ISSUE WITH ATLAS 5 BOOSTER LIQUID OXYGEN VENT VALVE CAUSES SECOND SCRUB OF VIASAT-3 F2 LAUNCH - United Launch Alliance halted its Atlas 5 countdown for a second night in a row, scrubbing the launch of the ViaSat-3 F2 satellite. Liftoff from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was scheduled for 10:16 p.m. EST (0316 UTC), but the valve issue that prevented a launch Wednesday night remained persistent on Thursday. Launch Director James Whelan scrubbed a launch attempt Wednesday night when a vent valve on the Atlas 5’s first stage liquid oxygen tank failed to work properly during final pre-launch checkouts. A little more than an hour before the Thursday night window opened, ULA said it was foregoing the launch attempt.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink broadband satellites Thursday on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, bringing the total launched in 2025 to 2,600. The Starlink 11-14 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 1:13 p.m. PST (4:13 p.m. EST / 2113 UTC). The rocket took a south-easterly trajectory hugging the California coastline.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 7)

CHINA REACHED OUT TO NASA TO AVOID A POTENTIAL SATELLITE COLLISION IN 1ST-OF-ITS-KIND SPACE COOPERATION - China recently reached out to NASA over a maneuver to prevent a possible collision between satellites, a space sustainability official said, marking a first for space traffic management. "For years, if we had a conjunction, we would send a note to the Chinese saying, 'We think we're going to run into you. You hold still, we'll maneuver around you,'" Alvin Drew, director for NASA Space Sustainability, said during a plenary session at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 2.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 7)

SPACE DEBRIS MAY HAVE HIT A CHINESE SPACECRAFT, DELAYING RETURN OF SHENZHOU 20 ASTRONAUTS - Three Chinese astronauts will live in space a little longer, after their return vehicle was hit by a suspected space debris impact. The astronauts are part of the Shenzhou 20 mission, which launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on April 24 and arrived at Tiangong after a six-hour orbital chase.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 6)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 29 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites of the month Wednesday night. The company has at least seven such missions planned before the Thanksgiving Day holiday. The mission, dubbed Starlink 6-81, saw 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites sent to low Earth orbit. The spacecraft were deployed all at once a little more than an hour after launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 6)

SENTINEL-1D REACHES ORBIT ON ARIANE 6 - The Sentinel-1 mission – which provides radar vision for the Copernicus Earth observation programme – has a new addition to its family of satellites, with the arrival in orbit of Sentinel-1D, the last of the groundbreaking first generation. The launch took place at 22:02 CET (18:02 local time), on Tuesday, 4 November, on board an Ariane 6 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.   More
(Source: European Space Agency - Nov 6)

ULA SCRUBS ATLAS V ROCKET LAUNCH DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUE - United Launch Alliance scrubbed the planned launch of the ViaSat-3 F2 mission tonight (Nov. 5) due to a technical issue. The next opportunity will come Thursday (Nov. 6) at 10:16 p.m. EDT (0316 GMT on Nov. 7). ViaSat-3 F2, which weighs about 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms), was scheduled to lift off atop an Atlas V today from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, during a 44-minute window that opens at 10:24 p.m. EST (0324 GMT on Nov. 6).   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 6)

A COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION STARTUP NOW HAS A FOOTHOLD IN SPACE - A pathfinder mission for Vast’s privately owned space station launched into orbit Sunday and promptly extended its solar panel, kicking off a shakedown cruise to prove the company’s designs can meet the demands of spaceflight. Vast’s Haven Demo mission lifted off just after midnight Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into orbit. Haven Demo was one of 18 satellites sharing a ride on SpaceX’s Bandwagon 4 mission, launching alongside a South Korean spy satellite and a small testbed for Starcloud, a startup working with Nvidia to build an orbital data center.   More
(Source: Ars Technica - Nov 5)

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL FALL TO EARTH IN 2030. CAN A PRIVATE SPACE STATION REALLY FILL ITS GAP? - When the International Space Station plunges to its fiery doom in 2030, its loss to science will be incalculable, even if it remains an open question as to whether its successes matched humanity's ambitions for it. By the time that the International Space Station (ISS) is safely and deliberately de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean, the station will have been permanently crewed for 30 years — it has had visitors ever since the first Expedition 1 mission (consisting of one astronaut and two cosmonauts) first docked with the fledgling, half-built station on November 2, 2000.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 5)

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