FIREFLY READY FOR CALL-UP TO LAUNCH MILITARY ‘RESPONSIVE SPACE’ MISSION - Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space Systems announced Aug. 30 that they are standing by waiting for orders from the U.S. Space Force to prepare to launch a satellite on short notice. The companies were selected last year to conduct a demonstration of a rapid-response space mission to low Earth orbit known as Victus Nox. Although this mission has been promoted as a 24-hour call-up, it is being planned in multiple stages and the companies have spent months rehearsing and preparing.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 31)

OLD SOVIET SATELLITE BREAKS APART IN ORBIT AFTER SPACE DEBRIS COLLISION - A three-decade-old Soviet satellite has disintegrated in orbit some 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above Earth, likely following a space debris strike. The disintegration of the satellite, either the Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145 spacecraft, was reported on X, previously Twitter, by astrophysicist and space debris expert Jonathan McDowell. The event highlights the precarious situation in Earth's orbit where old objects accumulated throughout the more than 60 years of space exploration and utilization are now posing threats to new, still functioning satellites.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 31)

NASA DEEP SPACE NETWORK REACHES “CRITICAL POINT” AS DEMAND GROWS - Increasing demand but decreasing budgets are putting a strain on NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), threatening its ability to provide communications for the agency’s science missions and Artemis lunar expeditions. While pressures on the DSN, a system of antennas located in Australia, California and Spain used primarily for communications with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit, have been growing for years, the Artemis 1 mission and the demands it placed on the network laid bare the challenges NASA will face in the future, officials warned.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 30)

STATION HOSTS 11 CREWMATES FROM FIVE COUNTRIES - Eleven astronauts and cosmonauts are living together aboard the International Space Station following the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission on Sunday. While the new crewmates get adapted to life in microgravity another crew is preparing for its departure this weekend. The orbital outpost’s newest crew of four, representing the U.S., Denmark, Japan, and Russia, arrived on Sunday aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are familiarizing themselves with station safety procedures and getting used to life on orbit.   More
(Source: - Aug 29)

NASA TO DEMONSTRATE LASER COMMUNICATIONS FROM SPACE STATION - NASA uses the International Space Station — a football field-sized spacecraft orbiting Earth — to learn more about living and working in space. In 2023, NASA is sending a technology demonstration known as the Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) to the space station. Together, ILLUMA-T and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which launched in December 2021, will complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system.   More
(Source: NASA - Aug 29)

TROPICAL STORM IDALIA DELAYS NATIONAL SECURITY ATLAS 5 LAUNCH FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - A tropical storm barreling towards the Florida peninsula caused United Launch Alliance (ULA) to stand down from an Atlas 5 launch planned for Tuesday. Meteorologists forecast Tropical Storm Idalia to become a major Category 3 Hurricane by the time it makes landfall on Wednesday. Late Monday evening, ULA announced it would roll the rocket back to the safety of the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) ahead of the storm “out of an abundance of caution for personnel safety” as well for the safety of “a critical national security payload.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 29)

LAUNCH OF REVOLUTIONARY SATELLITE AND ‘MOON SNIPER’ LUNAR LANDER SCRUBBED JUST BEFORE LIFTOFF - The launch of a revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander has been postponed. Liftoff was expected at at 8:26 p.m. ET Sunday, or 9:26 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Monday, but inclement weather — and specifically high upper winds above the launch site — led to the postponement less than 30 minutes prior, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. While the agency has not announced a new launch date, the launchpad at the Tanegashima Space Center is reserved through September 15.    More
(Source: CNN - Aug 28)

SPACEX FALCON 9 LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 mission of the day, sending 22 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit on Saturday at 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 UTC). It followed the successful launch of a four-member crew to the International Space Station earlier in the day. With Saturday’s successful mission, more than 5,000 Starlink satellites have now reached orbit. Based on statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who maintains a space flight database, SpaceX has now launched a total of 5,005 Starlinks since 2019.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 28)

SPACEX CREW-7 DRAGON CAPSULE DOCKS AT SPACE STATION WITH INTERNATIONAL ASTRONAUT TEAM - A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station Sunday (Aug. 27) to ferry a new astronaut crew to the orbiting lab to begin a half-year mission. The Crew Dragon capsule Endurance docked at the International Space Station (ISS) at 9:16 a.m. EDT (1313 GMT), where it parked itself at a space-facing port on the outpost's U.S.-built Harmony module after flying a wide loop around the orbital outpost. Dragon and the station were soaring 261 miles above Australia at the time.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 27)

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