SURPRISE CHINESE LUNAR MISSION HIT BY LAUNCH ANOMALY - A pair of Chinese spacecraft, apparently intended for lunar orbit, have potentially been lost following an issue with a Long March rocket’s upper stage on Wednesday. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 8:51 a.m. Eastern (1251 UTC) March 13. There was no official acknowledgement of the launch until early Thursday, when Chinese state media Xinhua announced the DRO-A and B spacecraft had not been inserted accurately into their designated orbit by the rocket’s Yuanzheng-1S upper stage. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 15)
JAPAN'S 1ST SATELLITE LAUNCH ATTEMPT BY PRIVATE FIRM FAILS - A Space One Co. satellite-carrying rocket exploded Wednesday moments after liftoff from a spaceport in western Japan, dealing a setback to the company's aspirations of becoming the first private Japanese firm to place a satellite into orbit. The company's 18-meter-long Kairos rocket failed in its launch from Space Port Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan's first commercial launch site. It was announced shortly after that "flight termination measures" had been safely implemented. More (Source: Kyodo News - Mar 14)
NOAA-21 IS NOW THE PRIMARY SATELLITE IN THE JPSS FLEET - NOAA-21 is now operating as the primary satellite in NOAA’s advanced Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), the agency announced today. The satellite launched in November 2022 as JPSS-2, and was renamed NOAA-21 when it reached orbit. NOAA-21 now gives NOAA three spacecraft operating the most sophisticated technology the agency has ever flown in a polar orbit, capturing precise observations of the world’s atmosphere, land and waters. More (Source: noaa/nesdis - Mar 13)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES FOURTH SATELLITE FOR JAPANESE EARTH-IMAGING COMPANY, SYNSPECTIVE - Rocket Lab launches its third Electron mission of the year and its fourth for Japanese Earth-imaging company, Synspective. The mission, dubbed “Owl Night Long,” lifted off on March 13 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-1 in Mahia, New Zealand, at 4:03 a.m. NZDT (11:03 a.m. EDT, 1503 UTC). This was the 45th Electron rocket to launch to date. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 12)
SPACEX'S CREW-7 CAPSULE RETURNS 4 ASTRONAUTS TO EARTH WITH PREDAWN SPLASHDOWN - The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-7 mission returned to Earth early Tuesday morning (March 12), with their homecoming broadcast live. Crew-7's Dragon capsule, Endurance, splashed down at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 UTC) off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The recovery crew arrived at the capsule around three minutes later, with thermal cameras tracking the recovery operations. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 12)
CREW-7 BEGINS JOURNEY HOME FOLLOWING SIX-MONTH STAY AT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A journey of more than half a year orbiting around the world is coming to an end for the four-member team of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission. The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 UTC) after 197 days. Commander and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and her crew, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov bid farewell to the rest of Expedition 70 during a ceremony on Sunday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 12)
SPACEX COMPLETES DOUBLE LAUNCH DAY WITH ITS SECOND STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX completed a double launch day on Sunday with the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Starlink 7-17 mission will add another 23 satellites to the growing low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) occurred at 9:09 p.m. PDT (12:09 a.m. EDT, 0409 UTC). It followed the successful launch of the Starlink 6-43 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force station at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 UTC). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 11)
NASA, BOEING DELAY STARLINER CAPSULE'S 1ST ASTRONAUT LAUNCH TO EARLY MAY - The long-delayed first crewed mission of Boeing's new Starliner capsule has been pushed back again. That mission to the International Space Station (ISS), called Crew Flight Test (CFT), had been tentatively scheduled to launch in mid-April. But that's no longer the plan, NASA and Boeing announced on Friday (March 8). CFT is "currently scheduled to launch [in] early May due to space station scheduling," agency officials wrote in an update on Friday afternoon. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 10)
WATCH ANDREAS RETURN TO EARTH - After more than six months on the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and the rest of Crew-7 will undock and make their way down to Earth on 11 March 2024 at 13:15 GMT/14:15 CET, splashing down off the coast the Florida on 12 March, at 09:35 GMT / 10:35 CET. Watch the undocking and splashdown on ESA WebTV. More (Source: European Space Agency - Mar 10)
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