NASA TO PROVIDE COVERAGE AS DRAGON DEPARTS STATION WITH SCIENCE - NASA is set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, June 29. The agency will provide live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure starting at 11:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and online. Ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will command Dragon to undock from the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station. Undock is scheduled for 12:05 p.m.   More
(Source: NASA - Jun 27)

ROCKET LAB TO LAUNCH MULTIPLE SATELLITES AS PART OF AN UPCOMING RECOVERY MISSION - The ‘Baby Come Back’ mission, Rocket Lab’s 39th Electron launch, is scheduled to deploy from Pad A at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand during a launch window that opens on July 14, 2023, UTC. Rocket Lab is also planning to conduct a marine recovery of Electron’s first stage as part of this mission. Rocket Lab’s recovery team will retrieve Electron using a customized vessel and transport the stage back to Rocket Lab’s production complex for analysis. Data from this recovered stage will inform Rocket Lab’s ongoing recovery and reuse program.   More
(Source: SatNews - Jun 27)

NORTH KOREA'S 1ST SPY SATELLITE HAS BEEN PULLED FROM THE SEA AFTER LAUNCH FAILURE: REPORT - South Korean military authorities have salvaged North Korea's first spy satellite after its failed first launch last month, according to media reports. North Korea attempted to launch the satellite on May 31, but the rocket carrying it suffered an unknown failure and crashed into the sea shortly after liftoff. The satellite, known as Malligyong-1, is reported to be designed to take high-resolution images of Earth to provide intelligence for the reclusive country's military.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 27)

SPACE ELEVATORS ARE INCHING CLOSER TO REALITY - When people first started exploring space in the 1960s, it cost upwards of $80,000 (adjusted for inflation) to put a single pound of payload into low-Earth orbit. A major reason for this high cost was the need to build a new, expensive rocket for every launch. That really started to change when SpaceX began making cheap, reusable rockets, and today, the company is ferrying customer payloads to LEO at a price of just $1,300 per pound.   More
(Source: Freethink - Jun 26)

COSMONAUTS FINISH SPACEWALK AFTER REPLACING STATION HARDWARE - Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin concluded their spacewalk June 22 at 4:48 p.m. EDT after 6 hours and 24 minutes. Prokopyev and Petelin completed their major objectives, which were to retrieve several experiment packages from the Zvezda and Poisk modules and install communications equipment outside the International Space Station.   More
(Source: NASA - Jun 25)

SPACEX CLOSES OUT FIRST HALF OF 2023 WITH ANOTHER STARLINK LAUNCH - A Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Friday with 56 more Starlink internet satellites, wrapping up SpaceX’s action-packed first half of the year that included the debut of the company’s Starship mega-rocket, two Falcon Heavy missions, and two astronaut launches. SpaceX’s 44th launch of the year is scheduled to take off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 UTC) Friday, the company’s second mission in two days. SpaceX pushed back the launch time from earlier Friday morning due to stormy weather.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 24)

DELTA 4-HEAVY ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH NRO SPY SATELLITE - The second-to-last flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Thursday and delivered a top secret spy satellite into orbit for the U.S. government, snapping the longest lull in launches in ULA’s history. Liftoff of ULA’s 15th Delta 4-Heavy rocket, and 44th Delta 4 rocket overall, occurred at 5:18 a.m. EDT (0918 UTC) Thursday from Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA’s launch team pushed back the launch time by more than 90 minutes Thursday after preparations fell behind schedule due to stormy weather.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 23)

COSMONAUT ROUNDS OUT SPACEX'S CREW-7 MISSION TO THE SPACE STATION - SpaceX's seventh operational astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) now has a full crew manifest. Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will fly aboard Crew-7 as a mission specialist, NASA announced on Friday (June 16). Earlier this year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced its intention to fly Borisov on Crew-7, as a part of ongoing seat-swap agreements with NASA. This will be Borisov's first spaceflight since his acceptance into Russia's astronaut corps in 2018. Borisov joins another spaceflight rookie on the mission, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who will serve as Crew-7's commander.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 23)

NASA INVITES MEDIA TO NORTHROP GRUMMAN CARGO LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - Media accreditation is open for launch of the next commercial resupply services mission to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting liftoff of the company’s Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, named the S.S. Laurel Clark, no earlier than 8:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 1, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.   More
(Source: NASA - Jun 23)

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