CHINA’S SPACE STATION EMERGES AS COMPETITOR TO COMMERCIAL VENTURES - Companies involved with commercial activities on the International Space Station or planning their own space stations may face a new competitor in China’s new space station. During a presentation at the ISS Research and Development Conference Aug. 4, Jeff Manber, chief executive of Nanoracks, s... More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 8)
NASA, RUSSIA STRESS THAT SPACE PARTNERSHIP REMAINS STRONG AFTER NAUKA INCIDENT AT SPACE STATION - Following a serious incident at the International Space Station last Thursday (July 29), Russia and the U.S. have reaffirmed their partnership and shared next steps to move forward. On Thursday, Russia's long-awaited Nauka research module docked with the orbiting lab. But the new module soon hit... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 8)
GALILEO G2 NAVIGATION PAYLOADS BEGIN TESTING - Testing on Galileo’s second-generation hardware has begun. Test versions of the satellites’ navigation payloads is undergoing evaluation by Airbus Defence and Space at its Ottobrunn facility in Germany and by Thales Alenia Space at the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) ESTEC technical centr... More (Source: GPS World magazine - Aug 8)
SPACEX AND A CANADIAN STARTUP PLAN TO LAUNCH A SATELLITE THAT WILL BEAM ADVERTS INTO SPACE. ANYONE CAN BUY PIXELS ON THE SATELLITE'S SCREEN WITH DOGECOIN. - It's not just rockets, satellites, and billionaires that are flying to space — advertising is too. Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC), a Canadian startup that provides technology services, exclusively told Insider that it's making space advertising possible with the help of SpaceX. ... More (Source: Business Insider - Aug 8)
NASA IS COUNTING DOWN TO THE NEXT ROCKET LAUNCH FROM WALLOPS ISLAND. HERE'S WHERE YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO SPOT IT. - If the weather cooperates, eastern Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic coast will see another Antares rocket streak into space on Tuesday. The launch from Wallops Island will carry an uncrewed cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. When is it taking off? The target time for launch is 5:56 p.... More (Source: Richmond.com - Aug 8)
KEEPING UP BUSY LAUNCH SCHEDULE, CHINA LAUNCHES MILITARY TELECOM SATELLITE - China launched a communications satellite likely designed for use by the Chinese military Thursday, keeping up a busy schedule of space missions with the country’s fourth orbital launch attempt in barely a week. The launch Thursday occurred at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT), marking China’s 28th o... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 8)
ROCKET STARTUP ASTRA TO LAUNCH SATELLITE FOR US SPACE FORCE THIS MONTH - The small-launch startup Astra will get a satellite to orbit for the first time this month, if all goes according to plan. The U.S. Space Force has booked two missions with Astra, the Bay Area company announced today (Aug. 5). The first flight will launch a test payload for the Department of Defe... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 6)
NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR NEXT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CARGO LAUNCH - NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting 5:56 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 10, for the company’s 16th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Live coverage of the launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, will air on NASA Television, the N... More (Source: NASA - Aug 5)
STARBASE SURGE SEES SPACEX SPEED AHEAD WITH BOOSTER 4 AND SHIP 20 - In a marked increase to the already-impressive production cadence at SpaceX Starbase, it’s all hands on deck with Booster 4 and Ship 20 preparations ahead of the duo meeting at the launch site. Booster 4 was stacked on Sunday, with all 29 Raptors installed by Monday morning. It then rolled to the ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 5)
GOES-17 SATELLITE BOUNCES BACK FROM GLITCH WHILE MONITORING CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES - A weather satellite has recovered from a brief anomaly and is back to studying Earth and its ongoing wildfires. GOES-17 (Geostationary Orbital Environmental Satellite 17), an Earth-monitoring satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), suffered an anomaly on... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 4)
CHINESE COMMERCIAL LAUNCHER FAILS DURING CLIMB TO ORBIT - The launch of a solid-fueled rocket developed by the Chinese commercial space firm iSpace failed Tuesday, the second launch failure in three orbital attempts by the startup company, Chinese state media said. A Hyperbola 1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base at 3:39 a.m. EDT (0739 GMT; ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 4)
LAUNCH OF BOEING CREW CAPSULE SCRUBBED DUE TO PROPULSION SYSTEM ISSUE - Officials scrubbed the planned launch of a Boeing-built crew capsule Tuesday to examine a potential technical issue in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, delaying the start of a critical unpiloted test flight to prove the ship is ready to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Bo... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
SPACE STATION SITUATION WITH RUSSIAN MODULE MISFIRE MORE SERIOUS THAN STATED: REPORT - Last week, a Russian module accidentally pushed the International Space Station out of place. Now, a NASA flight director has revealed that the event was more serious than NASA initially reported. On Thursday (July 29) morning, Russia's long-awaited research module Nauka docked with the space st... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 3)
BOEING CREW CAPSULE SET FOR LAUNCH TUESDAY ON TEST FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION - An Atlas 5 rocket was hauled back to its seaside firing stand Monday for launch Tuesday on a flight to boost Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit for a second unpiloted test to prove the commercial ferry ship is ready to carry astronauts. The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 is scheduled fo... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
SSTV TRANSMISSIONS SCHEDULED FROM ISS - Friday and Saturday, August 6 – 7, Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will transmit slow-scan television (SSTV) images from the station on 145.800 MHz FM. They will use SSTV mode PD-120. The transmissions are part of the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment (MAI-... More (Source: ARRL - Aug 2)
AST SPACEMOBILE TO LAUNCH DEMO SATELLITE WITH SPACEX - AST SpaceMobile, the company building the first space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones, has signed an agreement with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. for the launch of its next prototype spacecraft, BlueWalker 3. BlueWalker 3 is expected to launch... More (Source: SatelliteProME.com - Aug 2)
CHINA LAUNCHES TIANHUI I-04 SATELLITE(1/4) - A Long March-2D rocket carrying the Tianhui I-04 satellite blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, July 29, 2021. China successfully launched the Tianhui I-04 satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at noon on Thursday. The satellite was ... More (Source: - Aug 1)
WHO'S GOING TO FIX THE SPACE JUNK PROBLEM? - There are over 20,000 known and tracked pieces of space debris orbiting Earth, each one traveling at about 15,000 mph (24,000 km/h). They pose a risk to future space missions, and nobody is bothering to clean it up. Why? Because it's too hard. In the early 1960s, the U.S. military wanted to devis... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 1)
ARIANE 5 ROCKET LAUNCHES TWO GEOSTATIONARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES - A European Ariane 5 rocket launched from French Guiana Friday, succeeding on its first flight in nearly a year to deploy a pair of geostationary communications satellites for commercial operators in Brazil and France. The launch was a key test of the Ariane 5 rocket ahead of a flight later this y... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 31)
