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The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2025
1 31 August
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More information Volume 3 — Issue 8, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 3 Issue 8
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
Article of the month

NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite developed by OHB Italia for the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence as part of the Luxembourg Earth Observation System (LUXEOSys). Designed for dual-use governmental and military purposes, NAOS provides very high-resolution optical imagery for applications in defense, security, and humanitarian efforts, supporting organizations such as NATO, European Union, and the United Nations. The satellite was launched on August 26, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

NAOS will be operated by LUXEOPs, consortium consisting of RHEA System Luxembourg, LUXSPACE, OHB and RHEA System.

Image of the month
Apollo 15 Lunar Module

Launched on 26 July, 1971, Apollo 15 was the fourth Apollo mission to successfully land on the moon, and the first of the longer, more science-focused J Missions. Landing at Hadley–Apennine on the 30, Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin (Irwin on left) stayed on the moon's surface until 2 August, while Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden stayed in orbit, collecting a variety of data on the moon. Apollo 15 was the first mission to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle (on right), which allowed Scott and Irwin to travel farther from the Lunar Lander (center) than previously possible.

On 4 August, the lunar orbiter departed from orbit at the end of Apollo 15's 74th lunar orbit. On the 5, Worden performed an EVA which lasted 39 minutes. This was the first of three deep-space EVAs, all performed during J Missions. The command module landed in the North Pacific Ocean on the 7, with the command module and crew being recovered by USS Okinawa. Apollo 15 was the longest Apollo mission, lasting for a total of 12 days and 7 hours, until Apollo 17, which lasted 12 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes.

Members

New Members: No new members

Number of active members: 213. Total number of members: 439.

August Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here.


  1. France Ariane 62MetOp-SG A1 (13 Aug. at 00:37) (success)
  2. United States Vulcan Centaur VC4SNTS-3 (13 Aug. at 00:56) (success)
  3. Russia Soyuz-2.1bBion-M No.2 (20 Aug. at 17:13) (success)
  4. United States SpaceX Starship — 8 Starlink simulators (26 Aug. at 23:30) (success)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 31 August 2025.

Monthly Changes

Since July 2025, there is one new top-importance, one fewer high-importance, two new mid-importance, 13 new low-importance, 47 new NA-importance, and seven new unknown-importance articles, for a total of 69 more articles. There is also one more GA-class article, two more B-class articles, 18 more C-class articles, 12 more Start-class articles, and 16 fewer Stub-class articles.

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Newsletter contributors: User:Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:22, 21 September 2025 (UTC)


More information The Downlink ...
The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2025
1 30 September
Close
More information Volume 3 — Issue 9, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 3 Issue 9
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
Article of the month

Project POSTAR was the first space experiment created entirely by members of the Boy Scouts of America. On September 12, 1992, Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-47 carried 10 Get Away Special (GAS) canisters. Amongst these GAS cansisters was G-102 sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America's Exploring Division in cooperation with the TRW Systems Integration Group, Fairfax, Virginia. The project was named Project POSTAR. (The name was a combination of the words "Post" and "Star").

Image of the month
Space Shuttle Enterprise

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101) was the first orbiter built in the Space Shuttle program. Designed for atmospheric test flights, it lacked both engines and a heat shield, making it unable to go to space. Rolled out on 17 September 1976, it was initially named Constitution, but was renamed following a large letter-writing campaign from Trekkies. Unlike its eponym, the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek series, OV-101 never achieved spaceflight; originally intended to be refitted to become the second space-rated orbiter after Columbia, changes to the design of the Space Shuttle made it both simpler and cheaper to instead construct a new shuttle, Challenger, around a test article. It was later considered for refitting following the Challenger disaster, but it was instead decided to build a replacement, Endeavour, out of spare parts from the construction of Discovery and Atlantis.

Enterprise flew a total of five times, from 12 August to 26 October, 1977. It was then flown to Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, where it was placed into the Saturn V dynamic test stand for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Testing, in order to test the Space Shuttle's launch stack. It was then used for a variety of fit checks at Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg Air Force Base, between which it toured Europe and North America, including a showing at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition. It was then moved to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum on 18 November 1985. It was then moved to its present location aboard the USS Intrepid museum ship on 12 December 2011.

