Global spaceflight updates connected to traceable sources and structured space entities.
ESA plans for the JUICE spacecraft to fly past Earth on September 28 at a closest distance of about 8,640 kilometres. The gravity assist is expected to bend the trajectory by roughly 20 degrees and add about 3.5 kilometres per second.
ESA says the second Meteosat Third Generation imager, MTG-I2, has reached geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometres above Earth and was handed over to EUMETSAT on September 8 for the next phase of commissioning.
ESA confirmed that BepiColombo separated its Mercury Transfer Module on September 3 and that ground stations received confirmation. The manoeuvre ended the cruise stage's eight-year role and began the spacecraft's Mercury-arrival sequence.
ESA's FLEX and Sentinel-3C satellites launched together on Vega-C on September 15. Both spacecraft were deployed and acquired, beginning missions focused on vegetation fluorescence and sustained observations of oceans, land, ice, and the atmosphere.
A new Hubble image of NGC 4698, about 55 million light-years away, shows a central bulge extending nearly perpendicular to the outer disk. Stars and gas near the centre also rotate differently from the rest of the galaxy.
NASA and Katalyst Space say the LINK spacecraft will no longer attempt to capture and raise the orbit of the Swift observatory because of an ongoing attitude-control issue, though rendezvous and proximity operations are still planned.
Parker Solar Probe completed its 29th close approach to the Sun on September 4 and returned a normal-system beacon on September 7. The pass again matched the mission's record distance of about 3.8 million miles and speed of about 430,000 miles per hour.
JAXA and the Japan Meteorological Agency announced that AMSR3 microwave-radiometer observations from the GOSAT-GW satellite would enter operational numerical weather prediction on September 8, supporting analyses of sea-surface temperature, water vapour, clouds, precipitation, and sea ice.