ESA-China SMILE Mission Reaches Orbit After 10-Year Push | KeepTrack Space Brief
ESA-China SMILE spacecraft successfully launched from Kourou to image Earth's magnetosphere. First continuous global views of solar wind interaction now in orbit.
Tag: earth-observation
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· x reportSpaceX Lofts 45 Payloads Including Korean CAS500-2 | KeepTrack X Report
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rideshare lifted 45 satellites including South Korea's CAS500-2 Earth observer from Vandenberg at 0700 UTC May 3.
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The Satellite That Taught Us What We Were Doing to the Planet
Landsat 7 launched on April 15, 1999, designed to last five years. It operated for twenty-five, survived a failure that destroyed a fifth of every image it took, and became part of the longest continuous record of Earth's surface ever assembled. Then they made the data free.
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When Washington Closes the Shutter
Planet Labs just agreed to indefinitely withhold satellite imagery of the Middle East at the U.S. government's request. It's not the first time Washington has blinded commercial eyes in orbit - and the playbook is older than most people realize.
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· x reportX Report 28 Dec 2025
SpaceX scrubs a launch due to ground system issues while continuing its ambitious deployment of Starlink satellites.