SPACEX LAUNCHES MORE THAN A HUNDRED PAYLOADS ON FALCON 9 MISSION FROM VANDENBERG - For the fourth time in 2023, SpaceX launched a smallsat rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of payloads. The Transporter-9 mission lifted of at the opening of a 55-minute window at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX said the launch included 113 payloads, 90 of which were deployed directly from the Falcon 9 rocket. The other 23 satellites will deploy from orbital transfer vehicles at a later time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)
ASTRONAUTS DROPPED A TOOL BAG DURING AN ISS SPACEWALK, AND YOU CAN SEE IT WITH BINOCULARS - Some astronomy targets are less celestial in nature than others. Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth. The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara the slip on Nov. 2, 2023, as they were conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS). The tool bag is now orbiting our planet just ahead of the ISS with a visual magnitude of around 6, according to EarthSky. That means it is slightly less bright than the ice giant Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. As a result, the bag — officially known as a crew lock bag — is slightly too dim to be visible to the unaided eye, but skywatchers should be able to pick it up with binoculars. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 12)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH 90 PAYLOADS ON TRANSPORTER-9 FALCON 9 MISSION FROM VANDENBERG - For the fourth time in 2023, SpaceX will launch a smallsat rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of payloads. The Transporter-9 mission is set to launch during a 55-minute window starting at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX said the launch will include 113 payloads, 90 of which will be deployed directly from the Falcon 9 rocket. The other 23 satellites will deploy from orbital transfer vehicles at a later time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 11)
LONG MARCH 3B LAUNCHES CHINASAT-6E COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - China sent its ChinaSat-6E communications satellite toward geostationary orbit Thursday with a launch from Xichang spaceport. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off into the night sky above Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:23 a.m. Eastern (1123 UTC), Nov. 9. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) confirmed launch success and the payload within an hour of launch. ChinaSat-6E (Zhongxing-6E) entered its planned geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It will take over the radio and television broadcasting role of the ChinaSat-6B satellite launched in July 2007 and positioned at 115.5° East. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 10)
SPACEX WILL LAUNCH IRELAND'S 1ST-EVER SATELLITE THIS MONTH - Ireland is all set to see its first-ever satellite reach orbit. The Educational Irish Research Satellite 1, or EIRSAT-1, was built by University College Dublin students as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Academy's Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) program. The gamma-ray astronomy cubesat project began in 2017 and is now due to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at the end of November. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 10)
SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 29TH CARGO MISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX's 29th robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station successfully lifted off on Thursday (Nov. 9). The CRS-29 Dragon launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 8:28 p.m. EST (0128 GMT on Nov. 10). The Falcon's first stage made a successful landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). The launch marked the second flight for the stage, which previously launched Crew-7. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 10)
CAPITOL HILL BUDGET BATTLE MAY LIMIT INITIAL FUNDING OF SOME NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE LAUNCH MISSIONS - The U.S. Space Systems Command revealed the details of its latest batch of launch contracts for national security missions shared between United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. This marks the fifth and final year of the Phase 2 National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Service Task Order awards has been issued. It also sets the stage for more launch companies to join in the mix in the future. NSSL missions help protect U.S. assets both in orbit as well as on the ground. They also host technology demonstrations and advancements in various defense capabilities. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 9)
GERMAN SATELLITE WILL USE AI TO DETECT ANOMALIES ON ASTEROIDS AND PLANETS - A German satellite that will test new AI technologies in orbit for automatic detection of anomalies on planets and asteroids is set for launch. Despite its ambitious mission, the so-called SONATE-2 is a six-unit cubesat, a type of nanosatellite that’s no bigger than a shoebox. It was designed and built by a team led by aerospace engineer Professor Hakan Kayal from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Germany. More (Source: TheNextWeb - Nov 9)
NOAA-21 SATELLITE IS NOW OPERATIONAL - It’s official: NOAA-21, the latest satellite in NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System, is operational. The satellite joins its predecessors, Suomi NPP and NOAA-20, each circling the globe 14 times a day, providing a continuous stream of data to improve the accuracy of NOAA’s 3–7 day forecasts. This includes observations for extreme weather events and monitoring climate change. More (Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Nov 9)
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