CHINA’S THOUSAND SAILS SATELLITE PLAN AT PHASE 2 - While the planet now has global low Earth orbiting coverage from Elon Musk’s Starlink, China is quietly getting on with its own rival scheme, in the shape of its Qianfan (Thousand Sails) satellite constellation project.   More
(Source: SatNews - Apr 3)

SPACE JUNK DAMAGING SATELLITES: HOW DO WE REMOVE IT? - Every year, at least one satellite is destroyed by a space junk collision. With more than 130 million pieces of debris now trapped in orbit around Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) expects that figure to rise. Combined with the increasing frequency of commercial space launches, which now account for most entries into Earth's orbit, ESA is warning collisions with satellites could severely disrupt vital services like GPS services and environmental disaster monitoring.   More
(Source: DW - Apr 3)

HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PROJECT KUIPER’S FIRST FULL-SCALE SATELLITE LAUNCH - Project Kuiper is set to send its first full batch of satellites to space, marking an important step in its mission to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world. The mission, named “KA-01” for Kuiper Atlas 1, will launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and deploy 27 satellites at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth. Launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than (NET) 12 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 9.   More
(Source: Amazon - Apr 3)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT ON 1ST HALF OF SPACEFLIGHT DOUBLEHEADER - SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast on Monday (March 31). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:52 p.m. EST (1952 GMT) on Monday. To plan, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff. It touched down on the drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 2)

SPACEX SCRUBS TUESDAY NIGHT FALCON 9 LAUNCH WITH 27 STARLINK SATELLITES - SpaceX stood down from a planned Falcon 9 rocket launch Tuesday night. The mission, dubbed Starlink 11-13, will deliver the latest 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit and will be the 25th Starlink flight of the year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base is now targeting Thursday, April 3, at 3:54 pm PT (7:54 pm ET, 2354 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 2)

NASA SWITCHES STARLINER CREW TO SPACEX DRAGON AS TESTING CONTINUES ON TROUBLED BOEING CAPSULE - The makeup of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station was announced publicly Thursday evening and it includes three astronauts who were previously assigned to other missions. Leading the flight, scheduled for no earlier than July 2025, is NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. She will be joined by fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 31)

SPACEX SCRUBS THE LAUNCH OF 28 STARLINK V2 MINI SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - An afternoon of poor weather kept SpaceX from closing out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday was quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.” Liftoff of the Starlink 6-80 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is now targeting for 3:32 p.m. EDT (1932 UTC) on Monday, March 31.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 31)

AMSAT-OSCAR 7: THE HAM SATELLITE THAT REFUSED TO DIE - When the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7) amateur radio satellite was launched in 1974, its expected lifespan was about five years. The plucky little satellite made it to 1981 when a battery failure caused it to be written off as dead. Then, in 2002 it came back to life. The prevailing theory being that one of the cells in the satellites NiCd battery pack, in an extremely rare event, shorted open — thus allowing the satellite to run (intermittently) off its solar panels.   More
(Source: Hackaday - Mar 30)

CHINA LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED TJS-16 SPACECRAFT, COMPANION OBJECT EMERGES ALONGSIDE EARLIER TJS-15 SATELLITE - China launched the new TJS-16 classified satellite on Saturday aboard a Long March 7A rocket, continuing the opaque series of experimental missions. A Long March 7A rocket lifted off at 12:05 p.m. Eastern (1605 UTC) March 29 from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island province of Hainan. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success around an hour after liftoff, revealing the payload to be the communication technology experiment satellite-16, or Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-16 (TJS-16).   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 30)

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