SPACEX CLOSES OUT FIRST HALF OF 2023 WITH ANOTHER STARLINK LAUNCH - A Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Friday with 56 more Starlink internet satellites, wrapping up SpaceX’s action-packed first half of the year that included the debut of the company’s Starship mega-rocket, two Falcon Heavy missions, and two astronaut launches. SpaceX’s 44th launch of the year is scheduled to take off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 UTC) Friday, the company’s second mission in two days. SpaceX pushed back the launch time from earlier Friday morning due to stormy weather.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 24)

DELTA 4-HEAVY ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH NRO SPY SATELLITE - The second-to-last flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Thursday and delivered a top secret spy satellite into orbit for the U.S. government, snapping the longest lull in launches in ULA’s history. Liftoff of ULA’s 15th Delta 4-Heavy rocket, and 44th Delta 4 rocket overall, occurred at 5:18 a.m. EDT (0918 UTC) Thursday from Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA’s launch team pushed back the launch time by more than 90 minutes Thursday after preparations fell behind schedule due to stormy weather.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 23)

COSMONAUT ROUNDS OUT SPACEX'S CREW-7 MISSION TO THE SPACE STATION - SpaceX's seventh operational astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) now has a full crew manifest. Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will fly aboard Crew-7 as a mission specialist, NASA announced on Friday (June 16). Earlier this year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced its intention to fly Borisov on Crew-7, as a part of ongoing seat-swap agreements with NASA. This will be Borisov's first spaceflight since his acceptance into Russia's astronaut corps in 2018. Borisov joins another spaceflight rookie on the mission, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who will serve as Crew-7's commander.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 23)

NASA INVITES MEDIA TO NORTHROP GRUMMAN CARGO LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - Media accreditation is open for launch of the next commercial resupply services mission to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting liftoff of the company’s Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, named the S.S. Laurel Clark, no earlier than 8:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 1, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.   More
(Source: NASA - Jun 23)

RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS TOSS OLD EQUIPMENT OVERBOARD ON ISS SPACEWALK - Two Russian cosmonauts spent six hours outside the International Space Station on Thursday (June 22) cleaning up the exterior of the orbiting laboratory by removing and tossing overboard a trio of no longer needed devices, including a spent science experiment. Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, both of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, exited the space station's Poisk module at 10:24 a.m. EDT (1424 GMT) on Thursday.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 23)

TECHNICAL FAULT FORCES U.S. SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH TO BE POSTPONED TO THURSDAY - The launch of United Launch Alliance's heavy space launch vehicle with a spy satellite aboard for the U.S. Defense Department's NROL-68 space reconnaissance program was aborted early Wednesday due to a technical glitch. The launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was called off due to "an issue with a ground systems pneumatic valve," and liftoff had been pushed back to Thursday at 3:25 a.m. EDT, ULA said in a Twitter post.    More
(Source: UPI - Jun 22)

INTRODUCING CREW-7! - The final two crewmembers of Crew-7, for which ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is the pilot, have been announced. They will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer. In addition to Andreas and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli who were already announced as Crew-7 pilots, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos astronaut Konstantin Borisov will take two seats in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.   More
(Source: ESA - Jun 21)

NASA PLANS COVERAGE OF ROSCOSMOS SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Thursday, June 22, for station upgrades and retrieval of equipment. Coverage will begin at 9:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 10:20 a.m. and last up to seven hours.   More
(Source: NASA - Jun 21)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SPACE EXPERIMENT SATELLITE - China on Tuesday launched a Long March-6 carrier rocket to place a new experiment satellite in space. The rocket carrying the Shiyan-25 experiment satellite lifted off at 11:18 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi. The satellite successfully entered the preset orbit. This satellite will mainly be used to carry out new Earth-observation technology experiments.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Jun 21)

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