The companies announced May 22 that they signed a multi-launch agreement that starts with a mission in 2027 where Impulse’s Helios kick stage, placed into low Earth orbit by a medium-class rocket, will send a four-ton SES satellite from LEO to GEO within eight hours. The announcement did not disclose the vehicle that will launch Helios and the satellite, or the specific SES satellite.

Muon Space, which launched its FireSat protoflight mission in March, is developing a dedicated constellation of satellites to track wildfires globally in near real-time. The company is working with the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance to build out the “FireSat” network in low Earth orbit (LEO). These satellites are equipped with multispectral electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensors.

“This would be the first dedicated constellation designed to global wildfire detection and response,” Brian Collins, executive director of the Earth Fire Alliance, said May 18 at the GEOINT Symposium.

“With a long-term goal to deploy as many as 50 FireSats, that would enable a 15-minute revisit rate across the planet,” he said. “So we can see the fire move and we can move resources accordingly.”

Muon’s FireSat platform is designed for dual-use applications, serving both civilian disaster response and national security needs.

Starfish Space is hoping to prove the concept of being able to dock to unprepared satellites for repair, refueling, or repositioning in orbit. The mission, known as Otter Pup 2, is now set to launch aboard the SpaceX Transporter-14 rideshare mission.

This follows the company’s first attempt, which saw the Otter Pup 1 mission unable to dock with its target due to a thruster failure.

The target will be a D-Orbit ION spacecraft which will simulate a client payload, which is not equipped with a traditional docking adapter or capture plate as you might see aboard a space station or other rendezvous target.

Instead, Starfish Space’s Nautilus capture mechanism will feature a special end effector connected to the end of the capture mechanism. This end effector will enable Otter Pup 2 to dock with the ION through electrostatic adhesion.

“An electromagnet will be integrated into the end effector and will be used as a backup option to the electrostatic end effector, to dock with the ION through magnetic attraction,” the company notes.

The goal is to eventually commission its Otter satellite servicing vehicle to allow for servicing of previously launched satellites. The company’s first Otter missions include customers such as NASA, the U.S. Space Force, and Intelsat, with the goal of flying those missions as soon as 2026.

Transporter-14 is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than June 1, 2025.

China is set to launch its second Tianwen deep space exploration mission late May, targeting both a near Earth asteroid and a main belt comet.

The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is now being integrated with a Long March 3B rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced May 18, stating launch is scheduled for the end of May.

Airspace closure notices indicate a four-hour-long launch window opening at 12:00 p.m. Eastern (1600-2000 UTC) May 28. Backup launch windows are scheduled for May 29 and 30.

Tianwen-2’s first goal is to collect samples from near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3) and deliver these to Earth around late 2027. A reentry module containing the samples will be released for atmospheric entry, descent and landing, but the main Tianwen-2 spacecraft will use the Earth’s gravity for a swingby, setting it on course for a six-year-voyage to comet 311P/PANSTARRS.

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-05-20, 11:50 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2025-05-20, 19:50 (CST) | | Launch provider | CALT | | Launch vehicle | Long March 7A | | Launch site | LC-201, Wenchang Space Launch Site, China | | Payload | ChinaSat 3B |

Webcasts:

• International Rocket Launches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwA-wgxDRA

Stats:

☑️ 2nd Long March 7A mission this year, 19th overall

Sourced from NextSpaceflight

India’s PSLV-C61 mission, intended to deploy the advanced EOS-09 Earth observation satellite, failed minutes after launch Sunday morning due to a suspected flex nozzle malfunction in its third-stage propulsion system, according to initial analysis.

Isro Chairman V Narayanan confirmed the anomaly, stating, “First two stages performed as expected. In the third stage, we observed less chamber pressure. The mission could not be accomplished”.

The third-stage PS3 motor uses a flexible bearing nozzle system to steer the vehicle during its 114-second burn.

Flex nozzles, made of layered elastomeric materials, allow precise thrust vector control without complex hydraulic actuators.

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-05-19, 07:35 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2025-05-19, 15:35 (CST) | | Launch provider | Galactic Energy | | Launch vehicle | Ceres-1S | | Launch site | Oriental Spaceport Launch Ship (Area 1), China Coastal Waters | | Payloads | Tianqi-16, 17, 18, and 20 |

Webcasts:

• International Rocket Launches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61XEkZWxwEU

Stats:

☑️ 4th Ceres 1S mission this year, 20th overall

Sourced from NextSpaceflight

Until recently, China's entries in the realm of spaceflight patches often lacked the originality found in patches from the West. For example, a series of patches for China's human spaceflight missions used a formulaic design with a circular shape and a mix of red and blue. The patch for China's most recent Shenzhou crew to the country's Tiangong space station last month finally broke the mold with a triangular shape after China's human spaceflight agency put the patch up for a public vote.

But there's a fascinating set of new patches Chinese officials released for a series of launches with top secret satellites over the last two months. These four patches depict Buddhist gods with a sense of artistry and sharp colors that stand apart from China's previous spaceflight emblems, and perhaps—or perhaps not—they can tell us something about the nature of the missions they represent.

Mission info

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-05-18, 00:29 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2025-05-19, 05:59 (IST) | | Launch site | First Launch Pad, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India | | Launch Vehicle | PSLV-XL | | Payloads | EOS-09 (RISAT-1B) | | Payload mass | 1,696.0 kg | | Mission success criteria | Sun-Synchronous Orbit |

Webcasts

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | ISRO | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y63x4kjvAc0 | Space Affairs | none | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3_oy1jK96Y | The Space Devs |

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight:

☑️ 1st PSLV mission this year, 63rd overall

☑️ 2nd ISRO mission this year, 98th overall

Mission details

• ISRO mission page
• NextSpaceflight mission page

EOS-09 (RISAT-1B)

EOS-09, also named RISAT (Radar Imaging Satellite)-1B, is a series of Indian radar imaging reconnaissance satellites built by ISRO. They provide all-weather surveillance using synthetic aperture radars (SAR).

The team had to revive a thruster used for roll control whose heaters had failed in 2004. The tubes of the backup thrusters currently in use are getting clogged and may fail this year.

The delicate operation required turning on the failed thruster and flipping a switch to enable its heater and 🤞

All very tricky and risky operations, performed from 23 light-hours away on 1970’s era hardware.

Via @AkaSci@fosstodon.org

Original post on mastodon