NASA SETS COVERAGE FOR ROSCOSMOS SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage on Wednesday, May 27, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT and last roughly five hours. Watch NASA’s live coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.   More
(Source: NASA - May 26)

MUSK PRAISES “EPIC” SUPER HEAVY-STARSHIP LAUNCH - SpaceX launched a revamped Super Heavy-Starship rocket Friday on an “epic” flight to test more powerful engines, enhanced control systems and a host of other upgrades needed to streamline operations and improve safety and reliability. One of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 methane-fueled Raptor 3 engines shut down early during the climb out of the lower atmosphere and additional engines failed to run properly during an attempt to fly the stage back to its planned splashdown point off the Texas Gulf Coast.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 24)

THE SATELLITE THAT HAS BEEN TRACKING EARTH'S WILDFIRES FOR 24 YEARS IS RUNNING OUT OF FUEL TO DODGE DEBRIS - NASA’s aging Aqua satellite, which has monitored Earth’s wildfires and climate patterns since 2002, is nearing the end of its operational life because it is running low on fuel needed to avoid space debris and maintain its orbit. Aqua has played a critical role in detecting fires early—sometimes faster than emergency calls reach authorities—and has helped scientists build one of the longest continuous climate and wildfire datasets ever assembled. However, increasing congestion in low Earth orbit has forced more debris-avoidance maneuvers, consuming the satellite’s limited fuel reserves faster. Scientists warn that when Aqua is eventually retired, the world risks losing an irreplaceable long-term climate record that has been essential for tracking how climate change is influencing wildfire activity and other environmental trends.   More
(Source: Space Daily - May 23)

UH-OH, THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS LEAKING AGAIN - NASA confirmed Thursday that the Russian segment of the International Space Station has begun leaking atmosphere into space again. It’s an old problem that NASA recently hoped was resolved. For more than half a decade, engineers from Roscosmos and NASA have been tracking the leak rate from a small Russian module attached to the space station that leads to a docking port. The source of these leaks, microscopic structural cracks, have been difficult to find and address.   More
(Source: Ars Technica - May 22)

SPACE DEBRIS IS FORCING SATELLITES TO DODGE MORE OFTEN — COSTING US VITAL SCIENCE. 'THINGS WILL GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER' - On the morning of Jan. 8, 2025, a red dot popped up on NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System. It was the first sign of what would become one of California's worst wildfires in history, going on to claim a dozen lives and burn down thousands of homes in the Palisades. All the while, the Aqua satellite was orbiting above, scanning the planet and beaming data down to ground stations in Alaska and Svalbard...   More
(Source: Space.com - May 22)

SPACEX SCRUBS FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT OF ITS STARSHIP VERSION 3 ROCKET - SpaceX stood down from its first attempt to launch the third generation of its Starship rocket Thursday, May 21, from its company town in southern Texas, called Starbase. The company ran into multiple issues during the final minute of the countdown and ultimately scrubbed the mission at about 6:40 p.m. CDT (7:40 p.m. EDT / 2340 UTC) after exhausting the remaining troubleshooting time.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 22)

SPACEX’S SUNRISE STARLINK LAUNCH ADDS 29 SATELLITES TO LOW EARTH ORBIT MEGACONSTELLATION - SpaceX launched a batch Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about 20 minutes before sunrise Thursday morning. The morning lighting illuminated the plume of the rocket in a so-called ‘jellyfish effect’ for those viewing the launch from the East Coast of the United States. The Starlink 10-31 mission added another 29 broadband internet satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation that consists of more than 10,000 spacecraft. This was the 46th mission supporting SpaceX’s Starlink program.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 22)

WATCH ROCKET LAB LAUNCH PRIVATE JAPANESE EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE EARLY ON MAY 22 - Rocket Lab will launch an Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company Synspective early Friday morning (May 22), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket carrying one of Synspective's Strix satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Friday at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT; 9:30 p.m. local New Zealand time), on a mission called "Viva La Strix."   More
(Source: Space.com - May 22)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base Tuesday night to send a batch of its Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The mission, dubbed Starlink 17-42, added another 24 broadband internet satellites to a constellation of spacecraft that consists of more than 10,000 spacecraft. More than 600 of those satellites support direct-to-device capabilities.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 21)

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