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)
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)
