BOEING'S STARLINER CAPSULE ON TRACK TO LAUNCH ON OFT-2 MISSION TO SPACE STATION MAY 19 - Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule remains on target for its crucial May 19 test launch, company representatives and NASA officials said. Starliner was supposed to lift off on an uncrewed mission to the International Space Station called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) in August 2021. But standard ... More (Source: Space.com - May 4)
CHINA LAYS OUT BIG PLANS FOR ITS NEW TIANGONG SPACE STATION - China will launch six major missions before the end of the year to complete its Tiangong space station, which space officials say could soon link up with a powerful telescope and host commercial activities and international astronauts. The details were revealed during an April 17 press conference... More (Source: Space.com - May 4)
NEW RUSSIAN ROCKET LAUNCHES MILITARY SATELLITE ON 1ST MISSION - A lightweight member of Russia's Angara rocket family launched its first orbital mission last week, sending a military payload aloft, according to reports. The Angara 1.2 rocket launched on April 29 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which is roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, according t... More (Source: Space.com - May 4)
ROCKET LAB MAKES FIRST BOOSTER CATCH ATTEMPT DURING SUCCESSFUL THERE AND BACK AGAIN MISSION - After announcing plans to recover and reuse the first stage of the company’s Electron rocket back in 2019, the California-based rocket company has attempted a mid-air recovery for the very first time. After a successful mid-air catch, the recovery helicopter pilot noticed different load characteri... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 3)
U.S. TO RAMP UP SPENDING ON CLASSIFIED COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES - The U.S. Space Force plans to request nearly $8 billion over the next five years to scale up development of classified communications satellite networks, according to DoD budget documents. The projected funding is for two geostationary orbit constellations: one for military tactical communication... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 2)
CHINA JUST LAUNCHED A ROCKET WITH 5 SATELLITES TO ORBIT FROM A PLATFORM AT SEA - hina launched five satellites into orbit on a rocket that lifted from a platform at sea on Saturday (April 30), setting a new distance record for the country's offshore launches. A Long March 11 solid-fueled rocket successfully launched from ocean platform in the East China Sea to deliver its pay... More (Source: Space.com - May 2)
SPACEX JUST FLEW ITS FASTEST DRAGON ASTRONAUT TRIP TO THE SPACE STATION EVER - SpaceX just set a new record for its fastest Dragon astronaut trip yet. Elon Musk's spaceflight company launched four Crew-4 astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in less than 16 hours on Wednesday (April 27), the shortest flight time since SpaceX began crewed flights in 2020. ... More (Source: Space.com - May 1)
RUSSIA WILL QUIT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OVER SANCTIONS - The head of Russia’s space program said Moscow will pull out of the International Space Station, state media reported, a move it has blamed on sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly,” Tass and RIA Novo... More (Source: Bloomberg - May 1)
ROCKET LAB WAITING FOR ‘IDEAL’ WEATHER BEFORE LAUNCH AND RECOVERY ATTEMPT - Rocket Lab called off the planned launch and recovery of an Electron booster Friday, preferring to wait for better wind and cloud cover conditions a few days from now. The next opportunity to launch the mission from New Zealand is Monday. “We don’t usually give mother nature quite so much pow... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 1)
SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW MISSILES BEING LOADED ONTO RUSSIAN SUBMARINE. DOLPHIN PENS, TOO. - A sharp-eyed satellite spotted missiles being loaded onto a Russian submarine on Friday (April 29). A new photo captured by Maxar Technologies' WorldView-2 spacecraft shows what appear to be Kalibr missiles sitting next to a docked Kilo-class submarine in Sevastopol, an important Black Sea port i... More (Source: Space.com - May 1)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 BOOSTER FOR SECOND TIME IN THREE WEEKS - SpaceX continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days. The mission Friday — designed Starlink 4-16 — was be the 151st launch of a Falcon 9 ro... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 1)
ARABSAT ORDERS FIRST FULLY SOFTWARE-DEFINED SATELLITE - Saudi Arabian fleet operator Arabsat has ordered its first fully software-defined geostationary satellite to provide flexible coverage across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. The company said April 29 it signed a contract for Arabsat 7A with Europe’s Thales Alenia Space, which will... More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 30)
RUSSIA PUTS MILITARY SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - International Desk, Apr 30 (EFE).- Russia on Saturday successfully put into orbit a military satellite launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Archangelsk Region. The official Tass agency said the Russian Aerospace Forces launched the Angara-1.2 light rocket with a military satellite from th... More (Source: - Apr 30)
VYOMA IS THE LATEST PLAYER SEEKING TO PREVENT SATELLITE COLLISIONS WITH SPACE JUNK - As you might’ve heard, it’s getting a little crowded in space, between thousand-satellite constellations à la SpaceX’s Starlink and the millions of pieces of space junk accumulated from decades of launches. But it’s also getting a little crowded in the space-monitoring space, with a number ... More (Source: TechCrunch - Apr 30)
ISS AND CHINA'S SPACE STATION PHOTOBOMB IMAGE OF 4 PLANETS ALIGNED IN THE SKY - The International Space Station and China's space station photobombed a four-planet line-up in the early morning sky for Italian astrophysicist Gianluca Masi. "While looking at the night sky is always amazing, sometimes the experience exceeds our expectations," Masi, who is the founder of the Vir... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 30)
PRIVATE ASTRONAUT JUST BACK FROM SPACE STATION DESCRIBES INTERACTIONS WITH RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS - It didn’t take long for the crew of the first all-private mission to the International Space Station to experience the unique dependency that US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts share in orbit. “We had one day when the toilet was down for a couple hours,” Larry Connor, the pilot of Axiom ... More (Source: CNN - Apr 30)
RUSSIAN SPACEWALKERS ‘FLEX’ SPACE STATION’S ROBOTIC ARM - Two Russian cosmonauts gave the International Space Station’s new robotic arm a bit of a workout on Thursday. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev exited the space station at 10:58 a.m. ET to begin their spacewalk, which lasted for seven hours and 42 minutes. It ended at 6:40 p.m.... More (Source: CNN - Apr 29)
FOUR ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT SPACE STATION FOR LONG-TERM STAY - Three Americans and one Italian astronaut floated into the International Space Station late Wednesday after a nearly 16-hour commute aboard a SpaceX crew capsule from a launch pad in Florida, ready for multi-month expedition performing experiments, maintenance, and upgrades. SpaceX’s fourth ope... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 28)
UK'S INMARSAT CHIEF WARNS OF POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SATELLITE BOOM - British satellite company Inmarsat warned on Tuesday of dangerous levels of space debris from satellite constellations planned by Elon Musk's Starlink, Amazon, Chinese operators and others. Inmarsat Chief Executive Rajeev Suri welcomed innovation in satellite constellations in low orbit but added... More (Source: India Today - Apr 28)
