Thor 8 is a multi-purpose communications satellite for Space Norway. The satellite will both replace older satellites being phased out in the coming years and provide increased capacity and service offerings that offers capacity for both data services and broadcasting, such as high power direct-to-home (DTH) television services, from the 1° West orbital position. It carries two dedicated payloads for broadcasting in Europe and the Nordics, as well as payloads for data services to commercial and governmental customers. With a launch mass of 4 metric tons, the satellite will be built on Thales Alenia Space’s Spacebus-4000B2 platform and will operate in the Ka and Ku frequency bands.
Geostationary Transfer OrbitSix Astranis MicroGEO communications satellite to be inserted into Low Earth orbit by the Falcon 9, from where the Helios upper stage provided by Impulse Space will carry the satellites to geostationary orbit within 24 hours of launch.
Geostationary OrbitThe Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) are the foundational elements of NASA's lunar-orbiting space station "Gateway". The PPE is a 60-kilowatt class solar electric propulsion spacecraft that also will provide power, high-speed communications, attitude control and the capability to move the Gateway to different lunar orbits. The HALO is the pressurized living quarters where astronauts who visit the Gateway, often on their way to the Moon, will work. It will provide command and control and serve as the docking hub for the outpost. HALO will support science investigations, distribute power, provide communications for visiting vehicles and lunar surface expeditions, and supplement the life support systems aboard Orion, NASA’s spacecraft that will deliver Artemis astronauts to the Gateway.
Lunar OrbitNASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is designed to help advance planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs. NEO Surveyor consists of a single scientific instrument: a 50 centimeter (nearly 20 inch) diameter telescope that operates in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids, which are the most difficult type to find.
Heliocentric L1Dragonfly is NASA's 4th New Frontiers program mission that will send a robotic rotorcraft to fly within the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan to sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings, advancing humanity's search for the building blocks of life. The craft is a large quadcopter with double rotors with mass of about 875 kg, featuring rotors of 1.35 m in diameter. It can fly through several kilometers within an hour and will perform 1 flight per Titan day (~16 Earth days). During the planned 3.3-year mission, Dragonfly is expected to cover distance up to several hundred km. Dragonfly will use a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) to power its instruments. The planned science instrument suite is: * DragonCam: Camera Suite * DrACO: Drill for Acquisition of Complex Organics * DraMS: Mass Spectrometer * DraGNS: Gamma-ray and Neutron Spectrometer * DraGMet: Geophysics and Meteorology
Heliocentric N/AExoMars 2028 is a second mission of two-part European Space Agency astrobiology project to search for evidence of life on Mars. The primary objective is to land the rover at a site with high potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the very early history of the planet. The rover is expected to travel several kilometers during its mission. The European rover will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth. It will collect samples with a drill down to a depth of 2 m and analyze them with next-generation instruments in an onboard laboratory. Underground samples are more likely to include biomarkers, since the tenuous martian atmosphere offers little protection from radiation and photochemistry at the surface.
Heliocentric N/AJSAT-31 is a geostationary communication satellite for SKY Perfect JSAT. Operating both in Ka and Ku frequency bands, the JSAT-31 High Throughput Satellite will offer high speed broadband services over Japan, South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands. JSAT-31 will have the largest capacity in the history of SKY Perfect JSAT satellites. It will rely on Space INSPIRE, a highly flexible and fully software-defined solution that offers instant in-orbit adjustment to broadband connectivity demand, while maximizing the effective use of the satellite resources. SKY Perfect JSAT will leverage the satellite’s extreme flexibility to offer enhanced communications services all along JSAT-31’s lifespan in orbit.
Geostationary Transfer OrbitCSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operatin…
2 satellites officially described as for "demonstration of new technologies for spatial targets detection" purposes.
A satellite officially described as for cartography purposes, details TBD.
A pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, …
China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
Note: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…
AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…
First test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …
Maiden orbital launch attempt for the South Korean start-up Innospace and its HANBIT-Nano small launch vehicle. Onboard this flight are five small sa…