ASTRONAUT SULTAN ALNEYADI SEES 16 SUNSETS DAILY ON THE SPACE STATION. HOW WILL HE OBSERVE RAMADAN - For centuries, a setting sun has signaled the end of fasting rituals on holidays such as Ramadan and Yom Kippur, a cue to tuck into a delicious meal after a full day of abstaining from food and drink. But what if the sun’s clockwork were to suddenly change, as it does for astronauts riding aboard the International Space Station? The orbiting laboratory whips around the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour (27,600 kilometers per hour), giving passengers 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.    More
(Source: CNN - Mar 29)

LEAKY SOYUZ SPACECRAFT AT SPACE STATION RETURNS TO EARTH IN SPEEDY LANDING - A Soyuz space capsule that suffered a major coolant leak in December departed the International Space Station without a crew early Tuesday (March 28) to return to Earth for engineers to study. The leaky Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft cast off from its docking port on the Russian-built Rassvet module of the International Space Station without any astronauts aboard — a rarity for Russia's Roscosmos space program — at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT).   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 29)

DAMAGED SOYUZ MS-22 CRAFT PREPARES TO COME HOME UNCREWED - The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, which launched Expedition 68 crewmembers Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and NASA’s Frank Rubio on Sept. 21, 2022, is preparing to come back to Earth in automated mode after suffering a leak in a coolant loop last December.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 28)

SPACEX’S STARLINK AND OTHER SATELLITE INTERNET PROVIDERS ARE MAKING LIGHT POLLUTION WORSE FOR ASTRONOMERS - The swift rise of internet satellites, forming megaconstellations, and accumulating space junk are already starting to mess with astronomers’ research. The problem is growing exponentially, scientists warn in a series of papers published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy. And they want regulators to do something about it. The swarm of satellites functioning in low Earth orbit has more than doubled since 2019, when space-based internet initiatives really started to take off. That year, SpaceX and OneWeb launched their first batches of satellites with the goal of providing global internet coverage.    More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 27)

CANADA AGREES TO ISS EXTENSION TO 2030 - The Canadian government formally committed March 24 to an extension of the International Space Station to 2030, joining other Western partners but not Russia. As part of a summit meeting in Ottawa between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden, the two governments confirmed that Canada would participate in the ISS through 2030 as part of a renewed commitment to space exploration that includes contributions to the NASA-led lunar Gateway.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 26)

LVM-3 PUTS 36 ONEWEB SATELLITES IN ORBIT, FIRM COMPLETES LEO CONSTELLATION - Isro on Sunday successfully launched 36 satellites of Bharti-backed OneWeb enabling the completion of the UK firm’s first generation (Gen-1) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation into space.The GSLV-Mk2 or LVM3 took off smoothly at 9am as scheduled and completed the nearly 20-minute launch sequence with textbook precision and the first two batches of satellites (eight) separated in the 19th minute. The remaining satellites separated thereafter in batches. The 20 satellites after the first four batches happened out of visible range.   More
(Source: Times of India - Mar 26)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES BLACKSKY SATELLITES - Rocket Lab launched a pair of BlackSky imaging satellites March 24 on a launch that was also a test of its ability to recover and reuse boosters. The Electron rocket lifted off at 5:14 a.m. Eastern from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Weather postponed the launch two days, while concerns about an ongoing geomagnetic storm caused the launch to slip by nearly 90 minutes.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 25)

RUSSIA’S SOYUZ-2.1A LAUNCHES BARS-M RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE - Making its first military launch since November, Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket has deployed Kosmos 2567 – likely a Bars-M reconnaissance satellite – into Sun-synchronous orbit. Soyuz lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 9:40 AM Moscow Time (06:40 UTC), taking around ten minutes to complete its mission. As is typical for Russian military launches, few details of Thursday’s launch have been made public.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 25)

FALCON 9 DEPLOYS 56 STARLINK SATELLITES ON SPACEX’S 20TH LAUNCH OF THE YEAR - SpaceX continued launching satellites for the Starlink internet network Friday, sending a Falcon 9 rocket aloft from Cape Canaveral with 56 more older-generation broadband spacecraft as ground teams troubleshoot problems with a batch of upgraded Starlinks launched last month. The 56 satellites were packed on top of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff at 11:43:10 a.m. EDT (1543:10 UTC) Friday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)

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