NASA SETS COVERAGE OF ROSCOSMOS SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 10:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 9, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 10:45 a.m., and last up to seven hours. Coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.   More
(Source: NASA - Aug 8)

LOCKHEED MARTIN’S DATA-TRANSPORT SATELLITE CLEARS DESIGN REVIEW - A communications satellite designed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency passed a critical design review, the company announced Aug. 7. Lockheed Martin will build 42 satellites for SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer, a mesh network in low Earth orbit that will support U.S. military operations. The company in February 2022 won a $700 million contract to produce the satellites using buses made by Terran Orbital. The Tranche 1 Transport Layer of 126 satellites also will include spacecraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman and York Space Systems.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 8)

SCIENTISTS RECONSTRUCT AEOLUS SATELLITE'S FIERY FALL TO EARTH FROM SPACE - On Friday, July 28, the wind-measuring spacecraft Aeolus made its fiery return to Earth, disintegrating high above the planet's surface in the first controlled reentry of its kind. Now, about one week later, engineers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have calculated the descent path of Aeolus, the first satellite ever to measure the winds of Earth from space and named after the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 8)

WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 15 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT TONIGHT - SpaceX plans to launch 15 more of its Starlink internet satellites tonight (Aug. 7), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight at 11:57 p.m. EDT (8:57 p.m. local California time and 0357 GMT on Aug. 8). Watch it live at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before launch.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET ON SHIP AT SEA - SpaceX launched 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites tonight (Aug. 6) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 10:41 p.m. EDT (0241 GMT on Aug. 7). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 7)

NASA AND AXIOM SPACE SIGN-ON FOR 4TH PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION TO SPACE STATION - NASA and Axiom Space are honing-in on launch dates for the next two private astronaut missions to the International Space Station. NASA and Axiom are now targeting no earlier than January for the company's third private astronaut mission, Ax-3, one of the space agency's social media accounts revealed on Twitter. Addressing the delay from a previously announced November 2023 launch date, a follow up statement clarified that "this timeframe allows for teams to collaborate on the integration of the mission's scientific research priorities that continue to expand on what we can learn in low Earth orbit to benefit humanity."   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 6)

CAPELLA’S EARTH-IMAGING SATELLITES ARE DEORBITING FASTER THAN EXPECTED - Capella Space’s synthetic aperture radar satellites are falling back to Earth much sooner than the three years they were anticipated to operate, according to publicly available satellite data. The startup has launched a total of ten small satellites to low Earth orbit since 2018, including eight in its family of “Whitney”-class spacecraft. Five of these satellites have reentered the atmosphere since the end of January of this year, including three of the Whitneys. Those Whitney sats were in orbit for less than two-and-a-half years; one, Capella-5, was in orbit for less than two years.   More
(Source: TechCrunch - Aug 5)

CYGNUS CARGO SHIP BERTHED AT SPACE STATION - An unpiloted Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship carrying four tons of supplies and equipment caught up with the International Space Station early Friday to wrap up a smooth two-and-a-half-day rendezvous. As the two spacecraft passed 260 miles above northern Africa, astronaut Woody Hoburg, operating the station’s Canadian-built robot arm from inside the lab complex, locked onto a grapple fixture at the base of the Cygnus at 5:52 a.m. EDT (0952 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 5)

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NATIONAL LABORATORY AND PRIVATEER ANNOUNCE DATA AND INFORMATION SHARING PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWING SPACE COMMUNITY - The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory and Privateer Space, a leader in space decision intelligence and data infrastructure, announced a partnership to bring additional resources to the growing space economy. The announcement was made during a session at the annual ISS Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) focused on companies innovating within the space landscape. In 2022, Privateer developed Wayfinder, a free online tool that provides real-time data of satellite and debris visualization in space. The platform can be used by interested partners and agencies, as well as the general public, to keep space safe and accessible. Wayfinder can also serve as a marketplace for low-cost access to a variety of global remote sensing data to improve life on Earth.   More
(Source: SpaceRef - Aug 4)

Previous Next