AST SPACEMOBILE UNFURLS MASSIVE SATELLITE TO CHALLENGE CELLULAR STARLINK - AST SpaceMobile has successfully unfolded its massive 2,400 square-foot satellite in orbit as the company tries to challenge SpaceX’s cellular Starlink service. On Tuesday, AST SpaceMobile posted a picture of the satellite’s antenna array fully deployed, weeks after it flew into space in late December. Dubbed BlueBird 6, the satellite “features the largest commercial communications array antenna ever deployed in Low Earth Orbit,” AST added in the announcement.    More
(Source: PCMag - Feb 12)

EARTH ORBIT IS GETTING CROWDED. CAN THIS MAP OF 1 MILLION ROUTES AROUND OUR PLANET HELP PREVENT SATELLITE COLLISIONS? - Space is getting crowded — nowadays, over 45,000 human-made objects orbit Earth. A portion of that figure is indeed represented by the thousands of satellites humans use for internet, GPS and other communications, but it also takes into account space junk from humanity’s previous space escapades. Thus, figuring how to prevent collisions has become more important as space agencies continue to rocket new technology into low Earth orbit — and there's already a brisk launch schedule planned for 2026. As such, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have developed a new method for modeling orbits in cislunar space, which refers to the space between and around Earth and the moon.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 11)

WEATHER DELAYS NASA’S SPACEX CREW-12 FLIGHT TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The launch of the next crew rotation mission to the International Space Station will have to wait at least another day after NASA and SpaceX leadership determined weather along the flight path would be unacceptable. Leaders moved the launch of Crew-12 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 12. That would place liftoff at 5:38 a.m. EST (1038 UTC) for NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway along with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 10)

BLUE ORIGIN IS COMING FOR SPACEX WITH OVER 5,000 SATELLITES LAUNCHING SOONER THAN YOU'D THINK - Blue Origin, the Space exploration company owned by Amazon titan Jeff Bezos,announced its latest plans to launch its new satellite communications network. Dubbed TeraWave, the constellation of 5,408 low and medium Earth orbit satellites will reportedly offer an internet network superior to its competitors, namely Elon Musk's SpaceX, delivering speeds as high as 6 terabits per second and enabling Blue Origin's global customers to process larger datasets.   More
(Source: BGR - Feb 10)

SPACEX TEST FIRES ITS FALCON 9 ROCKET AHEAD OF MIDWEEK LAUNCH OF CREW-12 TO THE SPACE STATION - An early morning rocket engine test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station brings NASA and SpaceX one step closer to flying the next long duration mission to the International Space Station. At 3:16 a.m. EST (0816 UTC) on Sunday, Feb. 8, the nine Merlin 1D engines at the base of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket roared to life for about 10 seconds. This static fire test at Space Launch Complex 40 was designed to validate the systems on the launch vehicle before flight.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 9)

PLANNED LAUNCH OF 500,000 SATELLITES COULD BLIND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE FOREVER, ACCORDING TO AN ALARMING STUDY - Simulations suggest that satellite streaks could spoil about one in three Hubble images, even when the telescope stays above Earth’s weather. A team of researchers modeled plans that could put about 560,000 satellites aloft by the 2030s. The work was led by Dr. Alejandro S. Borlaff at NASA’s Ames Research Center. His team studies how satellite light interferes with telescope observations and develops planning tools to safeguard limited observing time. “When you position a telescope in space, it’s usually a very pristine environment,” said Dr. Borlaff.   More
(Source: Earth.com - Feb 9)

SPACEX DRAGON ARRIVES FOR CREW-12 LAUNCH - With the recent medical evacuation of SpaceX's Crew-11 astronaut mission from the International Space Station, Crew-12 will be launching earlier than planned as the relief crew for the ISS. Crew-12 is comprised of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot) and mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.    More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 8)

CHINA LAUNCHES REUSABLE SPACECRAFT FOR FOURTH TIME SINCE 2020 - China successfully launched into orbit a reusable experimental spacecraft aboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported. The mission will carry out technological verification for reusable spacecraft, providing technical support for the peaceful use of space, Xinhua said, without disclosing how long the craft will remain in orbit.   More
(Source: Reuters - Feb 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES RETURN TO FLIGHT FALCON 9 MISSION FOLLOWING BRIEF STAND DOWN - SpaceX returned its Falcon 9 rocket flight mission with a Saturday afternoon launch, following a brief stand down period lasting less than a week. The Starlink 17-33 mission adds 25 Starlink satellites to the company’s megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. There a more than 9,600 satellites currently in orbit, according to stats maintained by astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 8)

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