Top Stories
Milt Windler, Apollo 13 flight director, dies at 94
Milt Windler, one of four flight directors who managed the intense effort to bring Apollo 13’s crew home in 1970, passed away Thursday at the age of 94. Appointed in 1968, Windler was NASA’s seventh flight director and had previously worked on recovery operations during the Mercury and Gemini programs. He oversaw operations for Apollo 8’s first lunar orbit, as well as the Apollo 12, 14, and 15 lunar landings, and all three crewed Skylab missions.
Choosing the call sign “Maroon Flight,” Windler was among the first flight directors selected from outside the traditional operations team. His initial console mission was during Apollo 8, where he was responsible for the critical trans-lunar injection burn that sent astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit for the first time.
Read the full story: Ars Technica
Satellite of the Day
NAVSTAR 67 (USA 239) – NAVSTAR 67, the third GPS Block IIF satellite, launched 14 years ago on a Delta IV from Cape Canaveral and continues to operate beyond its 12-year design life.
Read the full feature: Satellite of the Day: NAVSTAR 67 (USA 239) or track NAVSTAR 67 (USA 239) live.
By the Numbers
- Active satellites tracked: 16,124
- Cataloged debris objects: 14,958
- New objects cataloged yesterday: 1
- Orbital launches this year: 238 (231 successful)
- Next launch: Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A in about 23 hours (Oct 5, 08:17 UTC)
Catalog Watch
Space-Track cataloged 1 new object in its latest daily accounting (2026-10-03), alongside 28,987 updated element sets.
New catalog entries: 100882.
Reentry Watch
- STARLINK-1797 (46698) – predicted decay Oct 4, 12:41 UTC, window ±2 h (track live)
- STARLINK-1856 (47143) – predicted decay Oct 5, 13:04 UTC, window ±14 h (track live)
- STARLINK-31495 (59313) – predicted decay Oct 5, 15:39 UTC, window ±9 h (track live)
- STARLINK-4386 (53649) – predicted decay Oct 5, 17:51 UTC, window ±8 h (track live)
- STARLINK-1433 (45711) – predicted decay Oct 5, 21:51 UTC, window ±11 h (track live)
Upcoming Space Launches
Next 48 Hours
- SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 – SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A from Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA (Oct 5, 08:17 UTC)
Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is part of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) constellation, designed to ensure reliable, low-latency military data and connectivity.
See every upcoming mission on the live schedule: Upcoming Launches
Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.
