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NASA APOD:
3I/ATLAS Flyby
Attention grabbing interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS made its not-so-close flyby of our fair planet on December 19 at a distance of 1.8 astronomical units. That's about 900 light-seconds. This deep exposure captures the comet from another star system as it gently swept across a faint background of stars in the constellation Leo about 4 days earlier. Though faint, colors emphasized in the image data show off the comet's yellowish dust tail and bluish ion tail along with a greenish tinged coma. And even as it is scrutinized by arrays of telescopes and spacecraft from planet Earth, 3I/ATLAS is headed out of the Solar System. It's presently moving outward along a hyperbolic trajectory at about 64 kilometers per second relative to the Sun, too fast to be bound by the Sun's gravity.
The Launch Library:
Upcoming Launches You Don't Want to Miss
SatNet LEO Group 17
Launch Date:
12/25/2025, 11:26:00 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Long March 8A,
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Location:
Commercial LC-1,
Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China
Overview:
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.
The constellation will eventually consists of 13000 satellites.
Fengyun-4C
Launch Date:
12/26/2025, 4:09:00 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Long March 3B/E,
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Location:
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2),
Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Overview:
China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.
CSG-3
Launch Date:
12/28/2025, 2:08:00 AM
Launch Vehicle:
Falcon 9,
SpaceX
Location:
Space Launch Complex 4E,
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Overview:
CSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operating in the X-band.
AIST-2T 01 & 02
Launch Date:
12/28/2025, 1:18:05 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M,
Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)
Location:
Cosmodrome Site 1S,
Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation
Overview:
A pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, with maximum resolution of 1.2 m in panchromatic mode and a swath width of 32 km.
50 small satellites will also be launched as ride-share payloads, including 3 from Iran.
Unknown Payload
Launch Date:
12/29/2025, 6:30:00 AM
Launch Vehicle:
Smart Dragon 3,
China Rocket Co. Ltd.
Location:
Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship,
Haiyang Oriental Spaceport
Overview:
Possibly an Earth observation satellite for the Pakistan government's SUPARCO, details TBD.
SatNet LEO Group 17
Launch Date:
12/25/2025, 11:26:00 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Long March 8A,
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Location:
Commercial LC-1,
Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China
Overview:
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.
The constellation will eventually consists of 13000 satellites.
Fengyun-4C
Launch Date:
12/26/2025, 4:09:00 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Long March 3B/E,
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Location:
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2),
Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Overview:
China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.
CSG-3
Launch Date:
12/28/2025, 2:08:00 AM
Launch Vehicle:
Falcon 9,
SpaceX
Location:
Space Launch Complex 4E,
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Overview:
CSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operating in the X-band.
AIST-2T 01 & 02
Launch Date:
12/28/2025, 1:18:05 PM
Launch Vehicle:
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M,
Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)
Location:
Cosmodrome Site 1S,
Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation
Overview:
A pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, with maximum resolution of 1.2 m in panchromatic mode and a swath width of 32 km.
50 small satellites will also be launched as ride-share payloads, including 3 from Iran.
Unknown Payload
Launch Date:
12/29/2025, 6:30:00 AM
Launch Vehicle:
Smart Dragon 3,
China Rocket Co. Ltd.
Location:
Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship,
Haiyang Oriental Spaceport
Overview:
Possibly an Earth observation satellite for the Pakistan government's SUPARCO, details TBD.
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!
