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)
RELATIVITY’S 3D-PRINTED TERRAN 1 ROCKET REACHES SPACE, BUT FALLS SHORT OF ORBIT - Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket reached space after lifting off from Cape Canaveral Wednesday night, but a failure on the upper stage prevented the launch from reaching orbit. Relativity Space, a company with ambitions to develop a fully reusable rocket, tried Wednesday night to launch its fir... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 23)
SPACEX EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH FIRST UPGRADED STARLINK V2 SATELLITES - The first set of larger second-generation Starlink satellites is experiencing problems that could require SpaceX to deorbit at least some of them. In a March 22 tweet, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said there were “some issues” with the set of Starlink satellites launched Feb. 27, confirmi... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 23)
BOEING DELIVERS FIRST VIASAT-3 SATELLITE AHEAD OF LAUNCH - Boeing delivered the first ViaSat-3 satellite to Viasat ahead of its upcoming launch, the company announced Monday. The satellite, a 702MP+ model, is the most powerful the manufacturer has ever built. The satellite was flown from Boeing’s factory in Florida to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Bo... More (Source: Via Satellite - Mar 22)
ASTRONOMERS SOUND ALARM ABOUT SATELLITES' LIGHT POLLUTION - Astronomers on Monday warned that the light pollution created by the soaring number of satellites orbiting Earth poses an "unprecedented global threat to nature." The number of satellites in low Earth orbit has more than doubled since 2019, when U.S. company SpaceX launched the first "mega-conste... More (Source: VOA News - Mar 22)
ARKISYS AND PARTNERS TO SHOW HOW THEY WOULD BUILD A SATELLITE IN ORBIT - The U.S. Space Force awarded a $1.6 million contract to a team led by Southern California startup Arkisys to demonstrate robotic satellite assembly. Under a SpaceWERX Small Business Innovation Research contract, Arkisys, Novawurks, Motiv Space Systems, Qediq, iBoss and Texas A&M University will d... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 22)
NASA CLIMATE CHANGE SATELLITE BACK ONLINE AFTER INSTRUMENT SHUTDOWN - A multi-agency mission seeking to map Earth's water in incredible detail is back on track with commissioning following an instrument issue. NASA and the French space agency (CNES) found a solution to turn on the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite's main science instrument. The in... More (Source: Space.com - Mar 22)
INDUSTRY SEES MISSED OPPORTUNITY IN DEORBITING ISS - NASA’s plan to spend up to $1 billion on a tug to deorbit the International Space Station is a missed opportunity to instead repurpose or recycle the station, some in industry argue. NASA announced plans as part of its fiscal year 2024 budget proposal this month to develop the tug to help deorb... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 21)
RUSSIA’S SPACE PROGRAM IS IN BIG TROUBLE - Crippled by war and sanctions, Russia now faces evidence that its already-struggling space program is falling apart. In the past three months alone, Roscosmos has scrambled to resolve two alarming incidents. First, one of its formerly dependable Soyuz spacecraft sprang a coolant leak. Then the same ... More (Source: WIRED - Mar 21)
NASA ATMOSPHERIC SATELLITE ENDS RUN 16 YEARS AFTER LAUNCH - In 2007, NASA launched a satellite with a very specific mission into orbit. The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere project — otherwise known as AIM — was designed to monitor night shining clouds. This type of atmospheric phenomenon is of particular interest to scientists because it may not have e... More (Source: InsideHook - Mar 20)
CHINA TO LAUNCH LOBSTER EYE-LIKE X-RAY ASTRONOMICAL SATELLITE THIS YEAR - China has ambitious plans to launch a new X-ray astronomical satellite called the Einstein Probe (EP) at the end of this year. This is according to a report by the ChinaDaily published on Saturday and quoting Yuan Weimin, principal investigator of the satellite project.... More (Source: Interesting Engineering - Mar 20)
