RELATIVITY SPACE SETS DATE FOR FIRST TERRAN 1 LAUNCH - Relativity Space announced Feb. 22 it will attempt the first launch of its Terran 1 rocket as soon as March 8 after securing a launch license and skipping a planned final test. The company announced it received a Federal Aviation Administration launch license for its first Terran 1 mission. With the license in hand, the company says it is targeting a launch of the rocket March 8 between 1 and 4 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 23)

RUSSIA BLAMES PROGRESS LEAK ON ‘EXTERNAL INFLUENCES’ AS NEW SOYUZ PREPS FOR LAUNCH - Russia’s space agency said Tuesday that preliminary data suggest a coolant leak on a Progress cargo freighter docked at the International Space Station earlier this month was caused by “external influences” — possibly something that occurred during its launch last year, according to a senior NASA space station manager.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 22)

INMARSAT’S SECOND I-6 SATELLITE ON ITS WAY TO ORBIT AFTER SPACEX LAUNCH - Inmarsat’s second I-6 satellite, I-6 F2, is on its way to orbit after a SpaceX launch from Florida on February 17. Inmarsat confirmed post-launch the operator is communicating with the satellite. SpaceX launched the Airbus-built satellite from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on a Falcon 9 rocket on Friday evening. The satellite will now spend several months traveling to Geostationary Orbit before it is scheduled to enter service in 2024   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Feb 22)

RUSSIA RESCHEDULES SOYUZ LAUNCH AFTER PROGRESS UNDOCKS - Russia is moving ahead with the uncrewed launch of a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station after the post-undocking inspection of a Progress cargo spacecraft failed to show damage from a coolant leak. Roscosmos announced Feb. 18 that the council of designers at RSC Energia has recommended the Soyuz-2.1a launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft take place at 7:32 p.m. Eastern Feb. 23. That would set up the spacecraft to dock with the station two days later, shortly before the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission currently scheduled to launch early Feb. 26.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 21)

MEET THE SPACEX CREW-6 ASTRONAUTS LAUNCHING TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ON FEB. 26 - The sixth operational SpaceX space station mission will make history, bringing the first United Arab Emirates long-duration astronaut to space. Crew-6 will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Feb. 26 or so, with four astronauts on board a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. United Arab Emirates astronaut and Crew-6 member Sultan Al-Neyadi will be the first of his nation to do a space station rotation, following the first-ever Emirati astronaut flight in 2019.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 20)

SPACEX LAUNCHES INMARSAT-6 F2 IN A BOOST FOR DIRECT-TO-DEVICE SERVICES - SpaceX launched a satellite for Inmarsat Feb. 17 that gives the operator more capacity for partnerships in an emerging direct-to-device market. A Falcon 9 carrying the British company’s Inmarsat-6 F2 (I-6 F2) satellite lifted off 10:59 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. I-6 F2 separated from the rocket about 32 minutes later, and will use onboard electric propulsion to get to its geostationary orbit slot over the Atlantic Ocean over the next several months.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 20)

PROGRESS RESUPPLY UNDOCKS FROM STATION, ENDS CARGO MISSION - The uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST on Fri., Feb. 17. Following undocking, Expedition 68 cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin sent commands from the station’s Roscosmos segment to rotate the Progress for additional visual inspections of the general area where a coolant loop leak occurred on Feb. 11. Loaded with trash, Progress is being deorbited by Roscosmos flight controllers over the Pacific Ocean after spending four months at the station.   More
(Source: NASA - Feb 20)

FIRST LAUNCH OF JAPAN’S H3 ROCKET ABORTED MOMENTS BEFORE LIFTOFF - Japan’s first H3 rocket, nearly a decade in development, was moments from liftoff Thursday (U.S. time) when the launch vehicle detected a problem and cut off the countdown just before sending a command to ignite two strap-on solid-fueled boosters. The H3 rocket’s two hydrogen-fueled main engines ignited about 6.3 seconds before liftoff, sending a plume of exhaust out of the flame trench at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. But the H3’s dual solid rocket boosters did not light when the countdown clock struck zero.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 20)

FALCON 9 LAUNCH FROM CALIFORNIA ADDS 51 MORE SATELLITES TO STARLINK NETWORK - A Falcon 9 rocket delivered 51 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit Friday after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, adding to SpaceX’s global broadband network that reaches all seven continents. The Starlink 2-5 mission began with liftoff at 11:12:20 a.m. PST (2:12:20 p.m. EST; 1912:20 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, a military spaceport about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. After a smooth 35-minute automated countdown, the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines and climbed away from Vandenberg with 1.7 million pounds of thrust.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 20)

Previous Next