SPACE FORCE AIMS TO LAUNCH 1ST 'FOO FIGHTER' SATELLITES IN 2027 TO TRACK HYPERSONIC THREATS - The United States Space Force has ordered the first satellites for an upcoming advanced missile defense constellation. The Space Development Agency (SDA), an agency within the U.S. Space Force tasked with developing new, disruptive space technologies, awarded $414 million to California-based Millennium Space Systems, Inc. to build eight satellites for its upcoming Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter program, also known as F2 or FOO Fighter. More (Source: Space.com - May 15)
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW WHAT THE HISTORIC GEOMAGNETIC STORM LOOKED LIKE FROM SPACE - Millions of Americans looked to the night sky and snapped magical photos and videos of the northern lights this weekend during the momentous geomagnetic storm. But cameras were also trained on the storm from space, capturing phantasmal monochromatic shots from the sun's electromagnetic radiation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) released eight satellite images of the storm on Tuesday, photographed by the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) fleet early Saturday. More (Source: CBS News - May 15)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 50TH FALCON 9 ROCKET OF 2024 ON STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX continues to expand its Starlink constellation that offer Direct to Cell capability through its Falcon 9 launch on Tuesday. There were 13 Direct to Cell-capable Starlink satellites among the 20 that launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 11:39 a.m. PDT (2:39 p.m. EDT, 1839 UTC). This was the 16th launch from VSFB this year, more than half of the total number of launches from Vandenberg in 2023. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 15)
TINY SATELLITES CAN PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION ABOUT SPACE - CubeSats are satellites constructed of cubic units, or U, a bit smaller than a square tissue box, or about 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) on each side. (A 2U CubeSat, for instance, is about the size of a rectangular tissue box.) Initially developed two decades ago as an inexpensive platform for students to learn about satellite development, CubeSats weren't thought of as devices for collecting valuable data. More (Source: Phys.org - May 14)
SPACEX STARLINK SATELLITES DOING JUST FINE AFTER WEEKEND SOLAR STORM, COMPANY SAYS - SpaceX's Starlink fleet survived solar storms over the weekend. Starlink broadband satellites, which number nearly 6,000 in orbit, all came through after intense solar activity sparked auroras and other signs of space weather across the world, including unusually far into the southern United States. "All Starlink satellites on-orbit weathered the geomagnetic storm and remain healthy," SpaceX officials wrote Sunday (May 12) on a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. More (Source: Space.com - May 14)
NASA TO LAUNCH WEATHER OBSERVING SATELLITE IN JUNE - Next month, NASA will launch NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellite to help improve weather observing and environmental monitoring capabilities on Earth, as well as advance space weather observations. NASA said that the GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from its Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25. More (Source: RTTNews - May 14)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA - SpaceX launched 23 more of its Starlink satellites on Sunday (May 12), adding to its huge and ever-growing broadband megaconstellation. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:53 p.m. EDT (0053 GMT on May 13). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about 8 minutes after launch, touching down on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: Space.com - May 13)
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)
Next
