WEST COAST SPACEX FALCON 9 MISSION LAUNCHES 25 STARLINK SATELLITES - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Tuesday night. The rocket carryied another 25 satellites for its Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:29:49 p.m. PDT (12:29:49 a.m. EDT / 04:29:49 UTC). The Falcon 9 departed from the central California coast on a southerly trajectory, targeting an orbit of 258 x 246 km, with a 97-degree inclination. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 16)
AMAZON SIGNS $11.57 BILLION DEAL FOR SATELLITE FIRM GLOBALSTAR TO CHALLENGE MUSK'S STARLINK - Amazon said on Tuesday it would acquire Globalstar in an $11.57 billion deal, bolstering its fledgling satellite business as it looks to take on Elon Musk-led bigger rival Starlink. Shares of satellite company Globalstar were up more than 9% in premarket trading, after gaining over 6% in the past two weeks following media reports of the companies’ discussions. The stock had nearly doubled in value last year and has risen about 12% so far this year, before news of an acquisition emerged. Amazon shares rose about 1% on Tuesday. More (Source: NBC News - Apr 15)
HUGE NORTHROP GRUMMAN CYGNUS XL CARGO SHIP ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION - The S.S. Steven R. Nagel has arrived at the International Space Station. The second of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to the orbiting outpost, the vehicle was captured by the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm at 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT) on Monday (April 13). "Cygnus capture is complete," radioed Chris Williams, a NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 flight engineer, to Mission Control. "The S.S. Steven Nagel, welcome aboard the ISS!" More (Source: Space.com - Apr 15)
A WORST-CASE SOLAR STORM COULD KNOCK OUT SATELLITES, GPS AND POWER GRIDS, REPORT WARNS - For many of us, checking the weather is part of daily life. But, in an increasingly technology-dependent world, there is another kind of forecast we can't afford to ignore: space weather. Space weather refers to activity on the sun and how it affects Earth and the space around it, a complex, chaotic system scientists are working to understand, forecast and mitigate. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 14)
THE ISS RESUPPLY MACHINE: HOW NASA’S COMMERCIAL CARGO MODEL BECAME THE AGENCY’S QUIETEST SUCCESS STORY - In the shuttle era, delivering cargo to the International Space Station meant strapping supplies into a vehicle that cost roughly $1.7 billion per mission to fly, operated by a standing army of civil servants and contractors, and required years of processing between flights. Today, NASA pays around $200 million per mission under fixed-price commercial contracts, launches happen on reused rockets at a pace that barely registers in the news cycle, and the agency doesn’t have to build or operate the spacecraft at all. More (Source: Space Daily - Apr 14)
SPACEX LAUNCHES HUGE 'CYGNUS XL' CARGO SHIP CARRYING OVER 5 TONS OF SUPPLIES TO ISS ASTRONAUTS - SpaceX launched launch a massive cargo ship packed with over 5 tons of gear for astronauts on the International Space Station early Saturday (April 11), then aced a rocket landing minutes after the Florida liftoff. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared into a blue sky over Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:41 a.m. EDT (1141 GMT) on Saturday, sending Northrop Grumman's "Cygnus XL" resupply freighter toward the International Space Station (ISS). The mission, called NG-24, is Northrop Grumman's 24th resupply flight to the ISS for NASA. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 12)
CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES TEST SATELLITE FOR SATELLITE INTERNET TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT - China on Saturday launched a Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket from the sea, sending a test satellite into its planned orbit to promote satellite internet technology. The SD-3 rocket blasted off at 7:32 p.m. (Beijing Time) from waters off the coast of Yangjiang in south China's Guangdong Province. More (Source: Xinhua - Apr 12)
SPLASHDOWN! ARTEMIS 2 ASTRONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH AFTER HISTORIC NASA MISSION TO THE MOON - The four Artemis 2 astronauts splashed down off the coast of San Diego this evening (April 10), wrapping up an epic mission that broke spaceflight records, caught the attention of the world and set the stage for even more ambitious moonshots to come. "From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern-day mission to the moon, a new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. Integrity's astronauts are back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said just after splashdown, referring to the name of Artemis 2's Orion capsule. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 11)
NASA’S NORTHROP GRUMMAN CRS-24 MISSION TARGETS APRIL 11 LAUNCH AMID FULL STATION SCHEDULE - NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 7:41 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 11, for the next Cygnus XL and Falcon 9 launch opportunity to resupply the International Space Station. Teams adjusted the Friday, April 10, launch opportunity due to forecasted inclement weather at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. More (Source: NASA - Apr 10)
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