RUSSIA OFFERS BRICS PARTNERS A MODULE ON ITS PLANNED SPACE STATION - The head of Russia's space agency on Monday suggested Moscow's partners in the BRICS group - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - could build a module for its planned orbital station, the Interfax news agency reported. Reporting from a BRICS meeting on space cooperation in Hermanus, South Africa, Interfax said it was "assumed" that the first module of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) would be launched in 2027, with construction completed by 2032. More (Source: Reuters - Jul 25)
US RISKS FALLING BEHIND CHINA IN RAPID SATELLITE LAUNCHES, REPORT WARNS - China has probably surpassed the United States in its ability to quickly launch and replace satellites in the wake of a conflict or accident, according to a new report by an American university. By developing relatively small, mobile, solid-fuel rockets which can lift off from a mobile platform rather than launch pads, China had advanced a critical capability known as tactically responsive space launch (TRSL) over the past decade, said researchers from the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University in Washington. More (Source: South China Morning Post - Jul 25)
A SATELLITE WILL FALL TO EARTH THIS WEEK IN A 1ST-OF-ITS-KIND REENTRY. HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - This week will see a first-of-its-kind operation to guide a dead and disused satellite back to Earth safely. The mission will pave the way for the safe return of other space-based equipment in the future. The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to help its Aeolus spacecraft officially reenter Earth's atmosphere during the evening of Friday (July 28). The procedure to bring it back down to our planet, however, begins on Monday (July 24). More (Source: Space.com - Jul 25)
CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE WITH FLEXIBLE SOLAR WING - China launched its first flat-panel stackable satellite with a flexible solar wing on Sunday, along with another three remote sensing satellites, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. Sent by a Long March-2D rocket which blasted off at 10:50 a.m. Beijing Time, all four satellites have entered their preset orbit. More (Source: CGTN - Jul 24)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 22 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET AT SEA - SpaceX launched 22 Starlink satellites to orbit Sunday night (July 23) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Sunday at 8:50 p.m. EDT (0050 GMT on July 24) after a one-day weather delay. The Falcon 9's first stage came back down to Earth for a landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned. It touched down on the SpaceX droneship Just Read the Instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 24)
CHINA PLANS TO CONDUCT OVER 1,000 EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE STATION - China has planned to carry out more than 1,000 scientific experiments in the China Space Station in the next 10 to 15 years, according to the country's leading research facility in space utilization. The China Space Station has been successfully assembled, with facilities for scientific experiments deployed and calibrated. For the next decade, the space station will enter the phase of application and development, serving as a research platform for scientists and engineers to explore the secrets of space. More (Source: CGTN - Jul 23)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 22 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT SUNDAY NIGHT - SpaceX plans to launch 22 Starlink internet satellites to orbit Sunday night (July 23), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Sunday at 7:09 p.m. EDT (2309 GMT on July 23) after a one-day weather delay. You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before liftoff. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 23)
AMAZON UNVEILS PLANS FOR $120 MILLION SATELLITE PROCESSING FACILITY FOR ITS INTERNET CONSTELLATION - On Friday, online retail giant amazon will join with members of Space Florida to reveal its plans for a 100,000-square-foot satellite processing facility located at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Amazon hopes to rival satellite internet companies like SpaceX in the coming years with its forthcoming Project Kuiper constellation. The goal is to launch and operate more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit as part of a system that includes customer terminals and a ground network, powered by Amazon Web Services. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 22)
CHINA LAUNCHES 4 COMMERCIAL WEATHER SATELLITES TO ORBIT - A Chinese solid rocket launched a new batch of commercial satellites from the Gobi Desert on Wednesday (July 19). A Kuaizhou 1A rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Wednesday at 11:20 p.m. EDT (0320 GMT, or 11:20 a.m. Beijing Time on July 20). Aboard were four Tianmu 1 satellites, designated numbers 07-10, for collecting weather data. The satellites and rocket upper stage were later detected by space domain awareness tracking in orbits with an altitude of roughly 326 miles (524 kilometers) and an inclination of 97.4 degrees. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 22)
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