PLATZI LAUNCHES ITS OWN SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Platzi, the Colombian edtech company, has made a groundbreaking move by putting its satellite, the PlatziSat-1 in orbit. The company aims to involve more people in the aerospace industry in Latin America. The 15-inch satellite will orbit Earth for two years, serving as the cornerstone for Platzi’s Space Program. The program consists of 11 courses covering various aspects of satellite construction, ground stations, data reception from PlatziSat-1, and communication with other open satellites.   More
(Source: LatamList - Jul 4)

EUROPEAN SATELLITE STRIKES LIGHTNING - The first ever satellite instrument capable of continuously detecting lightning across Europe and Africa has now been switched on. New animations from the innovative ‘Lighting Imager’ confirm the instrument will revolutionise the detection and prediction of severe storms. ESA along with European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat) today have released the first animations from the Lightning Imager onboard the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite, which launched on 13 December 2022.   More
(Source: European Space Agency - Jul 4)

CHINA’S CHANGGUANG SATELLITE DEMONSTRATES SPACE-TO-GROUND LASER LINKS - A Chinese satellite manufacturer and constellation operator says it has successfully demonstrated space-to-ground high-speed laser communications which could help China break bottlenecks in getting data from space down to the ground. Changguang Satellite Technology (CGST) recently carried out the test with its Jilin-1 MF02A04 remote sensing satellite. The test was conducted in cooperation with the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 3)

SPACEX LAUNCHES EUROPEAN ‘DARK ENERGY TELESCOPE’ TO HELP UNRAVEL COSMOLOGY’S BIGGEST MYSTERIES - The European Space Agency launched its $1.5 billion Euclid space telescope Saturday, an ambitious, first-of-a-kind attempt to pin down the nature of dark matter, an unknown material pervading the cosmos, and dark energy, the mysterious repulsive force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe. “It’s very difficult to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat,” said Henk Hoekstra, an astronomer at the University of Leiden and a member of the Euclid Consortium of researchers. “That’s a little bit the situation we find ourselves in because we have these observations but we lack a good theory.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 2)

SPACEX DRAGON CRS-28 CARGO SHIP RETURNS TO EARTH WITH OCEAN SPLASHDOWN - A robotic SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down off the Florida coast today (June 30), bringing an end to its International Space Station cargo mission. The Dragon undocked from the ISS Thursday (June 29) at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT), while the two spacecraft were flying over the northeastern Indian Ocean west of Indonesia. The SpaceX capsule then headed back to its home planet. It made a parachute-aided splashdown off the Florida coast today around 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) as planned, SpaceX confirmed via Twitter.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 1)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH EUROPEAN ASTRONOMY MISSION - A European spacecraft is set to launch on a mission to help astronomers resolve an “embarrassing situation” in cosmology, although the launch itself is another kind of embarrassing situation for Europe. The European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft is ready to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:11 a.m. Eastern July 1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with favorable weather expected.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 30)

VIRGIN GALACTIC LAUNCHES IT’S FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TO SPACE - Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial space flight Thursday, sending three Italian researchers, two company pilots and an astronaut trainer on a high-speed thrill ride to the edge of space aboard a winged rocketplane. Cheered on by Virgin employees, family members and friends gathered at Spaceport America in New Mexico, the twin-fuselage VMS Eve carrier jet took off at 10:30 a.m. EDT, carrying the company’s VSS Unity spaceplane and its six passengers up to an altitude of about 44,500 feet.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 30)

ABOVE: ORBITAL DEVELOPS ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR SPACECRAFT UNDER RECENT AWARDS - Above: Orbital is developing technology to provide energy for on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing with the support of two recent Small Business Innovation Research awards. Under a $75,000 U.S. Air Force contract announced in May, Above: Orbital is working with Ascent Solar Technologies on manufacturing thin-film solar photovoltaics in space. Above: Orbital also is developing rapidly deployable structures for space-based solar panels, communications antenna arrays and other large structures under a $1.7 million U.S. Space Force award announced in March.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 29)

BRITISH STARTUP POWERS UP SENSOR FOR MONITORING TINY ORBITAL DEBRIS - Odin Space is preparing to start detecting tiny but potentially dangerous pieces of orbital debris in the coming weeks from a sensor on a recently launched space tug, according to the British startup’s cofounder and CEO James New. The venture announced June 27 that it had successfully powered up the demo sensor, integrated with D-Orbit’s small satellite-carrying ION orbital transfer vehicle that SpaceX launched earlier this month to low Earth orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 28)

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