CARGO DRAGON DOCKS AT SPACE STATION - Closing out an automated 18-hour rendezvous, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship loaded with 7,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, including two add-on roll-out solar blankets, caught up with the International Space Station early Tuesday and moved in for a problem-free docking. Flying through orbital da... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 7)
GALILEO SECOND GENERATION ENTERS FULL DEVELOPMENT PHASE - Galileo Second Generation will be made up of two independent families of satellites meeting the same performance requirements, produced by Thales Alenia Space in Italy and Airbus Defence and Space in Germany. ESA Director of Navigation, Javier Benedicto, invited Thales Alenia Space (Italy), Airbu... More (Source: SatNews - Jun 6)
MOMENTUS SECURES SECOND PICOSATELLITE TRANSPORTATION DEAL WITH APOGEO SPACE - Space infrastructure services company Momentus secured a contract with Italy’s Apogeo Space to provide orbital transportation services for nine of Apogeo’s IoT constellation picosatellites. The deal, announced Monday, represents the second nine-satellite batch Momentus that will deliver for A... More (Source: Via Satellite - Jun 6)
WATCH SPACEX DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE DOCK WITH SPACE STATION EARLY TUESDAY - A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule will arrive at the International Space Station early Tuesday morning (June 6), and you can watch the action live. The robotic Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Monday (June 5) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It's schedule to dock at the sp... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 6)
SPACEX LAUNCH SENDS UPGRADED SOLAR ARRAYS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX’s 28th resupply mission to the International Space Station lifted off Monday from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying new solar arrays, fresh food, and experiments to sustain research and upgrade the power system on the orbiting laboratory. Liftoff of the Cargo Dragon spacecraft aboard a ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 6)
MORE SECOND-GEN STARLINK SATELLITES LAUNCH ON FALCON 9 ROCKET - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Sunday morning with 22 upgraded Starlink internet satellites, but officials called off a second Falcon 9 launch later in the day due to high winds in the booster’s offshore recovery area. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket took off... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 5)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH DRAGON CARGO MISSION TO SPACE STATION SUNDAY AFTER ONE-DAY DELAY - SpaceX will launch its 28th cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA Sunday (June 4) after a one-day weather delay and you can watch the action live. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled to launch a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the orbiting lab Sunday at 12:12 p.m. ED... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 4)
CHINA'S SHENZHOU 15 SPACE CAPSULE LANDS SAFELY, 3 ASTRONAUTS HOME AFTER MONTHS ON TIANGONG STATION - Three Chinese astronauts are safely back on Earth after a smooth weekend landing to end a six-month mission to the country's Tiangong space station. Shenzhou 15 mission commander Fei Junlong and crewmates Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu returned to Earth at 6:34 a.m. Beijing Time on Sunday, June 4 (6:... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 4)
LOADED WITH SCIENCE, SUPPLIES, SPACEX FREIGHTER READY FOR LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - A freighter carrying solar panels to boost the International Space Station's electrical reserves for scientific activities, equipment to collect data on solar storms and the thawing of Earth's arctic permafrost is ready for launch to the International Space Station on Saturday. If the weather coo... More (Source: UPI - Jun 3)
THIRD SET OF UPGRADED SOLAR ARRAYS READY FOR RIDE TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Two more roll-out solar arrays will ride a SpaceX cargo ship to the International Space Station this weekend, continuing a years-long mid-life station upgrade as NASA plans procurement of a final set of new solar wings to fully reinforce the lab’s power supply. The two solar array wings are rol... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)
JAPAN HAS A WILD IDEA TO LAUNCH A SATELLITE MADE OF WOOD IN 2024 - A team of researchers want to put a wooden satellite into orbit. It's not as outrageous as you might think. Results from a recent test aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which exposed different woods to the vacuum of space, have been confirmed by the project's research team at Kyoto Un... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 2)
NORTH KOREA VOWS TO PUT SPY SATELLITE IN ORBIT SOON AFTER FAILED LAUNCH - North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, said her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and promised Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. The remarks by Kim, a powerful ruling party official, ca... More (Source: Reuters - Jun 2)
BOEING MISSION TO SEND NASA ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION FACES MORE LENGTHY DELAYS - More lengthy delays could be in store for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Boeing had been working toward a late July launch of the first crewed Starliner test flight. ... More (Source: CNN - Jun 2)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 52 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET ON SHIP AT SEA - SpaceX launched 52 more of its Starlink broadband satellites early Wednesday morning (May 31) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the 52 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday at 2:02 a.m. EDT (0602 GMT... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 1)
SPACEX MISSION RETURNS FROM SPACE STATION WITH EX-NASA ASTRONAUT, 3 PAYING CUSTOMERS - A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Florida, late Tuesday. The Crew Dragon capsule was seen as it streaked across the southeastern U.S. and made a sonic boom before it splashed into the water. The nighttime return capped a nine-day mi... More (Source: NPR - Jun 1)
NORTH KOREA SAYS SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH CRASHED INTO SEA - Pyongyang announced earlier it planned to launch a satellite by 11 June to monitor US military activities. It now says it will attempt a second launch as soon as possible. The launch sparked a false alarm in the South Korean capital Seoul, while in Japan a warning was issued to residents of Ok... More (Source: BBC News - May 31)
SHENZHOU-16 ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT CHINA’S SPACE STATION - A crew of three astronauts including the first Chinese civilian astronaut has arrived at the Tiangong space station. A Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 9:31 p.m. Eastern May 29. Rendezvous and dockin... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 31)
CHINESE ASTRONAUT LAUNCH BREAKS RECORD FOR MOST PEOPLE IN ORBIT - The launch of the next crew to China’s Tiangong space station late Monday (U.S. time) added three astronauts to the population of humans in space, which reached a record number of 17 people in orbit — six Chinese citizens, five Americans, three Russians, two Saudis, and one Emirati astronaut. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 30)
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)
