VIASAT NOT READY TO DECLARE VIASAT-3 AMERICAS A TOTAL LOSS - Viasat is holding off on a contingency plan for ViaSat-3 Americas in the hope it could still get some capacity from the broadband satellite despite its defective antenna, the operator’s chair and CEO Mark Dankberg said Aug. 9. Engineers have been able to get end-to-end measurements showing the rest of the satellite is operating as expected or better, Dankberg said during the company’s earnings call.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 10)

RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS MAKE SPACEWALK AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A cosmonaut took a test ride on the end of a European robot arm during a six-hour 35-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station Wednesday amid work to install three micrometeoroid debris shields and relocate a work platform. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin installed the debris shields over two areas on the Russian Rassvet module where an experiment airlock and radiator panel had been mounted for several years. Both were moved to the Nauka multi-purpose lab module during spacewalks earlier this year.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 10)

NORTHROP GRUMMAN AND FIREFLY’S ANTARES 330 AND MLV PLANS TAKE SHAPE - As the Cygnus S.S. Laurel Clark spends its first days berthed to the ISS, the successor to the Antares 230+ launch vehicle that launched it is taking shape in the facilities of Northrop Grumman (NG) and Firefly Aerospace. The Antares 330/Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV), scheduled for its first flight in mid-2025, is being developed to conduct ISS cargo flights from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. Its development started after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 crippled the existing Antares supply chain.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 10)

VYOMA ORDERS PILOT SATELLITES FOR DEBRIS-MONITORING CONSTELLATION - German startup Vyoma has ordered two pilot satellites for its proposed space debris-monitoring constellation from EnduroSat, the eight-year-old Bulgarian cubesat specialist. Luisa Buinhas, Vyoma co-founder and chief product officer, said Aug. 9 the spacecraft’s technical details are confidential but they would be based on a microsatellite platform between 50-500 kilograms. The plan is to launch the satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) around the end of 2024 and Vyoma expects to announce a launch provider soon.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 10)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 15 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET AT SEA - SpaceX launched 15 more of its Starlink internet satellites Monday night (Aug. 7) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base Monday at 11:57 p.m. EDT (8:57 p.m. local California time and 0357 GMT on Aug. 8). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, landing on the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about 9.5 minutes after launch.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 9)

CHINA LAUNCHES FENGYUN-3F METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE TO ORBIT - China has added a new satellite to its fleet of meteorological spacecraft. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Aug. 2 at 11:47 p.m. EDT (0347 GMT; 11:47 a.m. Beijing Time on Aug. 3). Orange smoke from the rocket’s hypergolic propellant billowed out upon ignition, with purple exhaust pushing the rocket into blue skies. Insulation tiles, used to keep propellant at optimum temperatures, fell from the rocket as it climbed.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 9)

NASA SETS COVERAGE OF ROSCOSMOS SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 10:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 9, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 10:45 a.m., and last up to seven hours. Coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.   More
(Source: NASA - Aug 8)

LOCKHEED MARTIN’S DATA-TRANSPORT SATELLITE CLEARS DESIGN REVIEW - A communications satellite designed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency passed a critical design review, the company announced Aug. 7. Lockheed Martin will build 42 satellites for SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer, a mesh network in low Earth orbit that will support U.S. military operations. The company in February 2022 won a $700 million contract to produce the satellites using buses made by Terran Orbital. The Tranche 1 Transport Layer of 126 satellites also will include spacecraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman and York Space Systems.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 8)

SCIENTISTS RECONSTRUCT AEOLUS SATELLITE'S FIERY FALL TO EARTH FROM SPACE - On Friday, July 28, the wind-measuring spacecraft Aeolus made its fiery return to Earth, disintegrating high above the planet's surface in the first controlled reentry of its kind. Now, about one week later, engineers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have calculated the descent path of Aeolus, the first satellite ever to measure the winds of Earth from space and named after the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology.   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 8)

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