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NASA APOD:
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured deep image is a digital combination of images taken in different colors over 58 hours with a telescope from Lijiang, China. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51's spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with the smaller galaxy just above it.
The Space News API (SNAPI):
Trending News
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The Launch Library:
Upcoming Launches You Don't Want to Miss
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Rocket: Long March 8A (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)
Pad: Commercial LC-1
Location: Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China
Launch Time: Jan 13, 2026, 3:45 PM
Details TBD.
Starlink Group 6-98
Rocket: Falcon 9 (SpaceX)
Pad: Space Launch Complex 40
Location: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Launch Time: Jan 14, 2026, 6:01 PM
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
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Rocket: Long March 3B/E (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)
Pad: Launch Complex 3 (LC-3/LA-1)
Location: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Launch Time: Jan 15, 2026, 4:00 PM
Details TBD.
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Rocket: Ceres-1S (Galactic Energy)
Pad: Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship
Location: Haiyang Oriental Spaceport
Launch Time: Jan 15, 2026, 7:30 PM
Details TBD.
Flight Two
Rocket: Spectrum (Isar Aerospace)
Pad: Orbital Launch Pad
Location: Andøya Spaceport
Launch Time: Jan 17, 2026, 12:00 AM
Second test flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle, carrying several cubesats as part of the European Space Agency's “Boost!” program.
Demo Flight
Rocket: Ceres-2 (Galactic Energy)
Pad: Launch Area 95A
Location: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Launch Time: Jan 17, 2026, 4:05 AM
First test launch of Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket.
API Data brought to you by The Space Devs
Space Industry & Godot (2022):
Help wanted: LunCo Space
Recently, I was invited to join the team at LunCo where we plan to create a space simulation game that features industry real world applications. While similar to games like Kerbal Space and No Man's Sky, LunCo will be feature two game styles - digital twin mode for engineers, and story mode for casual enthusiasts. We also plan to allow user generated content (space crafts, trajectories, factories, etc.) and integration with professional tools like CAD, FEA, MBSE, and more.
For story mode, you are playing as a CEO & Founder of a Lunar exploration company in the near future. You will collect resources, build factories, and manufacture robots to create a sustainable lunar base. From there, it's up to you to turn the Moon into a stepping stone and launch past the stars!
Rocket Lab Special Event (2021):
Rocket Lab ($RKLB) goes public
On Wednesday, August 25th of 2021, Rocket Lab began trading on the Nasdaq, becoming the latest space company to close a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and go public. They closed the first day down slightly at $10.45 per share, under the ticker $RKLB.
“We are super excited to bring a high-quality space asset to the market” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told CNBC. “I don’t think it will take long for investors to differentiate between the company that’s consistently delivering and the ones that have aspirations to deliver sometime in the future” he later added.
Astra Special Event (2021):
Astra ($ASTR) goes public
On Wednesday, June 30th of 2021, Astra became the first launch company to be traded publicly on NASDAQ. Trading under the ticker $ASTR, with shares previously listed under the special purpose acquisition company Holicity, the announcement expects to bring in around $500 million in proceeds. Astra's idea is to use the funding to continue to develop their rockets - with a goal of launching as many of it's 40ft tall rockets as it can, aiming to launch one per day by 2025.
“Now we have a space company that everyone can invest in on the public markets,” Astra CEO Chris Kemp told CNBC. “The same kinds of things you do to make a rocket great are the same behaviors that you have to invest in to make a company great. You don’t want any inefficiencies.”
About Rocket Downrange
Breaking boundaries, setting standards and transforming humanity for the better. Space has always been the final frontier that keeps on giving. This site serves to be a side project that informs and inspires the next generation of explorers.
Rocket Downrange is an independent hobby project by a guy learning Vue. No endorsements or partnerships exist between Rocket Downrange and the included organizations.
Contact Rocket Downrange
If you love the site or think something needs changed - we want to know! Questions, comments, suggestions and more can be sent below. If you know of any free and interesting API's we should include in the site - include information about where to find necessary documentation and we'll get to it!
