A UNIQUE NASA SATELLITE IS FALLING OUT OF ORBIT—THIS TEAM IS TRYING TO RESCUE IT - One of NASA’s oldest astronomy missions, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, has been out of action for more than a month as scientists await the arrival of a pioneering robotic rescue mission. The 21-year-old spacecraft is falling out of orbit, and NASA officials believe it’s worth saving—for the right price. Swift is not a flagship astronomy mission like Hubble or Webb, so there’s no talk of sending astronauts or spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a rescue expedition. More (Source: Ars Technica - Mar 24)
PROGRESS CARGO CRAFT LAUNCHES TO RESUPPLY STATION CREW - The unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 94 spacecraft is safely in orbit and headed to the International Space Station following its launch at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Baikonur time) on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Following launch, one of the Progress spacecraft’s two KURS automated rendezvous antennas did not deploy as planned. All other systems are operating as designed, and Progress will continue toward its planned docking at 9:34 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, to the space-facing port of the station’s Poisk module. More (Source: NASA - Mar 24)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 29 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched a mid-morning flight of its Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, its 37th launch of the year. The Starlink 10-62 mission features 29 of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites, which were deployed into low Earth orbit about an hour after liftoff. Launch took place at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40, with the Falcon 9 rocket flying on a northeasterly trajectory upon leaving the pad. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 23)
'THIS IS REALLY INTOLERABLE': ASTRONOMERS PROTEST GIANT ORBITING MIRROR PROJECT AND SPACEX'S MILLION AI SATELLITES - Astronomers are up in arms, protesting against a proposed constellation of tens of thousands of orbiting mirrors intended to reflect light onto ground-based solar power plants and SpaceX's envisioned one million orbiting data centers. The projects, which have been put forward to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval, would destroy the night sky as we know it and obscure the views of astronomical telescopes all over the world, hampering scientific progress, according to experts. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 23)
RUSSIAN CARGO SPACECRAFT SUFFERS GLITCH AFTER LAUNCHING TOWARD INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian cargo spacecraft encountered a problem shortly after launching toward the International Space Station on Sunday morning (March 22), but it should be able to power through. A Soyuz rocket topped with the robotic Progress 94 freighter lifted off from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday at 7:59 a.m. EDT (1159 GMT; 4:59 p.m. local Baikonur time). More (Source: Space.com - Mar 23)
SPACE JUNK IS CLUTTERING EARTH'S LOW ORBIT WITH HIGH-VELOCITY PROJECTILES AND IT'S GETTING WORSE - The galaxy stretches out as a hazy band across a dark south-eastern Australian night sky. All is still, apart from the steady blinking of a high-altitude jet plane. A "star" appears to streak across the sky, then another, then another … dozens in a row. All along the same path. The "stars" are newly released Starlink satellites before they spread out to their final positions. More (Source: ABC News - Mar 23)
ESA TO PURCHASE SPACEX CREW DRAGON MISSION TO ISS - The European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher announced on 19 March that the agency intends to purchase a dedicated SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for its astronauts. In November 2022, ESA announced its newest class of five career astronauts. Under the current barter agreement with NASA, ESA has secured long-duration missions to the ISS for just two of the five, namely Sophie Adenot, who is currently aboard the station, and Raphaël Liégeois, who is still awaiting a crew assignment. With the ISS set to be decommissioned in 2030 and deorbited soon after, ESA is unlikely to secure additional long-duration missions to the station before its retirement. More (Source: European Spaceflight - Mar 23)
US SPACE FORCE MOVES GPS LAUNCH TO SPACEX FALCON 9 DUE TO VULCAN ROCKET GLITCH - The U.S. Space Force has swapped rockets for an upcoming GPS satellite launch. Next month's GPS III-8 mission had been slated to fly atop United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. But Vulcan has experienced issues with its solid rocket boosters (SRBs), so the Space Force is moving the GPS spacecraft onto a SpaceX Falcon 9. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 22)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES PRIVATE JAPANESE 'STRIX' SATELLITE - Rocket Lab launched an Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company Synspective on Friday (March 20). An Electron rocket topped with one of Synspective's Strix satellites lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Friday at 2:10 p.m. EDT (1810 GMT; 7:10 a.m. on March 21 local New Zealand time), on a mission called "Eight Days a Week." More (Source: Space.com - Mar 21)
Next
