UK’s SatVu secures multi-million ESA contract to power climate and security intelligence – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2025-07-08 00:00
SatVu awarded a contract worth up to €3 million by the European Space Agency (ESA) to supply advanced thermal data to the Copernicus Contributing Mission (CCM) program. Agreement marks the first Category 1 CCM contract for a UK company and was officially announced at the Living Planet Symposium in Vienna.
SpaceX’s Monday launch from Cape of Starlink Group 10-28 now on Tuesday – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2025-07-07 00:00
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, July 8 for a Falcon 9 launch of 28 Starlink smallsats to low-Earth orbit to join the Starlink constellation. The Falcon 9 first stage will attempt to land on ASDS ASOG after its flight. This will be the 22nd flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06 and 14 Starlink missions.
PLD Space preselected by ESA for the European Launcher Challenge – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2025-07-07 00:00
PLD Space has been preselected by the European Space Agency to participate in the European Launcher Challenge. The ELC is the largest European program aimed at fostering new sovereign launch capabilities on the continent. The final selection of companies will be announced at ESA’s Ministerial Conference to be held in Bremen this November.
Forrester’s Digest: Starlink de-orbits 472 satellites – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2025-07-07 00:00
Starlink has over 8,000 satellites in orbit, but they have an orbital life of around five years. The first batch of 60 operational craft were launched in May 2019. In the six month period from December 2024 to May 2025, SpaceX has de-orbited 472 craft, at a rate of 2.6 craft per day.
Himawari meteorological satellites measure temperature changes on Venus
Original Publication Date: 2025-07-06 20:48
Japanese Himawari 8 and Himawari 9 Earth observation satellites were launched in 2014 and 2016. Using infrared imaging data collected over a 10-year period from 2015 to 2025, the team estimated brightness temperatures on day-to-year scales. Results revealed temporal changes in Venus’ cloud-top temperatures, as well as previously unseen patterns in the planet’s atmospheric temperature structure.