PRIVATE-SECTOR ASTRONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH AFTER EXTENDED SPACE STATION VISIT - A commercially chartered Crew Dragon spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere and splashed down off the east coast of Florida Friday, bringing four private astronauts back to Earth after an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. With commander Michael López-Alegría and Italian co-pilot Walter Villadei monitoring cockpit displays, flanked by Swedish flier Marcus Wandt and Turkey's Alper Gezeravci, the Crew Dragon's braking rockets fired at 7:42 a.m. EST, slowing the ship just enough to drop the far side of its orbit deep into the atmosphere. More (Source: CBS News - Feb 10)
US SPACE FORCE WANTS SATELLITE 'JETPACKS' TO KEEP OLD SPACECRAFT ALIVE IN ORBIT - The U.S. Space Force is eyeing a number of options to extend the life of satellites that have run out of fuel. One of those options, described as a "jetpack," is a small propulsion unit that can be added on to existing spacecraft already in orbit. Several of these ideas were presented at the Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, Florida in late January. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 10)
JAPAN TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TO STUDY SPACE DEBRIS IN FEBRUARY - The Japanese company Astroscale Japan will launch the first satellite designed to study space debris, and the mission itself can pave the way for the organization of commercial debris removal from Earth orbit, Azernews reports, citing the project's website. The ADRAS-J spacecraft will be launched from the private Rocket Lab spaceport located on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on February 19. More (Source: AzerNews - Feb 10)
SPACE FORCE MAY LAUNCH GPS DEMONSTRATION SATELLITES TO TEST NEW TECH - The Space Force is exploring options for expanding the capabilities of its GPS satellites and is asking companies to propose ideas for delivering low-cost demonstration spacecraft to help test new technologies. Space Systems Command, the service’s primary acquisition organization, said in a Feb. 5 notice it is conducting market research to refine its concept for a constellation of GPS demonstration satellites. More (Source: C4ISRNet - Feb 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES STARLINK MISSION FROM VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE - SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from the West Coast following multiple weather-related scrubs earlier in the week. The rocket supporting the Starlink 7-13 mission lifted off at 4:34 p.m. PST (7:34 p.m. EST, 0034 UTC) on Friday, February 9. During the first launch attempt on Tuesday evening, launch teams for the Starlink 7-13 mission got down to the final minute of the countdown before calling a scrub. Following a brief stint where they were targeting launch on Wednesday, SpaceX updated the planned launch of the mission Thursday, Feb. 8. But excessive cloud cover forced them to stand down on Thursday as well. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES BILLION-DOLLAR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH SATELLITE FOR NASA - SpaceX launched an environmental research satellite for NASA early Thursday, a nearly $1 billion spacecraft that survived multiple cancellation threats and is now poised to shed new light on climate change and the complex interplay of heat-trapping carbon, aerosols and sea life on global scales. The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission — PACE — “will dramatically advance our understanding of the relationship between aerosols and clouds, and the global energy balance,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth sciences division. “This is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in our ability to model the climate.” More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 9)
WATCH PRIVATE AX-3 ASTRONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH IN SPACEX CAPSULE ON FEB. 9 - A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will return to Earth Friday morning (Feb. 9), wrapping up the private Ax-3 astronaut mission. Ax-3's Crew Dragon "Freedom" is expected to make a parachute-aided ocean splashdown off the coast of Florida on Friday around 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), according to NASA. You can watch the reentry action live via SpaceX's account on X (formerly known as Twitter), or via Axiom Space, the Houston-based company that organized Ax-3. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 9)
SPACEX LAUNCHING 22 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT FROM CALIFORNIA ON FEB. 8 - SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Thursday evening (Feb. 8), weather permitting. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday no earlier than 7:56 p.m. EST (4:56 p.m. local California time or 0056 GMT on Feb. 9). SpaceX will livestream the launch via its account on X. Coverage will begin about five minutes before the window opens. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 8)
BIG, DEAD EUROPEAN SATELLITE WILL CRASH BACK TO EARTH THIS MONTH - A dead European satellite will come crashing back to Earth later this month, in a fiery death dive that its handlers will monitor carefully. The incoming spacecraft is the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) satellite, which launched to Earth orbit in April 1995 and wrapped up its Earth-observing duties in September 2011. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 8)
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