NASA SELECTS SPACEX FOR RIDESHARE LAUNCH OF SMALLSAT MISSION - NASA has selected SpaceX to launch a pair of smallsats to study space weather as part of a rideshare mission in 2025. NASA announced Sept. 29 that it awarded SpaceX a task order to launch the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), a pair of smallsats that will study space weather and the magnetosphere from low Earth orbit. NASA selected TRACERS in 2019 as a heliophysics Small Explorer, or SMEX, mission, with a cost of no more than $115 million.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 2)

INDONESIA TO LAUNCH 20 NANO-SATELLITES TO MAP SEA ACTIVITIES - Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, has informed that 20 nano-satellites will be launched and made operational in 2024 to map conditions and activities at sea. "A total of 20 nano-satellites will be launched and begin operating in 2024. The collaboration with Starlink will be carried out to help fishing vessels send data online using the e-PIT (Electronic Measured Fishing) application," the minister informed at a seminar held to commemorate National Maritime Day on Friday.   More
(Source: Tempo.co English - Oct 2)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT FROM FLORIDA - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 22 Starlink satellites from Florida's Space Coast Friday evening (Sept. 29) and landed on a ship at sea. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 10:00 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT on Sept. 30). The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth for a vertical landing on a SpaceX drone ship at sea about 8.5 minutes after launch, as planned.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 30)

SOYUZ LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN TO END RECORD-BREAKING MISSION; RUBIO: “IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME” - NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth early Wednesday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an unexpected yearlong stay in space, the longest single flight in U.S. space history. With Soyuz MS-69/23S commander Sergey Prokopyev monitoring cockpit displays, flanked on the left by co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and on the right by NASA flight engineer Frank Rubio, the Russian ferry ship undocked from the space station’s multi-port Prichal module at 3:54 a.m. EDT.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 29)

EUTELSAT AND ONEWEB COMBINE TO CREATE EUROPEAN SATELLITE GIANT AS MUSK’S STARLINK PRESSURES SECTOR - OneWeb, the British satellite giant, completed its combination with French rival Eutelsat Thursday, setting the stage for a European challenger to Elon Musk’s space internet venture Starlink. The two companies said in a joint statement that they had completed their all-share combination, which will see OneWeb’s constellation of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites added to Eutelsat’s geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites.   More
(Source: CNBC - Sep 29)

CHINA ADDS YET ANOTHER YAOGAN SPY SATELLITE TO ITS ORBITAL FLEET - China has launched another new Yaogan reconnaissance satellite. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 4:15 p.m. EDT on Sept. 26 (2015 GMT; 4:15 a.m. Beijing Time on Sept. 27). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced the successful launch within an hour of liftoff, confirming the previously undisclosed payload as Yaogan 33 (04) — meaning a fourth satellite in the Yaogan 33 series.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 29)

IRAN CLAIMS IT LAUNCHED NEW IMAGING SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Iran claimed on Wednesday it successfully launched an imaging satellite into space, which could further ratchet up tensions with Western nations that fear its space technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran's Communication Minister Isa Zarepour said the Noor-3 satellite had been put in an orbit 450 kilometers (280 miles) above the Earth's surface, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. It was not clear when exactly the launch took place.    More
(Source: CBS News - Sep 29)

WATCH A NASA ASTRONAUT AND 2 COSMONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH AFTER 1 YEAR IN SPACE ON SEPT. 27 - Frank Rubio and his two Russian crewmates are scheduled to depart the ISS at 3:54 a.m. ET on Wednesday (Sept. 27). An extra-long space mission for three men in orbit is about to come to an end. American astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA and his two Russian crewmates are scheduled to return to Earth early Wednesday (Sept. 27) after spending more than a year in space, and you can watch the action live online.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 27)

FIRST LONG-DURATION LIDAR SATELLITE MISSION CALIPSO ENDS - CALIPSO, a lidar satellite that advanced the world’s understanding of climate, weather, and air quality, ended its scientific mission on Aug. 1, 2023. CALIPSO Researchers used the space-based CALIPSO lidar to measure the planet’s largest animal migration, which takes place when small sea creatures swim up from the depths at night to feed on phytoplankton, then back down again just before sunrise. Credits: NASA/Timothy Marvel Across 17 years of operation, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation recorded more than 10 billion lidar measurements and informed thousands of scientific reports. CALIPSO was launched jointly by NASA and the France's Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/CNES and in tandem with the cloud-profiling radar system on the CloudSat satellite.   More
(Source: NASA - Sep 27)

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