Members

New Members:

Number of active members: 214. Total number of members: 440.

September Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here.


  1. United States Falcon 9 Block 5 — 28 Starlink (5 Sept. at 13:56) (success)
  2. United States Falcon 9 Block 5 — 24 Starlink (6 Sept. at 18:06) (success)
  3. United StatesIndonesia Falcon 9 Block 5Nusantara Lima (12 Sept. at 00:56) (success)
  4. China Long March 2DShiyan 30A/B (29 Sept. at 03:00) (success)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 30 September 2025.

Monthly Changes

Since August 2025, there are seven fewer high-importance, seven more mid-importance, 28 more low-importance, three more NA-importance, and twelve more unknown-importance articles, for a total of 43 more articles. There is also one more GA-class article, 11 fewer B-class articles, 28 fewer C-class articles, 65 more Start-class articles, 42 fewer Stub-class articles, and two more lists.

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Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:11, 19 October 2025 (UTC)


More information The Downlink ...
The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2025
1 October 30 November
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More information Volume 3 — Issue 10, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 3 Issue 10
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
  • On 13 November, the ESCAPADE spacecraft SIMPLEx-4A (Blue) and SIMPLEx-4B (Gold) were launched on board a New Glenn rocket. They will orbit Earth at its L2 point until the Mars transfer window opens in late 2026.
  • On the second flight of New Glenn, the first stage, "Never Tell Me the Odds," landed on the drone ship Jacklyn on 13 November. This made New Glenn the first orbital-class booster capable of landing propulsively not manufactured by SpaceX.
  • As a result of damage caused by space debris, China's Shenzhou 20 was rendered unusable for returning its crew back to Earth. The crew instead returned on board the Shenzhou 21 craft on 14 November, with Shenzhou 22 being launched uncrewed on 25 November to serve as a return vessel for the crew of Shenzhou 21.
  • On 27 November, Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31, the only launch site used by Russia to reach the ISS, was significantly damaged during the launch of Soyuz MS-28.
Featured Content
Article of the month

Zond 6 was a formal member of the Soviet Zond program, and an unpiloted version of the Soyuz 7K-L1 crewed Moon-flyby spacecraft. It was launched on a lunar flyby mission on November 10, 1968, from a parent satellite (68-101B) in Earth parking orbit. The spacecraft carried a biological payload of turtles, flies, and bacteria. It also carried scientific probes including cosmic ray, micrometeoroid detectors, and photographic equipment.

The mission was a precursor to a crewed circumlunar flight which the Soviets hoped could occur in December 1968, thus beating the American Apollo 8. However, after rounding the Moon on November 14, Zond 6 crashed on its return to Earth, due to a parachute failure when the parachute was detached from the capsule too early.

Image of the month
Explosion on the Cygnus CRS Orb-3

On 28 October, 2014, Cygnus Orb-3 was launched at 22:22:38 UTC. 15 seconds after liftoff, one of the launch vehicle's AJ26 (modified NK-33s) ruptured, resulting in the craft falling. The mission was scrubbed eight seconds later at 22:23:01 UTC. The subsequent investigation found that the liquid oxygen turbopump exploded, severing nearby propellant lines. This resulted in a fire that damaged various engine components. The cause of the LOX turbopump's failure remains unknown.

Members

New Members:

Number of active members: 217. Total number of members: 444.

October–November Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here.


  1. China Long March 8A — 9 Guowang (16 Oct. at 01:33:00) (success)
  2. JapanItalyMexicoThailandMalaysia H3-24WHTV-X1, various cubeSats (26 Oct. at 00:00:15) (success)
  3. China Long March 2F/G — Shenzhou 21 (31 Oct. at 15:44:00) (success)
  4. India LVM3GSAT-7R (2 Nov. at 11:56:00) (success)
  5. United States New GlennESCAPADE Blue and Gold (13 Nov. at 20:55:01) (success)
  6. United States Atlas V 551 — Viasat 3 EMEA (14 Nov. at 03:04:00) (success)
  7. Russia Soyuz-2.1aSoyuz MS-28 (27 Nov. at 09:27:57) (successful launch; spaceport damaged)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 30 November 2025.

