Spaceflight Daily Report, Monday 17th August 2026

Image credit: NASA

Launch of UAE Satellite for Earth Observation

CALT, a subsidiary of CASC, launched a Long March 2C (Chang Zheng 2C) from Taiyuan in Shanxi at 0302 UTC, or 1102 local time (CST). This was carrying a Sun-synchronous Earth observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates University, imaginatively named Satellite for Earth Observation. This was the 88th flight of the Long March 2C, and the 233rd flight of the Long March 2 family. [Source: CALT]

Lucy Photographs Trojans

NASA's Lucy probe has taken its first images of some of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids it will be visiting, as operators calibrate the missions's instruments. It took distant photographs of 3548 Eurybates, 15094 Polymele, 11351 Leucus, and 21900 Orus, all of which are located at the Sun-Jupiter L4 point, also called the Greek camp, and all of which the probe will fly past between August 2027 and November 2028. After that it will head back to Earth for a gravity assist manoeuvre in 2030, followed by a visit to the Trojan camp at Sun-Jupiter L5 in 2033. [Source: NASA]

International Space Station Activities

The crew of the International Space Station have completed preparations for tomorrow's spacewalk. The Russian cosmonauts carried out routine research and maintenance. [Source: NASA]

Spaceflight Daily Report, Tuesday 7th July 2026

Image credit: SpaceX

Launch of Transporter-17

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg in California at 0712 UTC, or 0012 local time (PDT). It was carrying Transporter-17, a rideshare mission which delivered a total of 81 payloads to orbit. The full launch manifest is at the bottom of this post, after the "read more" break. This was the 662nd flight of the Falcon 9, and the 11th flight of booster B1097, which successfully landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. [Source: SpaceX]

Deployment of CubeSats from International Space Station

Six small satellites developed by American universities were deployed from the International Space Station's Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer on 2nd July, without an official announcement being made at the time. These were Proves-Alcyone (Columbia), Proves-Atlas (Northeastern), HUCSat (Harvard), Coconut (Arizona State), LeopardSat (Cincinnati), and Proves-Electra (Santa Cruz). [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 carried out routine research and maintenance, as well as preparing for the arrival of MS-29 and the departure of MS-28. [Source: NASA]