ROCKET LAB DEPLOYS TWO CAPELLA RADAR SATELLITES AFTER LAUNCH FROM VIRGINIA - Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher delivered two all-weather radar Earth observation satellites into orbit for Capella Space Thursday night after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, successfully completing the company’s second flight from the U.S. spaceport. Running five days late due to bad weather and unfavorable upper level winds, the 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron rocket fired its nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford main engines and climbed away from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, co-located with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 18)

NASA USES 30-YEAR SATELLITE RECORD TO TRACK AND PROJECT RISING SEAS - Observations from space show that the rate of sea level rise is increasing. Knowing where and how much rise is happening can help coastal planners prepare for future hazards. The average global sea level rose by 0.11 inches (0.27 centimeters) from 2021 to 2022, according to a NASA analysis of satellite data. That’s the equivalent of adding water from a million Olympic-size swimming pools to the ocean every day for a year, and is part of a multidecade trend of rising seas.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 18)

CHINA LAUNCHES 2ND HORUS REMOTE-SENSING SATELLITE FOR EGYPT - China has launched a second remote-sensing satellite for Egypt, just weeks after lofting the first in the series to orbit. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 12:02 a.m. EDT on March 13 (0402 GMT, or 12:02 p.m. Beijing time). Orange exhaust pushed the rocket off the pad, with insulation tiles falling away as the rocket climbed into the sky.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 17)

SPACEX SUPPLY SHIP DOCKS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A day-and-a-half after launching from Florida, SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft is on course for docking at the International Space Station Thursday to deliver fresh food, experiments, CubeSats, and a suite of U.S. military tech demo payloads. The automated linkup between the Dragon supply ship and the Harmony module on the space station is scheduled for 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT) Thursday, following the mission’s launch Tuesday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 16)

CHINA LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED SHIYAN-19 TEST SATELLITE FROM THE GOBI DESERT - China launched a new classified satellite Wednesday as part of an apparent space systems development test program. A Long March 11 solid rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 7:41 a.m. Eastern, March 15, rising into the dusk above the Gobi Desert. The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced within an hour of launch that the payload, designated Shiyan-19, had successfully entered its intended, near-polar orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 16)

SATELLITE MANUFACTURERS CONTINUE TO DIVERSIFY - Companies with a history of manufacturing large geostationary satellites have succeeded in diversifying their product lines to attract new customers. “We are not on the precipice of change; The entire business has changed,” Cyrus Dhalla, Northrop Grumman Tactical Space Systems Division senior vice president and general manager, said March 13 during a manufacturing panel at the Satellite 2023 conference here. Gone are the days of 20 annual orders for large geostationary communications satellites. Now, there may be “10, 12, 13, 14” orders per year, said Claude Rousseau, NSR research director and panel moderator.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 15)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FIRES THRUSTERS TO DODGE SPACE JUNK - The International Space Station (ISS) had to perform a debris avoidance maneuver to dodge yet another piece of space junk on Tuesday (March 14). Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos reported that the incident occurred at 2:54 p.m. Moscow time, or 7:54 a.m. EDT (1154 GMT) on Tuesday, in a statement (opens in new tab) on Telegram. The Russian Progress MS-22 cargo capsule currently docked at the orbital laboratory fired its thrusters for 135 seconds to move the station to safety and adjust its average altitude to 260 miles (419 km) above Earth's surface.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 15)

SPACEX CARGO DRAGON SPACECRAFT LIFTS OFF FROM FLORIDA - A SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft packed with nearly 6,300 pounds of fresh food, hardware, and experiments for the International Space Station lifted off Tuesday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, kicking off a 36-hour transit to the orbiting research complex where it will dock for a month-long mission. Liftoff of the Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 8:30:42 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0030:42 GMT Wednesday). The Falcon 9 thundered into a mostly clear sky on a crisp evening at the Florida spaceport.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 15)

CHINA LAUNCHES PAIR OF MYSTERIOUS EARTH-MAPPING SATELLITES - China launched a pair of cartography satellites on Thursday (March 9) to boost the country's Earth observation and mapping capabilities. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off into a pre-dawn sky above Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China at 5:41 p.m. EST on Thursday (2241 GMT, or 6:41 a.m. Beijing time on March 10), shedding insulation tiles as it climbed.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 14)

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