SEIZED PROPERTY AT BAIKONUR THREATENS SOYUZ-5 PROGRAM - In early March 2023, reports began to circulate that Kazakhstan had seized the property of Roscosmos at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This has raised questions regarding launch operations from the spaceport, including important crew and cargo logistics flights for the International Space Station (ISS). ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 1)
VIRGIN ORBIT LAYS OFF MOST EMPLOYEES - Virgin Orbit announced late March 30 it was laying off the vast majority of its employees after failing to raise additional funding, putting the launch company’s future in jeopardy. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Virgin Orbit announced it was laying off approximately 675 employ... More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 1)
SPACEX ABORTS LAUNCH WITH INITIAL SATELLITES FOR SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY - SpaceX is now scheduled to launch a batch of 10 communications and missile tracking satellites on the Tranche 0 Flight 1 mission for the Space Development Agency (SDA) on Friday, March 31, 2023, at approximately 7:29 AM PDT (14:29 UTC). A first attempt on Thursday was aborted at T-3 seconds. The ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 31)
FIRST LAUNCH FOR PENTAGON’S OWN MEGA-CONSTELLATION SET FOR THURSDAY - The U.S. military’s Space Development Agency, established in 2019 to fast-track new national security capabilities in orbit, plans to launch the first 10 satellites for a constellation of hundreds of missile tracking and data relay spacecraft Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 30)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 56 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET AT SEA - SpaceX launched another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea today (March 29). A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 56 Starlink satellites lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 G... More (Source: Space.com - Mar 30)
ISRAEL LAUNCHES NEW OFEK-13 SPY SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Israel successfully launched the “Ofek-13” spy satellite into space early Wednesday morning, the Defense Ministry said. The satellite, the latest in a line of Israeli observation assets in space, will provide the military with better-quality images than its predecessors. “The ‘Ofek-13... More (Source: The Times of Israel - Mar 30)
ASTRONAUT SULTAN ALNEYADI SEES 16 SUNSETS DAILY ON THE SPACE STATION. HOW WILL HE OBSERVE RAMADAN - For centuries, a setting sun has signaled the end of fasting rituals on holidays such as Ramadan and Yom Kippur, a cue to tuck into a delicious meal after a full day of abstaining from food and drink. But what if the sun’s clockwork were to suddenly change, as it does for astronauts riding aboard ... More (Source: CNN - Mar 29)
LEAKY SOYUZ SPACECRAFT AT SPACE STATION RETURNS TO EARTH IN SPEEDY LANDING - A Soyuz space capsule that suffered a major coolant leak in December departed the International Space Station without a crew early Tuesday (March 28) to return to Earth for engineers to study. The leaky Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft cast off from its docking port on the Russian-built Rassvet module of t... More (Source: Space.com - Mar 29)
DAMAGED SOYUZ MS-22 CRAFT PREPARES TO COME HOME UNCREWED - The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, which launched Expedition 68 crewmembers Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and NASA’s Frank Rubio on Sept. 21, 2022, is preparing to come back to Earth in automated mode after suffering a leak in a coolant loop last December.... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 28)
SPACEX’S STARLINK AND OTHER SATELLITE INTERNET PROVIDERS ARE MAKING LIGHT POLLUTION WORSE FOR ASTRONOMERS - The swift rise of internet satellites, forming megaconstellations, and accumulating space junk are already starting to mess with astronomers’ research. The problem is growing exponentially, scientists warn in a series of papers published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy. And they want regu... More (Source: The Verge - Mar 27)
CANADA AGREES TO ISS EXTENSION TO 2030 - The Canadian government formally committed March 24 to an extension of the International Space Station to 2030, joining other Western partners but not Russia. As part of a summit meeting in Ottawa between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden, the two governments confirme... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 26)
LVM-3 PUTS 36 ONEWEB SATELLITES IN ORBIT, FIRM COMPLETES LEO CONSTELLATION - Isro on Sunday successfully launched 36 satellites of Bharti-backed OneWeb enabling the completion of the UK firm’s first generation (Gen-1) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation into space.The GSLV-Mk2 or LVM3 took off smoothly at 9am as scheduled and completed the nearly 20-minute launch sequence ... More (Source: Times of India - Mar 26)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES BLACKSKY SATELLITES - Rocket Lab launched a pair of BlackSky imaging satellites March 24 on a launch that was also a test of its ability to recover and reuse boosters. The Electron rocket lifted off at 5:14 a.m. Eastern from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Weather postponed the launch two days, while ... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 25)
RUSSIA’S SOYUZ-2.1A LAUNCHES BARS-M RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE - Making its first military launch since November, Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket has deployed Kosmos 2567 – likely a Bars-M reconnaissance satellite – into Sun-synchronous orbit. Soyuz lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 9:40 AM Moscow Time (06:40 UTC), taking around ten minutes to complete ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 25)
FALCON 9 DEPLOYS 56 STARLINK SATELLITES ON SPACEX’S 20TH LAUNCH OF THE YEAR - SpaceX continued launching satellites for the Starlink internet network Friday, sending a Falcon 9 rocket aloft from Cape Canaveral with 56 more older-generation broadband spacecraft as ground teams troubleshoot problems with a batch of upgraded Starlinks launched last month. The 56 satellites we... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)
SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCH SET FOR FRIDAY FROM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION - SpaceX is targeting Friday, March 24, at 11:33 a.m. ET for a Falcon 9 launch of 56 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.... More (Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Mar 24)
SPACEX PAUSING LAUNCHES OF NEW-GENERATION STARLINK SATELLITES - SpaceX’s next two missions will revert to launching older versions of the company’s Starlink internet satellites, instead of new second-generation Starlink platforms as originally planned, while ground teams work out unspecified problems with the first batch of upgraded Starlinks launched in Feb... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)
ROCKET LAB TO LAUNCH BLACKSKY SATS, TEST ELECTRON OCEAN RECOVERY - After successfully conducting back-to-back flights from their recently-inaugurated US launch site, Rocket Lab is returning to New Zealand for its second mission in March. Liftoff of “The Beat Goes On” mission is currently scheduled to take place no earlier than Friday, March 24 at 8:45 PM NZDT (... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 24)
NASA WARNS OF “DEVASTATING” IMPACTS OF POTENTIAL BUDGET CUTS - NASA Administrator Bill Nelson claims proposed spending reductions for fiscal year 2024 could have “devastating and potentially unrecoverable” effects on NASA programs, delaying or canceling many missions. In a March 19 letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Approp... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 24)