Monthly Changes

Since September 2025, there are one more high-importance, three more mid-importance, 56 more low-importance, eleven more eight NA-importance, and 42 more unknown-importance articles, for a total of 113 more articles. There are also eight more B-class articles, 43 more C-class articles, 28 more Start-class articles, 25 more Stub-class articles, and three more lists.

Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list.
Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

More information The Downlink ...
The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2025
1 31 December
Close
More information Volume 3 — Issue 11, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 3 Issue 11
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
  • The International Space Station's eight compartments were fully occupied for the first time on 1 December, with the rebirthing of Cygnus NG-23 to Unity.
  • On 3 December, China's Zhuque-3 made the first non-American attempt at landing a booster. The booster failed to land following a landing-burn anomaly. A second attempt on the 23rd, this time using the new Long March 2A launch vehicle, also failed.
  • On 6 December, contact with NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter was lost. The last received telemetry was from the 4th, with the fragmented transmission of the 6th suggesting that the craft was rotating in an unintended way, and possibly having changed orbit. As of 16 January 2026, the mission has not yet been officially ended, although reestablishing communications with MAVEN is considered highly improbable.
Featured Content
Article of the month

PROCYON (Proximate Object Close flyby with Optical Navigation) was an asteroid flyby space probe that was launched together with Hayabusa2 on 3 December 2014 13:22:04 (JST). It was developed by University of Tokyo and JAXA. It was a small (70 kg, approx. 60 cm cube), low cost (¥500 million) spacecraft.

It was intended to flyby the asteroid (185851) 2000 DP107 in 2016, but the plan was abandoned due to the malfunction of the ion thruster.

Image of the month
STS-116 spacewalk

STS-116 was the 33rd mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Launched in the late evening of 6 December, the main aims of the mission were the installation of one of the International Space Station's Integrated Truss Structure segments, rewiring of the power system, and personnel exchange. Also known as ISS-12A.1, STS-116 was the first mission to include a Swedish astronaut, Christer Fuglesang. It returned to Earth in the evening of 22 December.

This image, of the first of three EVA sessions, was taken on the fourth day of the mission. Flight engineer Robert Curbeam is on the left, opposite mission specialist 3 Christer Fuglesang. The image was taken over New Zealand; the South Island is visible on the left, while the southern portion of the North Island, mostly consisting of the Wairarapa region, is visible in the top-right.

Members

New Members: none

Number of active members: 218. Total number of members: 445.

December Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See the complete list here.


  1. China Zhuque-3no payload (3 Dec. at 04:00) (success)
  2. South KoreaBrazilIndia HANBIT-NANOvarious (22 Dec. at 12:45) (launch failure)
  3. China Long March 12Amass simulator (23 Dec. at 02:00:00) (success)
  4. IndiaUnited States LVM3 — BlueBird-6 (24 Dec. at 03:25:30) (success)
  5. RussiaIranMontenegroKuwaitBelarus Soyuz-2.1b (1st stage), Fregat-M (2nd stage) — various (28 Dec. at 13:18:05) (success)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 31 December 2025.

Monthly Changes

Since November 2025, there are one more mid-importance, 29 more low-importance, two more NA-importance, and 20 more unknown-importance class articles, for a total of 52 more articles. There are also one more FA-class articles, one less GA-class articles, ten more C-class articles, 20 more Start-class articles, eleven more Stub-class articles, and four more lists.

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Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:27, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

More information The Downlink ...
The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2026
1 31 January
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More information Volume 4 — Issue 1, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 4 Issue 1
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
  • NASA called off a planned spacewalk of SpaceX Crew-11 on 8 January, and later cancelled the mission outright, after one of the crewmembers, Mike Fincke, was reported to have a medical complication. This was the first time that this occurred in US history.
  • On 11 January, the Pandora spacecraft was successfully launched. Pandora is designed to study the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets, with the intention of identifying targets for future observation.
Article of the month

Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer (EXCEDE) is a proposed space telescope for NASA's Explorer program to observe circumstellar protoplanetary and debris discs and study planet formation around nearby (within 100 parsecs) stars of spectral classes M to B. Had it been selected for development, it was proposed to launch in 2019.

