EUROPEAN WIND-MAPPING SATELLITE RETURNED SAFELY TO EARTH - A European wind-mapping satellite has returned successfully to Earth following a delicate assisted return designed to minimize damage from flying debris, the European Space Agency said on Saturday. It is the first time ESA's mission control had attempted an assisted re-entry through the planet's atmosphere.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Jul 30)

INDIAN ROCKET LAUNCHES 7 SATELLITES TO ORBIT - An Indian rocket launched seven satellites to orbit today (July 29). A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT and 6:30 a.m. local India time on July 30). The main payload that went up on the 145-foot-tall (44 meters) PSLV tonight was DS-SAR, a 794-pound (360 kilograms) satellite designed to image Earth in radar light. (SAR stands for "synthetic aperture radar.")   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 30)

WATCH ROCKET LAB LAUNCH EARTH-OBSERVING RADAR SATELLITE EARLY ON JULY 30 - Rocket Lab will launch an Earth-observing radar satellite for the company Capella Space early Sunday morning (July 30), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket carrying one of Capella Space's "Acadia" satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site Sunday during a two-hour window that opens at 3 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT; 7 p.m. local New Zealand time).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 30)

EUROPEAN SATELLITE WILL FALL TO EARTH TODAY IN LANDMARK 'ASSISTED REENTRY' - A European satellite will make spaceflight history today (July 28), if all goes according to plan. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Aeolus spacecraft is scheduled to reenter Earth's atmosphere this evening, capping a four-day orbit-lowering campaign that could blaze a new trail for satellite operators. "This is quite unique, what we're doing. You don't find really examples of this in the history of spaceflight," Holger Krag, head of ESA's Space Debris Office, said during a press briefing on July 19. "This is the first time to our knowledge [that] we have done an assisted reentry like this."   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 29)

SPACEX FALCON HEAVY LIFTS OFF WITH HEAVIEST COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE EVER - SpaceX will make another attempt Friday to launch the world’s heaviest commercial communications satellite atop a Falcon Heavy rocket after technical problems halted a countdown on Wednesday. Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A with the Jupiter 3/EchoStar 24 satellite is scheduled for 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 UTC Saturday). The U.S. Space Force 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral is forecasting a 75 percent chance of acceptable conditions for launch during the 99-minute launch window.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 29)

PAIR OF CHINESE LAUNCHES PUT FLAT-PANEL SATELLITE, NEW SPY SATS IN ORBIT - China has conducted a pair of orbital missions to launch a commercially developed flat-panel communications satellite and a new batch of spy satellites. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 4:02 p.m. Eastern, July 26. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) stated that the payload was a Yaogan-36 satellite. No further information on the payload was provided.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 28)

WHEN AND WHERE WILL EUROPE'S AEOLUS WIND SATELLITE FALL TO EARTH THIS WEEK? - A European satellite is making a first-of-its kind return to Earth this week. The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently guiding its Aeolus wind-studying satellite down for a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere. This strategy is a major shift for Aeolus, whose original end-of-life plan called for an unguided fall. It's also a milestone moment in spaceflight: No satellite has been deorbited in such an "assisted" fashion before, according to ESA. (Such maneuvers are common for rocket stages, which often steer themselves to safe reentries over the open ocean.)   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 27)

FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH OF LARGEST COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE SCRUBBED - SpaceX rolled a Falcon Heavy to the launch pad early Wednesday morning ahead of its planned liftoff tonight at 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 UTC) with the Jupiter 3/EchoStar 24 satellite, the heaviest commercial communications satellite ever launched. The giant rocket, consisting of three Falcon boosters strapped together with a single upper stage, emerged from its hangar, lying atop the Transporter Erector, at around 1 a.m. EDT (0500 UTC). It was hauled up the ramp to the pad along rails by airport-style tugs and a system of pulleys and cables. It was rotated upright just before 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC). It will be the seventh mission for the Falcon Heavy and the third this year.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 27)

NASA POWER OUTAGE TEMPORARILY HALTS CONTACT WITH SPACE STATION - A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Space station program manager Joel Montalbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage.   More
(Source: AP News - Jul 26)

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