PAIR OF CHINESE LAUNCHES PUT FLAT-PANEL SATELLITE, NEW SPY SATS IN ORBIT - China has conducted a pair of orbital missions to launch a commercially developed flat-panel communications satellite and a new batch of spy satellites. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 4:02 p.m. Eastern, July 26. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) stated that the payload was a Yaogan-36 satellite. No further information on the payload was provided. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 28)
WHEN AND WHERE WILL EUROPE'S AEOLUS WIND SATELLITE FALL TO EARTH THIS WEEK? - A European satellite is making a first-of-its kind return to Earth this week. The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently guiding its Aeolus wind-studying satellite down for a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere. This strategy is a major shift for Aeolus, whose original end-of-life plan called for an unguided fall. It's also a milestone moment in spaceflight: No satellite has been deorbited in such an "assisted" fashion before, according to ESA. (Such maneuvers are common for rocket stages, which often steer themselves to safe reentries over the open ocean.) More (Source: Space.com - Jul 27)
FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH OF LARGEST COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE SCRUBBED - SpaceX rolled a Falcon Heavy to the launch pad early Wednesday morning ahead of its planned liftoff tonight at 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 UTC) with the Jupiter 3/EchoStar 24 satellite, the heaviest commercial communications satellite ever launched. The giant rocket, consisting of three Falcon boosters strapped together with a single upper stage, emerged from its hangar, lying atop the Transporter Erector, at around 1 a.m. EDT (0500 UTC). It was hauled up the ramp to the pad along rails by airport-style tugs and a system of pulleys and cables. It was rotated upright just before 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC). It will be the seventh mission for the Falcon Heavy and the third this year. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 27)
NASA POWER OUTAGE TEMPORARILY HALTS CONTACT WITH SPACE STATION - A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Space station program manager Joel Montalbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage. More (Source: AP News - Jul 26)
SPACEX FALCON HEAVY TO LAUNCH WORLD'S LARGEST PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE ON JULY 26 - SpaceX is poised to launch the world's largest commercial communications satellite. On Wednesday (July 26), a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch Maxar Technologies' largest ever satellite, the Jupiter 3. The communications platform will join others in the Hughes Jupiter satellite fleet already in orbit, which provides broadband internet services to North and South America. According to a Hughes statement, the satellite will be the world's largest commercial communications satellite once it's fully deployed. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 26)
RUSSIA OFFERS BRICS PARTNERS A MODULE ON ITS PLANNED SPACE STATION - The head of Russia's space agency on Monday suggested Moscow's partners in the BRICS group - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - could build a module for its planned orbital station, the Interfax news agency reported. Reporting from a BRICS meeting on space cooperation in Hermanus, South Africa, Interfax said it was "assumed" that the first module of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) would be launched in 2027, with construction completed by 2032. More (Source: Reuters - Jul 25)
US RISKS FALLING BEHIND CHINA IN RAPID SATELLITE LAUNCHES, REPORT WARNS - China has probably surpassed the United States in its ability to quickly launch and replace satellites in the wake of a conflict or accident, according to a new report by an American university. By developing relatively small, mobile, solid-fuel rockets which can lift off from a mobile platform rather than launch pads, China had advanced a critical capability known as tactically responsive space launch (TRSL) over the past decade, said researchers from the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University in Washington. More (Source: South China Morning Post - Jul 25)
A SATELLITE WILL FALL TO EARTH THIS WEEK IN A 1ST-OF-ITS-KIND REENTRY. HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - This week will see a first-of-its-kind operation to guide a dead and disused satellite back to Earth safely. The mission will pave the way for the safe return of other space-based equipment in the future. The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to help its Aeolus spacecraft officially reenter Earth's atmosphere during the evening of Friday (July 28). The procedure to bring it back down to our planet, however, begins on Monday (July 24). More (Source: Space.com - Jul 25)
CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE WITH FLEXIBLE SOLAR WING - China launched its first flat-panel stackable satellite with a flexible solar wing on Sunday, along with another three remote sensing satellites, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. Sent by a Long March-2D rocket which blasted off at 10:50 a.m. Beijing Time, all four satellites have entered their preset orbit. More (Source: CGTN - Jul 24)
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