Enlarge / Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit made its claim following multiple reports in recent days that Russian forces are using Starlink’s distinctive square-shaped terminals. (credit: Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

Russian forces are using Starlink terminals on the front line in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military, which said the adoption of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service by Moscow’s troops was becoming “systemic”.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit said on Telegram on Sunday that radio intercepts confirmed the use of Starlink terminals by Russian units operating in the occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

“Yes, there have been recorded cases of the Russian occupiers using these devices,” Andriy Yusov, a GUR officer, told RBC-Ukraine. “This is starting to take on a systemic nature.”

Enlarge / Firefly Aerospace's fourth Alpha rocket lifted off December 22 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (credit: Firefly Aerospace/Trevor Mahlmann )

Welcome to Edition 6.25 of the Rocket Report! We hope all our readers had a peaceful holiday break. While many of us were enjoying time off work, launch companies like SpaceX kept up the pace until the final days of 2023. Last year saw a record level of global launch activity, with 223 orbital launch attempts and 212 rockets successfully reaching orbit. Nearly half of these missions were by SpaceX.

As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Firefly's fourth launch puts payload in wrong orbit. The fourth flight of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket on December 22 placed a small Lockheed Martin technology demonstration satellite into a lower-than-planned orbit after lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. US military tracking data indicated the Alpha rocket released its payload into an elliptical orbit ranging between 215 and 523 kilometers in altitude, not the mission's intended circular target orbit. Firefly later confirmed the Alpha rocket's second stage, which was supposed to reignite about 50 minutes after liftoff, did not deliver Lockheed Martin's satellite into the proper orbit. This satellite, nicknamed Tantrum, was designed to test Lockheed Martin's new wideband Electronically Steerable Antenna technology to demonstrate faster on-orbit sensor calibration to deliver rapid capabilities to US military forces.

Enlarge / SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off Thursday night from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (credit: SpaceX )

It seems like SpaceX did everything this year but launch 100 times.

On Thursday night, the launch company sent two more rockets into orbit from Florida. One was a Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful rocket in commercial service, carrying the US military's X-37B spaceplane from a launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 8:07 pm EST (01:07 UTC). Less than three hours later, at 11:01 pm EST (04:01 UTC), SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 launcher took off a few miles to the south with a payload of 23 Starlink Internet satellites.

The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters and the Falcon 9's first stage landed back on Earth for reuse.

Enlarge / A Starlink satellite dish in Oriximiná, Brazil on August 9, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Tarcisio Schnaider)

The Starlink bug that locked some users out of their accounts last week was caused by overzealous fraud detection that falsely flagged legitimate accounts as fraudulent. Affected users yesterday received an email titled "False Positive Fraud Account Correction," but not everyone has been able to get back into their accounts yet.

"We had an account issue that led us to falsely flag your account as fraud. We are working to make this right and fix any account modifications over the last week," the email from the SpaceX-owned ISP said. "Please allow until the end of the week to see any account changes be reverted before filing a ticket. Next week, if you are still having an account issue, sign in to your account below to contact Customer Support."

As we previously reported , some customers received an email on November 9 saying their accounts had been reset and that "all pending orders and deposits have been refunded." The bug affected some new users who had ordered Starlink service but had not yet set up their dishes, making it hard for them to start the Internet service.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images )

Starlink's lack of traditional customer support options is making life difficult today for new users affected by a bug that reset their accounts. A bunch of customers received an email from no-reply@starlink.com last night that said, "Your Starlink Account Has Been Reset. All pending orders and deposits have been refunded. You are welcome to visit Starlink.com to place a new order at any time using the same email address."

One Ars reader who got the account-reset email contacted us about the problem, and many others are complaining in Reddit threads. Starlink's account-recovery page that allows users to request password resets with an email address or phone number hasn't been working for them.

"When I try to reset my password via the email option, I get the error 'User not found,'" we were told by Adam, a Starlink customer in Alabama who preferred that we not publish his last name. When Adam tried to reset his password by entering his phone number, he received a text message with a password-reset link. But that didn't work, either. "After I type in a new password, I get the error message 'User disabled,'" Adam told us.