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Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Downlink/2026/April

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The Downlink The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
2026
1 — 30 April
Volume 4 — Issue 4
Spaceflight Project • Project discussion • Members • Assessment • Open tasks • Popular pages • The Downlink
In the News
  • Artemis II, the first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17, was launched on 1 April. During the lunar flyby, it became the furthest spaceflight in human history on the 6th. Integrity, the re-entry vehicle, splashed down southwest of San Diego on the 11th.
  • On 8 April, the first satellites of the Celeste (LEO-PNT) constellation began broadcasting navigation signals for the first time.
Featured Content

The image "STS-133 Space Shuttle Discovery after undocking" was promoted to Featured Media status on 30 April. It was nominated by Moonreach.

Article of the month

The Gallaudet Eleven were a group of eleven deaf men recruited in the late 1950s and 1960s to participate in a joint research program led by NASA and the U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine (later changed to Aerospace Medical Association) to study the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body. They were selected for participation in the study because damage they had sustained to the vestibular systems of their inner ears had granted them immunity to motion sickness, making them uniquely resilient to certain physical studies that would have made other test subjects nauseous.

Image of the month
Clayton Anderson under weightlessness

A demonstration of weightlessness by astronaut Clayton Anderson, particularly its effect on liquids. The water's surface tension keeps it in a sphere, which here results in the light reflecting off of Anderson being refracted in such a way that it appears upside-down. It is only upside-down relative to Anderson, as there is no "up" or "down" in a weightless environment beyond convention.

Members

New Members:

Number of active members: 225. Total number of members: 454.

April Launches
All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list .


  1. United StatesArgentinaSouth KoreaSaudi ArabiaGermany Space Launch System Block 1 — various, including Artemis II (1 Apr. at 22:35:12) (success)
  2. China Tianlong-3unknown (3 Apr. at 04:17:00) (launch failure)
  3. United States New GlennBlueBird 7 (19 Apr. at 11:25:00) (launch failure)
  4. United States Falcon 9 Block 5USA-585 (21 Apr. 06:53:00) (success)
Article Statistics
This data reflects values from 30 April 2026.

Monthly Changes

Since March 2026, there are one fewer Mid-importance, 28 more Low-importance, four more NA-importance, and 27 more Unknown-importance articles, for a total of 58 new articles. There are also one fewer GA-class, five more B-class, 33 more C-class, two fewer Start-class, 23 more Stub-class articles, and three more lists.

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Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space