CHINA LAUNCHES 3 ASTRONAUTS TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION ON SHENZHOU 16 SPACECRAFT - A new crew of three astronauts is on its way to China's Tiangong space station. A Long March 2F rocket launched the Shenzhou 16 crew spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (May 29) at 9:31 p.m. EDT (0131 GMT; 9:31 p.m. local time on May 30). Spacecraft separ... More (Source: Space.com - May 30)
NORTH KOREA NOTIFIES NEIGHBORING JAPAN IT PLANS TO LAUNCH SATELLITE IN COMING DAYS - North Korea on Monday notified neighboring Japan that it plans to launch a satellite in coming days, which may be an attempt to put its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he ordered Japan’s Self Defense Force to shoot down the satellite or ... More (Source: ABC News - May 30)
SPACEX ROCKET SENDS ARABSAT COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - SpaceX kicked off Memorial Day weekend with an overnight launch Saturday from Cape Canaveral, boosting a nearly five-ton communications satellite into orbit for Arabsat, a multinational consortium providing TV and video broadcast services across the Middle East. SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt e... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 30)
SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY TO LAUNCH 13 SATELLITES IN LATE JUNE - The Space Development Agency is preparing to launch at least 13 satellites in late June, the agency’s director Derek Tournear said May 26. This will be SDA’s second launch of Tranche 0 satellites for its proliferated low Earth orbit constellation. Tranche 0 is a 28-satellite demonstration... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 30)
RUSSIA’S PROGRESS MS-23 RESUPPLY MISSION ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION - Roscosmos launched its Progress MS-23 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Wednesday. Liftoff, atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, occurred 12:56 UTC (6:56 p.m. local time), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It docked without issue a few hours later. Progress MS-23 is the latest in a ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 27)
SOUTH KOREA SAYS HOMEGROWN SPACE ROCKET PUT SATELLITES INTO ORBIT - South Korea's domestically made space rocket delivered a commercial grade satellite into orbit for the first time on Thursday, the country's science minister said, a breakthrough in its ambitions to compete in a space race with its Asian neighbours. The Nuri rocket lifted off from Naro Space Cent... More (Source: Reuters - May 26)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 2 TINY NASA HURRICANE-WATCHING PROBES TO ORBIT - The second set of NASA's TROPICS cubesats launched on Thursday night (May 25), completing the agency's hurricane-studying miniconstellation. The two tiny satellites lifted off atop a Rocket Lab Electron vehicle from the company's Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's North Island on Thursday at 11:46... More (Source: Space.com - May 26)
RUSSIAN SUPPLY SHIP LAUNCHES TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Russia’s Progress MS-23 cargo freighter launched Wednesday from Kazakhstan on a mission hauling more than 2.7 tons of fuel, food, experiments, and supplies to the International Space Station. The Progress MS-23 supply ship lifted off at 8:56:07 a.m. EDT (1256:07 UTC) from the Site 31 launch com... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 25)
VIRGIN ORBIT TO CEASE OPERATIONS, SELL ASSETS OF RICHARD BRANSON'S SATELLITE LAUNCHER - Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is shutting down less than two months after the satellite launch start-up filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a Tuesday company announcement. Virgin Orbit will cease operations and sell its assets to four winning bidders, the company announced... More (Source: ABC News - May 25)
ARABSAT 7B TO BE SLC-40’S QUICKEST TURNAROUND - SpaceX is set to launch the Arabsat 7B satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for Arabsat atop its Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is currently scheduled for May 23 at 11:25 PM EDT (03:25 UTC on May 24) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 24)
ORBITAL SIDEKICK ACQUIRES FIRST LIGHT IMAGERY - Hyperspectral startup Orbital Sidekick is acquiring imagery from its first two satellites launched in April on the SpaceX Transporter-7 rideshare flight. “We recently acquired first light, which was very exciting,” Katie Corcoran, OSK vice president of government affairs, said May 22 at the G... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 24)
THE SPACEPORT COMPANY DEMONSTRATES OFFSHORE LAUNCH OPERATIONS - Two companies have demonstrated the ability to conduct launches from a floating platform in U.S. territorial waters, a concept that could help address congestion at terrestrial launch sites. The Spaceport Company announced May 23 it hosted four sounding rocket launches by Evolution Space on May 2... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 24)
AXIOM’S SECOND PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION DOCKS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Four commercial space fliers who launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Axiom’s second private astronaut mission Sunday arrived at the International Space Station on a SpaceX crew capsule Monday to start an eight-day stay full of scientific experiments, student outreach events, and sightse... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 23)
CHINA LAUNCHES "MACAO SCIENCE 1" SPACE EXPLORATION SATELLITES - China successfully sent two satellites of "Macao Science 1," a space exploration program, into space on Sunday. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said that the satellites were launched at 4:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) by a Long March-2C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Cen... More (Source: China Military - May 22)
ICEYE TO SUPPLY UAE SAR SATELLITES - Finland-based Iceye announced an agreement May 17 to develop a five-satellite constellation for Bayanat, a United Arab Emirates geospatial analysis firm, and Emirati fleet operator Yahsat. The first Iceye-built Emirati synthetic aperture radar satellites is scheduled to launch in the first quarte... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 22)
TWO AMERICANS, TWO SAUDIS LAUNCH ON COMMERCIAL ASTRONAUT MISSION - Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, with more time in space than any other American, rocketed back into orbit for the fourth time Sunday, riding a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher from Florida with a fare-paying investor and private pilot, and the first two Saudi Arabian astronauts to fly to the Internatio... More (Source: SpoaceFlight Now - May 22)
SPACEX LAUNCHES ONEWEB GEN 2 TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR - SpaceX launched a technology demonstration satellite for OneWeb’s second-generation broadband constellation May 20, along with spares for the British firm’s current low Earth orbit (LEO) network and another that U.S.-based Iridium Communications operates. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a total 21... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 21)
AXIOM’S SECOND CREW MISSION HAS NARROW WINDOW FOR LAUNCH - The second fully commercial astronaut flight to the International Space Station will have just two opportunities to launch Sunday and Monday, or else wait until after an upcoming SpaceX resupply mission next month to deliver a new set of high-priority solar arrays to the complex. The private crew... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 21)
SPACE FORCE DELIVERS SECOND U.S. PAYLOAD TO BE HOSTED ON JAPANESE SATELLITE - The U.S. Space Force announced May 17 it has delivered the second of two payloads to be hosted on Japanese satellites under an agreement the United States signed with Japan in 2020. The two U.S. payloads are optical sensors developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. They will be hosted on Japan’s ge... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 20)