The spacecraft concept proposed to use a 70 centimeter diameter telescope-mounted coronagraph called PIAA (Phase Induced Amplitude Apodized Coronagraph) to suppress starlight in order to be able to detect fainter radiation of circumstellar dust. Characterizing constitution of such disks would provide clues for planetary formation (mostly in habitable zones), while already existing exoplanets can be detected through their interaction with dust disk. The project's Principal Investigator is Glenn Schneider.

Image of the month
Wernher von Braun with the Rocketdyne F-1 engines

Pictured here are two titans of spaceflight history: Dr. Wernher von Braun, one of the main figures of the early American space program and designer of both the Saturn V and V-2 rockets, and five (four visible) Rocketdyne F-1 engines, used on the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle. Dr. von Braun's career is noted for a great number of achievements in human spaceflight, including the Apollo mission which successfully put human beings on the moon; nevertheless, it is burdened with the shadow of his activities in the Nazi Party, especially concerning his work on the V-2.

The engines behind him, in addition to being immense, have the honor of being the only engines used to get humans to the moon, as of the time of writing. Developed in the late 1950s, the 8,400 kilograms (18,500 lb) engines are still the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket ever made.

Members

New Members:

Number of active members: 219. Total number of members: 446.

January Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a complete list here.


  1. United StatesCanadaUnited KingdomFinlandGermany Falcon 9 Block 5various, including Pandora (11 Jan. at 13:44:50) (success)
  2. IndiaThailandSpain PSLV-DLvarious, including EOS-N1 and THEOS-2A (12 Jan. at 04:48:30) (launch failure)
  3. China Ceres-2various (17 Jan. at 04:05) (launch failure)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 31 January 2026.

Monthly Changes

Since December 2025, there are two fewer top-importance, two more high-importance, two more mid-importance, 19 more low-importance, 20 more NA-importance, and 31 more unknown-importance articles, for a total of 72 new articles. There are also three more GA-class, three more B-class, twelve more C-class, eleven more Start-class, and eleven more Stub-class articles, and three more lists.

Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list.
Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:43, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

More information The Downlink ...
The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2026
1 28 February
Close
More information Volume 4 — Issue 2, Spaceflight articles by quality and importance ...
Volume 4 Issue 2
Spaceflight Project  Project discussion  Members  Assessment  Open tasks  Popular pages  The Downlink
In the News
  • The first crewed spaceflight of 2026, SpaceX Crew-12, was launched on the 13th. Four astronauts were flown to the ISS in an atypical indirect handover that was caused by the early return of Crew-11 due to a medical emergency.
  • On the 14th, the ESA lost contact with PROBA-3, a dual-probe technological demonstration mission for chronographic high-precision formation flying. Specifically, the Chronograph Spacecraft lost orientation and drifted away from the Occulter.
Article of the month

A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a spacecraft. A launch vehicle follows a trajectory to the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then engines fire again to enter the final desired trajectory.

An alternative trajectory that is used on some missions is direct injection, where the rocket fires continuously (except during staging) until its fuel is exhausted, ending with the payload on the final trajectory. This technique was first used by the Soviet Venera 1 mission to Venus in 1961.

Image of the month
Space Shuttle Endeavour prior to rendezvous with the International Space Station

Part of a series of photographs, this image depicts the Space Shuttle Endeavour prior to rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station as part of STS-130 in 2010. It was taken from the station by a member of Expedition 22 when the ISS was 183 nautical miles above the South Pacific, off the coast of southern Chile. Earth is in the bottom-left; the orange part of the atmosphere is the troposphere, the white band in the middle is the stratosphere, and the blue section is the mesosphere.

Members

New Members: none

Number of active members: 219. Total number of members: 446.

February Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here.


  1. RussiaIran Proton-M/DM-03Elektro–L №5, Jam-e-Jam 1 (12 Feb. at 08:52:15) (success)
  2. United States Vulcan Centaur VC4SGSSAP-7/-8, USA-584 (12 Feb. at 09:22:00) (success)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 28 February 2026.

Monthly Changes

Since January 2026, there are two more mid-importance, fifteen more low-importance, three more NA-importance, and ten more unknown-importance articles, for a total of 30 new articles. There are also three more B-class, thirteen more C-class, sixteen more Start-class, and ten fewer Stub-class articles, and four more lists.

Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list.
Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:34, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

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