CHINA LAUNCHES TIANZHOU 4 CARGO SHIP FOR SPACE STATION - China launched the Tianzhou 4 cargo freighter for the country’s space station Monday, beginning a resupply mission to stage hardware, propellant, and provisions at the complex before arrival of the next long-duration crew in June. Chinese state television broadcasted the launch, which occurred at 1:56:37 p.m. EDT (1756:37 GMT) Monday, roughly the moment Earth’s rotation brought the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island under the orbital plane of China’s space station.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 10)

TELESAT TO ORDER 100 FEWER SATELLITES FOR LEO CONSTELLATION - Increasing costs and delays have forced Telesat to downsize plans for 298 low Earth orbit satellites by a third to keep within its $5 billion budget. The Canadian satellite operator plans to order just 188 satellites plus 10 in-orbit spares from Thales Alenia Space, Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said during the company’s May 6 earnings call. That is still enough for the Telesat Lightspeed network to provide “something like 10 terabits of capacity” globally, according to Goldberg, which is more capacity than all current satellites in geostationary orbit combined.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 8)

ASTROSCALE SPACE JUNK REMOVAL SATELLITE NEARLY CATCHES TARGET IN ORBITAL TEST - A satellite designed to test technologies that could one day help clean up Earth orbit has been busy the past few days zooming in on a simulated piece of debris using its onboard sensors. The experiment, by Japanese company Astroscale, however, stopped short of catching the target as engineers detected "anomalous spacecraft conditions." Astroscale, which plans to provide space cleanup services commercially as early as 2024, said in a statement that the demonstration, part of the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission, was a success despite the last-minute hitch.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 7)

SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY RETURNS FOUR ASTRONAUTS FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Four astronauts successfully returned home to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft today, bringing an end to their six-month-long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). After undocking from the ISS early Thursday morning, the crew dove through Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down underneath parachutes off the coast of Florida at 12:43AM ET. On board the Crew Dragon were three NASA astronauts — Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron — as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency.   More
(Source: The Verge - May 7)

MORE STARLINK SATELLITES RIDE INTO ORBIT ON PREDAWN LAUNCH OF FALCON 9 ROCKET - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at first light Friday with 53 Starlink internet satellites, completing an all-nighter of space operations just five hours after returning four astronauts to a splashdown off the west coast of Florida. Lighting up the sky over Florida’s Space Coast, a Falcon 9 rocket fired nine Merlin main engines and climbed off pad 39A at Kennedy at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT) Friday. SpaceX returned a Dragon capsule to Earth at 12:43 a.m. EDT (0443 GMT), bringing home a crew of four from the International Space Station.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 7)

SPACEX ROLLS OUT ROCKET FOR ANOTHER STARLINK DEPLOYMENT MISSION - SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday, ready for a pre-sunrise blastoff Friday with 53 more Starlink internet satellites, using a booster stage flying for a record-tying 12th time. Liftoff is set for 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT) Friday to begin SpaceX’s 152nd Falcon 9 launch, and the company’s 18th launch of the year. It will be the 44th SpaceX mission primarily dedicated to launching satellites for the company’s privately-funded Starlink broadband network.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)

REPORT: U.S. DEFENSE AND INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES SLOW TO EMBRACE SMALL-SATELLITE REVOLUTION - The United States is at risk of being outpaced by China in space capabilities, in part due to the slow adoption of commercial innovations such as small satellites, warns a new report released May 5 by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. “If the United States is to maintain space superiority, it will need to make substantive cultural, doctrinal, and operational changes to its multidimensional relationship with the commercial space industry,” says the report titled Small Satellites: The Implications for National Security.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 6)

SATELLOGIC RESERVES SPACEX LAUNCH CAPACITY FOR 68 SATELLITES - Satellogic Inc. signed a multiple launch agreement with SpaceX to reserve launch capacity for its next 68 satellites. This follows a launch agreement with SpaceX covering 2022 launches. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Satellogic currently operates 22 high-resolution satellites, including five delivered to orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission in April. The Earth observation company is vertically integrated and aims to ultimately grow its constellation to over 200 satellites by 2025 in order to provide daily sub-meter resolution imagery of the entire surface of the Earth and up to 40 revisits of points of interest per day.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - May 5)

CREW-3: ENDURANCE DEPARTS THE ISS FOR ITS RETURN TO EARTH - Crew Dragon Endurance has departed from the International Space Station (ISS) as its Crew-3 mission comes to an end. Endurance is carrying astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, and Matthias Maurer back to Earth after nearly six months in orbit. Endurance undocked from the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony Module at 05:20 UTC (01:20AM EDT) on Thursday. It is now in the process of conducting a series of burns to lower its orbit ahead of reentry, with its splashdown scheduled for Friday at 04:43 UTC (00:43AM EDT) off the coast of Florida.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 5)

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