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)

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH SEVENTH X-37B MISSION - The Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in partnership with the United States Space Force, is scheduled to launch the seventh mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Dec. 7, 2023 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, designated USSF-52, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.   More
(Source: United States Space Force - Nov 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 80TH ORBITAL MISSION OF THE YEAR - SpaceX has had a successful launch yet again. A Falcon 9 rocket lofted 23 more of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday (Nov. 8) at 12:05 a.m EST (0505 GMT). t was the 11th launch and landing for this rocket's first stage, according to the mission description. The 23 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, were scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9's upper stage into low Earth orbit just under 65 minutes after liftoff.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 8)

SOUTH KOREA PLANS TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST MILITARY SPY SATELLITE ON NOV. 30 - South Korea said Monday it plans to launch its first domestically built spy satellite at the end of this month to better monitor rival North Korea, which is expanding its arsenal of nuclear weapons. The plan was unveiled days after North Korea failed to follow through on a vow to make a third attempt to launch its own reconnaissance satellite in October, likely because of technical issues.   More
(Source: Military.com - Nov 8)

EU FINE-TUNES PLAN TO LAUNCH GALILEO SATELLITES ON SPACEX - The European Union has struck a tentative deal to launch four Galileo navigation satellites using Falcon 9 rockets of U.S.-based SpaceX, European officials said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of pressure caused by a gap in European launch capacity. The agreement spans two launches pencilled in for April and July next year, carrying two satellites each, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters in Seville, Spain, following EU ministerial talks on competitivity in space.   More
(Source: Reuters - Nov 8)

JAPANESE SCIENTISTS WANT TO SEND A WOODEN SATELLITE INTO SPACE - Aluminum rockets and steel skyscrapers; slick high-speed shuttles and glassy facades: that’s how “the future” has been imagined for decades. But that’s not what Koji Murata imagines. A researcher at Kyoto University in Japan, Murata has been exploring how biological materials could be used in space. Murata wondered if he “could build a wooden house on the moon or Mars,” and decided to test the theory — by creating a wooden satellite.   More
(Source: CNN - Nov 8)

LEOLABS DATA SHOWS ON-ORBIT MANEUVERS BY RUSSIAN SATELLITES - The space tracking firm LeoLabs over the past year tracked two Russian satellites performing rendezvous and proximity operations. These satellites — Resurs-P3 and Cosmos-2562 — conducted maneuvers that offer a glimpse of the potential hazards that U.S. and allied spacecraft could face in low Earth orbit, the company said. Resurs-P3 — a Russian Earth observation satellite — performed a large maneuver in November 2022 after years of inactivity, and approached the Russian military satellite Cosmos-2562, according to a LeoLabs briefing.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 7)

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