Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Downlink

THE DOWNLINK
Main page   Discussion   Issues   Mailing list   Parent project Welcome to The Downlink, a project to distribute a monthly newsletter to members of WikiProject Spaceflight to keep them up to date with developments within the project and with its associated articles. The Downlink can be delivered to a users talk page in an opt-in basis. If you wish to receive the newsletter, please add your username to the mailing list. To unsubscribe, just remove your username from the mailing list. The Downlink members Feel free to add your name to this list in alphabetical order if you would like to join the project. Also, if you like, you could add {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Downlink/Userbox}} to your user page. Anshuman~Potu~Tipu (talk · contribs) Benison (talk · contribs) frozenprakash (talk · contribs) Itsfullofstars (talk · contribs) Ninney (talk · contribs) XFalcon2004x (talk · contribs) Rafaelthegreat (talk · contribs) StarshipSLS (talk · contribs) Ships&Space (talk · contribs) Current Issue Previous issues of The Downlink can be found at the issues tab above or at: Category:WikiProject Spaceflight newsletters. The Downlink is currently being updated monthly. The most recent version is published below: ⭠ Previous Issue ⭣ Newsletter Page ⭣ The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter 2026 1 — 31 May Volume 4 — Issue 5 Spaceflight Project • Project discussion • Members • Assessment • Open tasks • Popular pages • The Downlink In the News On 15 May, NASA's Psyche flew 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) above the surface of Mars while performing a gravity assist. SMILE was launched on 19 May. A joint mission of ESA and CAS, SMILE aims to study the effects of solar wind on Earth's magnetosphere. On 22 May, Starship flight test 12 was performed. This was the first use of both the Block 3 and Starbase's second launch pad. The ICARUS Initiative launched the first of its ICARUS 2.0 constellation's satellites on 3 May. The satellite, named RAVEN, was constructed by EnduroSat, and is built to track animal migrations. Article of the month Polyus (spacecraft) Polyus on the Energia rocket The Polyus spacecraft (Russian: Полюс, pole), also known as Polus, Skif-DM, GRAU index 17F19DM, was a prototype Soviet orbital weapons platform designed to destroy Strategic Defense Initiative satellites with a megawatt carbon-dioxide laser. It had a Functional Cargo Block derived from a TKS spacecraft to control its orbit and it could launch test targets to demonstrate the fire control system. Image of the month Integrated Truss Structure of the ISS This graphic is an exploded view of the Integrated Truss Structure, the long segment that has the ISS' distinctive solar panels. The first piece, Z1, was installed in October 2000, while the most recent addition, S6, being installed in October 2007; the current configuration of the ITS dates to June 2023. In addition to providing electricity via the solar panels, the ITS is the location of energy storage, with battery assemblies on the P4/6 and S4/6 segments. These each consist of 24 lithium-ion batteries, for a total of 96 batteries. Members New Members: ThePrehistoricBlob12345 (19 May) RockyKT (21 May) A Random Hylian (21 May) Analemnas (26 May) The Boat Boy (31 May) Doeze (31 May) Number of active members: 230. Total number of members: 460. May Launches All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here. Zhuque-2E — Dingzhihua Shiyan Zaihe (14 May at 03:00:00) (success) Vega C — SMILE Article Statistics This data reflects values from 31 May 2026. Spaceflight articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FA 6 30 15 8 59 FL 3 4 4 11 FM 124 124 A 1 2 1 4 GA 12 26 34 58 3 133 B 17 78 197 245 8 545 C 42 171 617 904 1 76 1,811 Start 15 133 1,025 2,731 510 4,414 Stub 5 192 1,975 340 2,512 List 11 117 112 244 1 50 535 Category 1,281 1,281 Disambig 47 47 File 276 276 Portal 55 55 Project 108 108 Redirect 2 43 144 1,258 1,447 Template 534 534 NA 1 1 Other 1 47 48 Assessed 104 565 2,241 6,315 3,733 987 13,945 Unassessed 6 113 119 Total 104 565 2,241 6,321 3,733 1,100 14,064 Monthly Changes Since April 2026, there are one fewer Top-importance, two fewer High-importance, eight more Mid-importance, 17 more Low-importance, two more NA-importance, and twenty more Unknown-importance articles, for a total of 44 new articles. There are also five more B-class, eleven more C-class, six more Start-class, 18 more Stub-class articles, and one more list. Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list. Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space The next issue has not yet been created. You can create it here.