THE 10 WORST SPACE DEBRIS EVENTS IN HISTORY - On the night of January 11, 2007, a missile launched from central China climbed 865 kilometers and struck a retired weather satellite nearly head-on. In a few milliseconds, Fengyun-1C went from one tracked object to thousands. Nineteen years later, two thirds of that shrapnel is still circling the planet, and nearly one in five pieces of debris in the public catalog traces back to that single intercept.   More
(Source: KeepTrack.space - Aug 4)

ISRO AIMS FOR SPACE STATION BY 2035, MOON MISSION BY 2040 - “ISRO is working towards establishing India’s own space station by 2035 and sending an Indian to the Moon aboard an Indian rocket by 2040,” ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said on Friday. He was addressing the inaugural session of the ‘ISRO Academia Connect @ AU’ programme, organised by Andhra University, through virtual mode.   More
(Source: The New Indian Express - Aug 3)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its next batch of Starlink satellites from California on Friday night, four days later than original planned. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 8:08 p.m. PDT (11:08 p.m. EDT / 0308 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 2)

CHINA LAUNCHES SECRETIVE TJS-27 PAIR, ORBITS NEXT-GEN TIANLIAN RELAY SAT - China sent a new pair of secretive satellites into a programmatically new orbit Wednesday, while also upgrading its on-orbit communications relay capabilities. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern July 29 (0100 UTC, July 30) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success, revealing the payloads to be the communication technology test satellites 27A and 27B (TJS-27A and 27B.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 2)

'WE ARE NOT GIVING UP YET': PRIVATE MISSION TO RESCUE NASA'S SWIFT TELESCOPE IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL, AND ENGINEERS ARE RACING TO FIX IT - A private mission to rescue an ailing NASA space telescope may now need a rescue of its own. The LINK spacecraft — designed by private company Katalyst Space to boost the orbit of NASA’s ageing Swift Observatory — is reportedly spinning unexpectedly in the weeks after its launch, so much so that stabilizing the spacecraft will likely delay the telescope rescue.   More
(Source: Live Science - Aug 1)

TRACKING SATELLITES AND SPACE DEBRIS USING RADIO ANTENNAE - Every year, thousands and thousands of satellites get launched into orbit around our planet. The result is an increasingly congested "space" above Earth populated by equipment that provides services to the surface. At the same time, these satellites affect ground-based astronomy and create potential for damage when they eventually fall through Earth's atmosphere to the surface. In addition, near-Earth space hosts old rocket bodies and other materials (cameras, gloves, etc.) left in orbit by past missions.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Jul 31)

SPACEX LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD FOR NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE - A classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office headed to orbit in the predawn hours of Thursday, July 30. The NROL-95 mission launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 31)

SPACEWALK PREPS, BIOPRINTING, AND EXERCISE RESEARCH TOP STATION SCHEDULE - Expedition 75 is gearing up for a busy August with three spacewalks planned at the International Space Station. The orbital residents are also printing living cells and tissues and studying how to increase the effectiveness of exercising in space. Mission managers discussed a series of spacewalks and their associated tasks during a news conference on Thursday. NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Anil Menon will conduct the first spacewalk at 7:35 a.m. EDT on Thursday, August 6, for solar array work.    More
(Source: NASA - Jul 31)

NASA LAUNCHED THIS SPACECRAFT TO SAVE A SATELLITE. NOW, IT NEEDS SAVING TOO - Things aren't going so well for NASA's latest satellite rescue mission. NASA launched the Swift Boost mission on July 3, sending a specialized spacecraft to low Earth orbit on the final flight of Northrop Grumman's air-launched Pegasus XL rocket. The spacecraft is called LINK and was built by Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies. LINK was sent to orbit to try and link up with NASA's Swift observatory, a highly successful scientific satellite designed to search for gamma-ray bursts, some of the most energetic events in the universe.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 30)

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