TRAILBLAZING NEW EARTH SATELLITE PUT TO TEST IN PREPARATION FOR LAUNCH - NISAR, the trailblazing Earth-observing radar satellite being developed by the United States and Indian space agencies, passed a major milestone on Nov. 13, emerging from a 21-day test aimed at evaluating its ability to function in the extreme temperatures and the vacuum of space. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR is the first space hardware collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, on an Earth-observing mission. More (Source: NASA - Nov 15)
ILLUMA-T LAUNCHES TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - On Nov. 9, a Lincoln Laboratory–developed laser communications terminal integrated on a NASA-built payload was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle. Cameras inside the launch vehicle enabled the laboratory and a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center team to watch as the payload headed for the International Space Station (ISS), a football-field-sized research platform orbiting Earth about 250 miles above its surface, an altitude known as low Earth orbit (LEO). More (Source: MIT News - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Nov 15)
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SIGNS ON TO UPCOMING 'STARLAB' SPACE STATION - Starlab, a commercial space station designed to maintain a human presence in low-Earth orbit and operated by Voyager Space and Airbus, has moved a step closer to reality. During the European Space Agency (ESA) summit in Seville, Spain, the two companies along with the ESA signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Starlab space station. The agreement outlined the station's focus on science and technology development as well as how the collaboration will offer an alternative low-Earth orbit destination. Right now, the International Space Station (ISS) is the go-to — however, the ISS is set to be retired in 2030 and scheduled to be totally deorbited in 2031. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 15)
OPEN COSMOS MANTIS + PLATERO SATELLITES REACH ORBIT WITH OPENCONSTELLATION LAUNCH - The launches mark a significant milestone for Open Cosmos as both satellites will join MENUT launched earlier this year as part of the OpenConstellation, a global, shared EO satellite infrastructure built and managed by the company. Data collected from OpenConstellation satellites can be accessed by organizations and businesses of all sizes, as well as national and regional governments to address challenges around the climate crisis, energy, natural resources and more. This is part of Open Cosmos’s wider aim to democratize access to critical space data, while keeping high levels of governance and security. More (Source: SatNews - Nov 14)
SPACEX LAUNCHES O3B MPOWER COMMUNICATION SATELLITES ON ITS 84TH MISSION OF 2023 - SpaceX launched the SES O3b mPOWER mission on Sunday (Nov. 12), a flight that placed two communication satellites into medium Earth orbit (MEO). The Falcon 9 rocket ferrying these satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 4:08 p.m. EST (2108 GMT). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth and made a vertical touchdown on the company's drone ship about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. The ship, known as "A Shortfall of Gravitas," was waiting nearby in the Atlantic Ocean; the rocket's upper stage will not be recovered, as is standard for Falcon 9 flights. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 13)
NEW SATELLITE WILL DETECT AND SHARE CO2 DATA FROM INDIVIDUAL FACILITIES - Canadian emissions monitoring company GHGSat on Saturday launched a satellite aimed at detecting carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities like coal plants and steel mills from space for the first time. The satellite, named Vanguard, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, GHGSat said. More (Source: Reuters - Nov 12)
SPACEX DRAGON CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT ISS WITH LASER EXPERIMENT AND MORE - A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrived at the International Space Station early Saturday (Nov. 11) carrying tons of fresh supplies for the orbiting lab's astronaut crew. SpaceX launched the robotic Dragon resupply ship atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday evening (Nov. 9), kicking off the company's CRS-29 cargo mission for NASA. The Dragon docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday at 5:07 a.m. EST (1007 GMT), about 14 minutes earlier than scheduled. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES MORE THAN A HUNDRED PAYLOADS ON FALCON 9 MISSION FROM VANDENBERG - For the fourth time in 2023, SpaceX launched a smallsat rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of payloads. The Transporter-9 mission lifted of at the opening of a 55-minute window at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX said the launch included 113 payloads, 90 of which were deployed directly from the Falcon 9 rocket. The other 23 satellites will deploy from orbital transfer vehicles at a later time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)
ASTRONAUTS DROPPED A TOOL BAG DURING AN ISS SPACEWALK, AND YOU CAN SEE IT WITH BINOCULARS - Some astronomy targets are less celestial in nature than others. Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth. The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara the slip on Nov. 2, 2023, as they were conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS). The tool bag is now orbiting our planet just ahead of the ISS with a visual magnitude of around 6, according to EarthSky. That means it is slightly less bright than the ice giant Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. As a result, the bag — officially known as a crew lock bag — is slightly too dim to be visible to the unaided eye, but skywatchers should be able to pick it up with binoculars. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 12)
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