SPACEX TO LAUNCH 22 STARLINK SATELLITES ON OCT. 9 - SpaceX is set to launch 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Monday night (Oct. 9). The Starlink spacecraft are scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday at 8:42 p.m. EDT (0042 GMT on Oct. 10). Four backup opportunities are available as well, from 9:32 p.m. EDT until 12:10 a.m. EDT (0132 to 0410 GMT on Oct. 10).   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 9)

CHINA TO DOUBLE SIZE OF SPACE STATION, TOUTS ALTERNATIVE TO NASA-LED ISS - China plans to expand its space station to six modules from three in coming years, offering astronauts from other nations an alternative platform for near-Earth missions as the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) nears the end of its lifespan. The operational lifetime of the Chinese space station will be more than 15 years, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a unit of China's main space contractor, said at the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday.   More
(Source: Reuters - Oct 8)

STARSHIP SATELLITE LAUNCHES A YEAR AWAY - SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk says it will be about a year before the company’s new Starship vehicle will be ready to start launching satellites. Musk, speaking virtually at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 5, said he felt that the vehicle would be able to start launching SpaceX’s advanced Starlink satellites even before the company had demonstrated the ability to safely recover both stages of the vehicle.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 8)

ATLAS 5 LAUNCHES AMAZON KUIPER SATELLITES FOR TESTS OF SPACE-BASED INTERNET SERVICE - A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off Friday and boosted a pair of prototype internet satellites into orbit for Amazon’s Kuiper program, the latest entry in the increasingly competitive space-based broadband market currently dominated by SpaceX. “We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing,” Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper’s vice president of technology, said in a statement. “This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 8)

ORBITAL 'PARKING SPOTS' COULD HELP PREVENT SATELLITE TRAFFIC JAMS - Space vehicles may soon be assigned parking spots to prevent traffic pileups in Earth's orbit. Roughly 10 times the number of satellites currently in space are expected to launch by 2030 — And this rapid expansion of Earth-observation and communications satellites is bound to create some congestion in space and therefore risk in-orbit collisions.   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 6)

ATLAS 5 TO DELIVER FIRST AMAZON INTERNET SATELLITES TO ORBIT ON FRIDAY - Amazon is getting its own delivery fulfilled this Friday, adding to an extensive portfolio that includes its online marketplace, streaming video, grocery and cloud services, with the launch of two prototype relay stations for a space-based internet service it calls Project Kuiper. The satellites, dubbed KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, are set to launch on Friday, Oct. 6 during a two-hour launch window that opens at 2 p.m. EDT (1600 UTC). They are hitching a ride to low Earth orbit atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 6)

SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET THREADS WEATHER NEEDLE AND LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - Despite blustery winds and wet weather, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral early Thursday morning on the 70th Falcon flight and 44th Starlink delivery mission of the year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 UTC), on the fourth of five launch opportunities that night. SpaceX did not give a specific reason for repeatedly pushing back the launch time, but in a social media post about 35 minutes prior to launch said: “Teams are keeping an eye on weather conditions at the launch site.” High winds and frequent showers buffeted the area throughout the night.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 5)

FCC ISSUES FIRST-EVER FINE FOR LEAVING JUNK IN SPACE - The FCC has issued its first fine for space junk to Dish Network for not properly deorbiting its satellite. The company admitted it was liable for not shifting its EchoStar-7 to a safer spot and will pay a penalty of $150,000 and implement a compliance plan. Space debris — non-functioning manmade materials floating around space — can pose a hazard to working infrastructure, including the ISS, which has had run-ins with debris in the past.   More
(Source: The Verge - Oct 5)

CHINESE ASTRONOMERS SAY THEIR NEW SPACE TELESCOPE WILL OUTDO HUBBLE - China is readying a major project that not only augments the nation's astronomical research agenda but bolsters the use of the country's space station complex. And there are bragging rights associated with China's star-studded venture. The spacecraft is called Xuntian, known as the Chinese Survey Space Telescope or the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST). The name "Xuntian" can be literally translated as "surveying the sky" or "survey of the heavens."   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 5)

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