NASA UPDATES PLANS FOR USE OF COMMERCIAL SPACE STATIONS - NASA has released additional details about how it plans to use commercial space stations after the retirement of the International Space Station as some in industry seek to accelerate NASA’s support for them. NASA published two white papers Feb. 13 as part of a request for information (RFI) for its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations effort to support development of commercial stations. The documents provide new details about how NASA expects to work with companies operating those stations and the agency’s needs to conduct research there. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 17)
SPACEX DROPS PLANS TO CONVERT OIL RIGS INTO LAUNCH PLATFORMS - SpaceX has abandoned efforts to convert two oil rigs into launch platforms for its Starship vehicle, but the company still believes that offshore launch platforms will be part of its long-term plans. In 2020, SpaceX acquired two oil rigs, which it subsequently named Phobos and Deimos after the two moons of Mars. The company planned to convert the rigs into offshore launch platforms that would be used for its Starship vehicles. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 16)
SPACEX BREAKS LAUNCH PAD TURNAROUND RECORD WITH MIDNIGHT MISSION - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hauled 55 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit just after midnight Sunday from Cape Canaveral, breaking a record for the shortest time between missions — five days — from the same SpaceX launch pad. The mission was SpaceX’s 10th launch of the year, a pace of one launch every four days since Jan. 1. SpaceX is aiming to launch up to 100 Falcon rocket missions this year from launch pads in Florida and California, while teams in Texas ready for the first orbital test flight of the company’s giant new Starship launch vehicle. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 15)
RUSSIA DELAYS LAUNCH OF RELIEF SHIP TO KEEP INVESTIGATING SPACE STATION LEAK - Russia is delaying the launch of a ship to bring two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back from the International Space Station (ISS) while it investigates a pressure loss in another module, its space agency said on Monday. Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had said that a Soyuz MS-23 ship would be launched on Feb. 20 to bring back Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio. More (Source: Reuters - Feb 14)
LAUNCH DEMAND REMAINS HIGH DESPITE INDUSTRY STRUGGLES - Despite concerns about the viability of many new launch vehicle developers, many in the industry say those vehicles are needed as demand for launch outstrips supply. During a panel at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, Feb. 9, spacecraft developers and launch integrators said that, even with the predictions of “bloodletting” among small launch companies because of technical and financial challenges, new vehicles are needed to meet growing demand. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 13)
ANTARIS’ JANUS-1 SATELLITE REACHES ORBIT JUST 10 MONTHS AFTER CONCEPTION - JANUS-1, a 6U satellite built by Antaris and launched early Friday morning on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) SSLV-D2 rocket, has successfully reached orbit just 10 months after the satellite was initially conceived. Antaris, which designed and manufactured the satellite using the company’s end-to-end cloud platform, confirmed the successful delivery a few hours after launch. More (Source: Via Satellite - Feb 12)
SMALL SATELLITE GIVES BIG PUSH TO SCHOOLGIRLS’ DREAMS - On Friday, a large group of schoolgirls waiting at India’s spaceport in Sriharikota let out screams of joy as the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle - SSLV D2 - took off. These girls had created payloads for one of the satellites the SSLV D2 carried. About 750 girl students from across India were guided to develop the payloads for SpaceKidz India’s AzaadiSAT-2, which was placed in orbit by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday. SpaceKidz is a Chennai-based aerospace start-up. More (Source: The Hindu - Feb 12)
ISRO’S SECOND SSLV MISSION SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES TRIO OF SATELLITES - India’s new SSLV rocket has successfully reached orbit on its second attempt Friday, six months after its maiden flight ended in failure. Friday’s launch carried a trio of satellites, lifting off at 9:18 AM local time (03:48 UTC) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, or SSLV, has been developed by India to enable lower-cost and more rapidly responsive access to space for small satellite missions. It flew for the first time last August, however, an issue during stage separation meant that it could not achieve a stable orbit. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 55 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET ON SHIP AT SEA - SpaceX launched its 10th mission of the year early Sunday (Feb. 12), sending 55 of its Starlink internet satellites skyward and landing the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 55 Starlink craft lifted off Sunday at 12:10 a.m. EST (0510 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9's first stage landed as planned 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles off the Florida coast. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 12)
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