CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE INTO SPACE - China on Sunday launched a Long March-4C rocket, placing a satellite in space. The rocket blasted off at 7:43 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China and sent the satellite Shiyan-23 into preset orbit. The satellite will mainly be used for space environment monitoring. It was the 522nd flight mission of the Long March series rockets.   More
(Source: - May 13)

NASA POWER OUTAGE TEMPORARILY HALTS CONTACT WITH SPACE STATION - A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Space station program manager Joel Montelbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage.   More
(Source: MSN - May 13)

MUSK'S STARLINK SATELLITES DISRUPTED BY MAJOR SOLAR STORM - Starlink, the satellite arm of Elon Musk's SpaceX, warned on Saturday of a "degraded service" as the Earth is battered by the biggest geomagnetic storm due to solar activity in two decades. Starlink owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet. Musk said earlier in a post on X that Starlink satellites were under a lot of pressure due to the geomagnetic storm, but were holding up so far.   More
(Source: Reuters - May 12)

SPACEX FLIES 13 MORE DIRECT TO CELL STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VANDENBERG SFB - After a 24 hour mission delay, SpaceX was able to launch the Starlink 8-2 mission from the company’s West Coast launch pad. The launch followed a successful launch from Florida’s Space Coast earlier Wednesday. In total, there were 20 Starlink satellites onboard the launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) Thursday night. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 9:30 p.m. PDT (12:30 a.m. EDT, 0430 UTC). The launch time was pushed back multiple times Wednesday and SpaceX did not give a reason for delaying a day.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 10)

CHINA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST MEDIUM EARTH ORBIT BROADBAND SATELLITES - China launched the first satellites for a medium Earth orbit broadband constellation late Wednesday. A Long March 3B lifted off at 9:43 p.m. Eastern May 8 (0143 UTC May 9) from the inland Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed launch success, revealing the mission payloads for the first time to be the Smart Skynet-1 (01) satellites A and B.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 10)

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT: HOW BAD ARE SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATIONS FOR ASTRONOMY? - Over the past few years, our planet has become increasingly encircled by Starlink, OneWeb and other "megaconstellation" satellites. Yes, the emergence of those megaconstellations offers great benefits for humanity. But in a wait-a-minute pause, there are also substantial costs, including a growing imposition on astronomy. That's the view of David Koplow, the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 10)

SPACEX BREAKS SPACE SHUTTLE PAD RECORD WITH FALCON 9 STARLINK MISSION - With a Wednesday afternoon launch, SpaceX’s Falcon family of rockets exceeded the total number of Space Shuttle missions from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The combination of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket launches passed the total number of shuttle flights seen at that pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 8)

ATLAS 5 VALVE REPAIR WILL DELAY STARLINER’S FIRST CREWED MISSION TO MAY 17 AT THE EARLIEST - Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is going to have a wait a bit longer before its first astronaut mission can take place. Following the decision to scrub the Crew Flight Test mission about two hours prior to liftoff, teams with United Launch Alliance (ULA), Boeing and NASA concluded that more work was needed to prepare the Atlas 5 to launch. In order to do that, the rocket will need to be rolled back to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Space Launch Complex 41. The anticipated timeline for the work will push the launch back to no earlier than May 17, according to NASA. The new liftoff time is now 6:16 p.m. EDT (2016 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 8)

STARLINER LAUNCH SCRUBBED BY TROUBLE WITH A VALVE IN THE ATLAS 5’S CENTAUR UPPER STAGE - In a blog post early Tuesday, NASA said launch of Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship will be delayed until at least Friday “to complete data analysis on a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the Atlas 54 rocket‘s Centaur upper stage and determine whether it is necessary to replace the valve.” If the analysis concludes it’s safe to launch the Atlas 5 as is, NASA, Boeing and Atlas 5-builder United Launch Alliance could recycle for a second attempt at 9 p.m. EDT Friday. If the valve has to be replaced, the rocket would have to be hauled back to ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility for repairs, delaying another launch attempt to Sunday or later next week.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 7)

Previous Next