TAURUS-1 WITH CODEC-2 TRANSPONDER LAUNCHED - Taurus-1 (Jinniuzuo-1) carrying an amateur radio FM to Codec-2 transponder was launched on a CZ-4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Thursday, September 12 at 0326 GMT. Taurus-1 is a CubeSat project developed by Aerospace System Engineering Research Institute of Shanghai for youth education and amateur radio.   More
(Source: AMSAT-UK - Sep 15)

CHINA LAUNCHES EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITES, SOLAR SAIL EXPERIMENT - Two Earth-imaging satellites and an experimental solar sail payload rocketed into orbit Thursday aboard a Chinese Long March 4B launcher, the first flight for China’s Long March 4 rocket family since an upper stage failure in May. The liquid-fueled Long March 4B rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province at 0326 GMT Thursday (11:26 p.m. EDT Wednesday), according to state media reports.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 15)

RELATIVITY SPACE TO LAUNCH SATELLITES FOR MOMENTUS - Relativity Space signed a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) to launch Momentus’ small and medium satellite customers on Relativity’s Terran 1 rocket. Momentus will then deliver their customers’ small and medium sized satellites to Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) using the Momentus Vigoride Extended in-space shuttle service.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Sep 14)

BIGELOW’S B330 – AN AUTONOMOUS, EXPANDABLE INDEPENDENT EXPLORATION SPACE STATION - While Bigelow Aerospace’s expandable module, BEAM, continues to perform above all expectations while attached to the International Space Station (ISS), the company has larger ambitions for its range of modules, centered around the B330 – a huge inflatable module. The key focus is on attracting NASA to select B330 as a transportation module for long-duration trips to Mars. Bigelow already has a wealth of experience in space, ranging back to the days of its Genesis modules that tested the technology that has matured into their latest designs.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 14)

FIRST EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE WITH AI READY FOR LAUNCH - A few months from now will see the launch of the first European satellite to demonstrate how onboard artificial intelligence can improve the efficiency of sending Earth observation data back to Earth. Dubbed ɸ-Sat, or PhiSat, this revolutionary artificial intelligence technology will fly on one of the two CubeSats that make up the FSSCat mission—a Copernicus Masters winning idea. As the overall 2017 Copernicus Masters winner, FSSCat, was proposed by Spain's Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and developed by a consortium of European companies and institutes.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Sep 13)

SPACEX SAYS IT WILL DEPLOY SATELLITE BROADBAND ACROSS US FASTER THAN EXPECTED - SpaceX says it plans to change its satellite launch strategy in a way that will speed up deployment of its Starlink broadband service and has set a new goal of providing broadband in the Southern United States late next year. In a filing on August 30, SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to "adjust the orbital spacing of its satellites." With this change, each SpaceX launch would deploy satellites in "three different orbital planes" instead of just one, "accelerating the process of deploying satellites covering a wider service area."   More
(Source: Ars Technica - Sep 13)

GOES-13 GETS DRAFTED? - On the afternoon of Sunday, September 8, 2019, I was leisurely monitoring deep space when I noted an S-band signal that shouldn’t have been where it was if all was normal with the GEO belt world… GOES-15 presently lives at 128W and GOES-17 at 137W, so what was a GOES N,O,P series spacecraft doing in between them? A quick check of Space-Track.org data revealed it was GOES-13. But why was it here and drifting westward? As we will see GOES-13 isn’t lost, it’s just wandering.   More
(Source: Riddles in the Sky (blog) - Sep 12)

PROJECT OBERON: UK EYES CLUSTER OF MILITARY RADAR SATELLITES - Project Oberon, as it's known, has been in discussion for a while. It envisages a network of small spacecraft capable of seeing the Earth's surface in all weathers and at night, and at very high resolution. The satellites would also have sensors to locate the use of radio transmissions. This is information that can be used in tandem with the radar pictures to better identify targets on the ground and interpret their behaviour.   More
(Source: BBC News - Sep 12)

BRITISH SATELLITE THREAT FROM NEAR-MISSES WITH CHINA AND RUSSIA - British satellites are being put in danger by near-misses with those operated by the likes of Russia and China, a senior defence official has warned. Air Vice Marshall Simon Rochelle said "the fight is on" to increase the presence of UK military satellites in space, as it has become a "contested environment" between a number of rival nations.   More
(Source: Sky News - Sep 12)

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