the 4th spacewalk of Expedition 75 and overall the 284th spacewalk from the International Space Station. [Source: NASA]

Debut Launch of Pallas-1

Galactic Energy launched a Pallas-1 (Zhishenxing-1) from Jiuquan in Gansu at 0200 UTC, or 1000 local time (CST). This was the maiden flight of the rocket, a medium-lift two-stage launch vehicle which successfully delivered a dummy payload to orbit. The rocket's first stage is designed to be reusable, but no recovery was attempted during this debut flight, with the company stating it is taking a phased approach to reusability. The company has plans for a triple-core configuration of the rocket with a much greater payload capacity, like a scaled-down Falcon Heavy, and also intends to develop a heavy-lift launch vehicle called Pallas-2. [Source: Galactic Energy]

UPDATE: Satellite tracking catalogues are not tracking this mission's upper stage or payload, meaning the mission's success is not confirmed. See 3rd September for more details.

Roman Space Telescope Commissioning

Two days after the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA have released its aperture cover, deployed its main antenna, and powered up its Coronagraph Instrument. Its instruments will undergo a series of tests and calibrations while the spacecraft spends the next three months coasting to the Sun-Earth L2 point. [Source: NASA]

Blue Origin Awarded Mars Mission Contract

NASA have awarded Blue Origin up to $700 million USD to build, launch, and operate the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO), a relay satellite for communicating with future Mars missions, beating out rival proposals from Rocket Lab and Lockheed Martin. Blue Origin will base the spacecraft on their Blue Ring satellite bus. It is currently aiming to launch in 2028 and enter service around Mars in 2030. [Source: NASA]

Starcloud CEO Proposes Alpha Centauri Mission

A handful of space and AI entrepeneurs, including Starcloud co-founder Philip Johnston, have founded a new company aiming to launch a probe called Fermi Explorer towards the Alpha Centauri system. The probe will rely on existing technology and aim to get there within 80,000 years, with the philosophical goal of disproving the difficulty of interstellar travel as an explanation for the Fermi paradox, hence the name. It is described as a "minimum viable product" of an insterstellar mission, though it lacks the critical capability to return data back to Earth so it is scientifically worthless and doesn't actually prove its philosophical point. The mission is aiming to launch in 2029 with a budget of $15 million USD. [Source: Fermi Explorer]

Death of Toyohiro Akiyama

Japanese cosmonaut Toyohiro Akiyama passed away today at the age of 84. He spent seven days aboard the Soviet Union's Mir space station in 1990 as part of the Soyuz TM-11 mission, becoming the first Japanese person in space and overall the 238th human to orbit the Earth (239th above 100km, 245th above 50mi). Akiyama was a journalist with Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), who sponsored his trip. This also made him the first journalist to report from space and the second commercially sponsored space traveller. [Source: JAXA]