SPACEX DRAGON CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT ISS WITH LASER EXPERIMENT AND MORE - A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrived at the International Space Station early Saturday (Nov. 11) carrying tons of fresh supplies for the orbiting lab's astronaut crew. SpaceX launched the robotic Dragon resupply ship atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday evening... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES MORE THAN A HUNDRED PAYLOADS ON FALCON 9 MISSION FROM VANDENBERG - For the fourth time in 2023, SpaceX launched a smallsat rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of payloads. The Transporter-9 mission lifted of at the opening of a 55-minute window at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX said the launch ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)
ASTRONAUTS DROPPED A TOOL BAG DURING AN ISS SPACEWALK, AND YOU CAN SEE IT WITH BINOCULARS - Some astronomy targets are less celestial in nature than others. Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth. The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara the sli... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 12)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH 90 PAYLOADS ON TRANSPORTER-9 FALCON 9 MISSION FROM VANDENBERG - For the fourth time in 2023, SpaceX will launch a smallsat rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of payloads. The Transporter-9 mission is set to launch during a 55-minute window starting at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX said the... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 11)
LONG MARCH 3B LAUNCHES CHINASAT-6E COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - China sent its ChinaSat-6E communications satellite toward geostationary orbit Thursday with a launch from Xichang spaceport. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off into the night sky above Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:23 a.m. Eastern (1123 UTC), Nov. 9. The China Aerospace Science and Technol... More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 10)
SPACEX WILL LAUNCH IRELAND'S 1ST-EVER SATELLITE THIS MONTH - Ireland is all set to see its first-ever satellite reach orbit. The Educational Irish Research Satellite 1, or EIRSAT-1, was built by University College Dublin students as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Academy's Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) program. The gamma-ray astronomy cubesat proje... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 29TH CARGO MISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX's 29th robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station successfully lifted off on Thursday (Nov. 9). The CRS-29 Dragon launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 8:28 p.m. EST (0128 GMT on Nov. 10). The Falcon's first stage made a s... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 10)
CAPITOL HILL BUDGET BATTLE MAY LIMIT INITIAL FUNDING OF SOME NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE LAUNCH MISSIONS - The U.S. Space Systems Command revealed the details of its latest batch of launch contracts for national security missions shared between United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. This marks the fifth and final year of the Phase 2 National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Service Task Order awards has been ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 9)
GERMAN SATELLITE WILL USE AI TO DETECT ANOMALIES ON ASTEROIDS AND PLANETS - A German satellite that will test new AI technologies in orbit for automatic detection of anomalies on planets and asteroids is set for launch. Despite its ambitious mission, the so-called SONATE-2 is a six-unit cubesat, a type of nanosatellite that’s no bigger than a shoebox. It was designed a... More (Source: TheNextWeb - Nov 9)
NOAA-21 SATELLITE IS NOW OPERATIONAL - It’s official: NOAA-21, the latest satellite in NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System, is operational. The satellite joins its predecessors, Suomi NPP and NOAA-20, each circling the globe 14 times a day, providing a continuous stream of data to improve the accuracy of NOAA’s 3–7 day forecas... More (Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Nov 9)
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH SEVENTH X-37B MISSION - The Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in partnership with the United States Space Force, is scheduled to launch the seventh mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Dec. 7, 2023 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy ro... More (Source: United States Space Force - Nov 8)
SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 80TH ORBITAL MISSION OF THE YEAR - SpaceX has had a successful launch yet again. A Falcon 9 rocket lofted 23 more of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday (Nov. 8) at 12:05 a.m EST (0505 GMT). t was the 11th launch and landing for this rocket's first stage, according to... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 8)
SOUTH KOREA PLANS TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST MILITARY SPY SATELLITE ON NOV. 30 - South Korea said Monday it plans to launch its first domestically built spy satellite at the end of this month to better monitor rival North Korea, which is expanding its arsenal of nuclear weapons. The plan was unveiled days after North Korea failed to follow through on a vow to make a third att... More (Source: Military.com - Nov 8)
EU FINE-TUNES PLAN TO LAUNCH GALILEO SATELLITES ON SPACEX - The European Union has struck a tentative deal to launch four Galileo navigation satellites using Falcon 9 rockets of U.S.-based SpaceX, European officials said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of pressure caused by a gap in European launch capacity. The agreement spans two launches pencilled in fo... More (Source: Reuters - Nov 8)
JAPANESE SCIENTISTS WANT TO SEND A WOODEN SATELLITE INTO SPACE - Aluminum rockets and steel skyscrapers; slick high-speed shuttles and glassy facades: that’s how “the future” has been imagined for decades. But that’s not what Koji Murata imagines. A researcher at Kyoto University in Japan, Murata has been exploring how biological materials could be use... More (Source: CNN - Nov 8)
LEOLABS DATA SHOWS ON-ORBIT MANEUVERS BY RUSSIAN SATELLITES - The space tracking firm LeoLabs over the past year tracked two Russian satellites performing rendezvous and proximity operations. These satellites — Resurs-P3 and Cosmos-2562 — conducted maneuvers that offer a glimpse of the potential hazards that U.S. and allied spacecraft could face in low Ear... More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 7)
CHINA LAUNCHES MYSTERY SATELLITE ON LONG MARCH 7A ROCKET - China launched what it describes as an experimental communications technology satellite late last week. A Long March 7A rocket lifted off from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 10:54 a.m. EDT (1454 GMT, or 10:54 p.m. Beijing Time) on Friday (Nov. 3). The payload was revealed to be T... More (Source: Space.com - Nov 7)
SPACEWALK SNAFU: ASTRONAUTS LOSE TOOL BAG IN ORBITAL OOPSY - NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara concluded their spacewalk today at 2:47 p.m. EST after 6 hours and 42 minutes. Their spacewalk began at 8:05 a.m. Moghbeli, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), was wearing a suit with red stripes. O’Hara, designated extravehicular crew ... More (Source: scitechdaily.com - Nov 6)
TWO KOREAS RACE TO LAUNCH FIRST HOMEGROWN MILITARY SPY SATELLITES - In a high-stakes race, South and North Korea are vying for success in launching their first homegrown military spy satellites, backed respectively by the United States and Russia, as a pivotal initiative aimed at enhancing their military capabilities. The South Korean military is set to launch it... More (Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20231105000108 - Nov 6)
