SUCCESSFUL SOYUZ LAUNCH THRUSTS ONEWEB PAST HALFWAY MARK IN FLEET DEPLOYMENT - Another batch of 36 satellites for OneWeb’s internet network rode a Russian Soyuz launcher into orbit Thursday, giving the company more than half of the 648-spacecraft fleet it aims to deploy by the end of next year. The satellites, each about the size of a mini-refrigerator, blasted off at 5:4... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 16)
SHENZHOU 13 LAUNCHES FIRST LONG-DURATION CHINESE SPACE STATION CREW - After a successful launch to the new Chinese Space Station earlier this year and the initial 90-day “shakedown cruise” of the Shenzhou 12 crew, three taikonauts launched to the station aboard the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft to begin the first long-duration stay aboard. Shenzhou 13 launched atop a ... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 16)
VARDA SPACE SELECTS SPACEX FOR LAUNCH OF FIRST SPACE MANUFACTURING SATELLITE - Space manufacturing startup Varda Space will launch its first spacecraft on a Falcon 9 in early 2023 to demonstrate the ability to produce a wide range of materials in microgravity. Varda Space announced Oct. 11 it signed a launch services agreement with SpaceX for that smallsat, which will be pa... More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 12)
SECONDARY PAYLOADS LAUNCHED WITH LANDSAT BEGIN COMMISSIONING - Ground teams are stepping through testing of three small CubeSats launched with the Landsat 9 remote sensing satellite last month, preparing the small spacecraft for exoplanet observations and communications experiments. NASA says engineers have not established contact with another CubeSat designed ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 11)
ASTRONAUTS CHOOSE ‘ENDURANCE’ AS NAME FOR NEW SPACEX CREW CAPSULE - The astronauts who will ride SpaceX’s newest Dragon spaceship into orbit later this month said Thursday they named their spacecraft “Endurance” as a tribute to the human spirit and a historic sailing vessel used by Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. The new spacecraft, previously known b... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 11)
BOEING STARLINER TEST FLIGHT TO ISS PUSHED BACK TO 2022 - Boeing's Starliner spacecraft continues to have trouble making it to the International Space Station, with its uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 to the ISS now getting pushed into next year. The test is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which sees the space agency working with private companies l... More (Source: CNET - Oct 10)
CHINA ROLLS OUT ROCKET FOR ITS LONGEST CREW MISSION YET - China has rolled out a rocket to the pad to send three astronauts from the desert up to its new Tianhe space station core module, although the launch date remains a mystery. A 203-feet-high (62 meters) Long March 2F rocket was vertically transferred to the pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center i... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 9)
CHINESE PARTNERSHIP TO CREATE TIANXIAN SAR SATELLITE CONSTELLATION - A Chinese state-owned enterprise and a private firm are partnering to establish a 96-satellite SAR constellation, with the first launch set for February 2022. The 38th institute of the giant state-owned enterprise China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) will work with private satellite manufact... More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 9)
JAPANESE SATELLITE LAUNCH FACING WEEKS-LONG DELAY - The launch of a solid-fueled Japanese Epsilon rocket with nine small satellites, originally scheduled to blastoff last week, has been grounded until after the flight of a larger H-2A launcher later this month, Japan’s space agency said Friday. The Epsilon rocket was supposed to blast off Sept. ... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 9)
FORECASTING SPACE WEATHER IS HARD, BUT A NEW AUSTRALIAN SATELLITE COULD MAKE IT EASIER - The Australian-made space weather satellite CUAVA-1 was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station on Wednesday night. Launched to the space station in August aboard a SpaceX rocket, a major focus of this shoebox-sized CubeSat is to study what radiation from the Sun does to Earth's atm... More (Source: Phys.org - Oct 8)
SPACEX IS ADDING TWO MORE CREW DRAGONS TO ITS FLEET - SpaceX is about to double the size of its fleet of Crew Dragon spaceships. The company is debuting a new spacecraft for a NASA launch later this month, and is building a fourth human-rated capsule that should be ready for flight early next year, a SpaceX official said Wednesday. Sarah Walker, dir... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 8)
SES CEO THINKS SATELLITE INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION LIKELY - The chief executive of satellite operator SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment, but that the structure of the industry might hinder such deals. Speaking at the Satellite Innovation conference here Oct. 5, Steve Colla... More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 7)
LAUNCH OF 9 JAPANESE SATELLITES SCRUBBED DUE TO STRONG WINDS - Nine small Japanese satellites will have to wait a bit longer yet to reach orbit. An Epsilon rocket was scheduled to lift off from Japan's Uchinoura Space Center tonight (Oct. 6) at 8:51 p.m. EDT (0051 GMT on Oct. 7). However, strong upper-level winds caused launch managers to scrub for the day. ... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 7)
U.S. SPACE FORCE’S LATEST MISSILE WARNING SATELLITE IS READY FOR LAUNCH - Lockheed Martin says the sixth Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO-6) missile warning satellite is now in storage awaiting its expected launch in 2022. SBIRS GEO-6 is the second military space satellite built on Lockheed Martin’s modernized LM2100 Combat Bu — an enh... More (Source: defence-blog.com - Oct 6)
SOYUZ ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION FOR OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD FILM SHOOT - Chalking up a space first of sorts, a Russian actress, her director-cameraman and a veteran cosmonaut rocketed into orbit, chased down the International Space Station and successfully docked Tuesday, setting the stage for an out-of-this-world movie shoot. Wearing a bright red flight suit, Yulia P... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 6)
DID ASTRONOMERS SEE A DISTANT, DYING STAR? OR AN EARTH-BOUND SATELLITE? - Last year, astronomers caught a surprising flash of light from the most distant galaxy known — GN-z11, which existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. The team proposed, after ruling out other possibilities, that what they had seen was the fading afterglow of a dying star. The event would... More (Source: SkyandTelescope.com - Oct 5)
RUSSIA WILL LAUNCH A FILM CREW TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TUESDAY AND YOU CAN WATCH IT LIVE - A cosmonaut, a film director and an actor will launch on a mission Tuesday (Oct. 5) in part to film a movie on the International Space Station (ISS), and you can watch it live. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the three crewmembers will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4... More (Source: Space.com - Oct 5)
SOYUZ ROCKET ROLLS OUT FOR LAUNCH OF RUSSIAN FILM CREW - A Soyuz rocket rolled out to its launch pad in Kazakhstan Friday, ready to blast off Tuesday to the International Space Station with veteran Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild, and film director Klim Shipenko. The Soyuz-2.1a launcher, positioned on its side on a special ra... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 4)
ISRO’S COMMERCIAL ARM TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST DEMAND-BASED COMMUNICATION SATELLITE NEXT YEAR - NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the newly created commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will put together its first demand-based communication satellite for the satellite-based DTH television services provider Tata Sky. The GSAT-24, a 4,000 kg class Ku-band satellite wit... More (Source: The Indian Express - Oct 3)
