MORE SECOND-GEN STARLINK SATELLITES LAUNCH ON FALCON 9 ROCKET - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Sunday morning with 22 upgraded Starlink internet satellites, but officials called off a second Falcon 9 launch later in the day due to high winds in the booster’s offshore recovery area. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket took off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:20 a.m. EDT (1220 UTC), lofting 22 second-generation Starlink internet satellites into orbit on a mission SpaceX called Starlink 6-4. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 5)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH DRAGON CARGO MISSION TO SPACE STATION SUNDAY AFTER ONE-DAY DELAY - SpaceX will launch its 28th cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA Sunday (June 4) after a one-day weather delay and you can watch the action live. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled to launch a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the orbiting lab Sunday at 12:12 p.m. EDT (1612 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was originally scheduled for Saturday, June 3, but SpaceX announced a 24-hour delay in the wee hours citing the need to "allow more time for vehicle preparations and for weather conditions to improve," according to a Twitter update. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 4)
CHINA'S SHENZHOU 15 SPACE CAPSULE LANDS SAFELY, 3 ASTRONAUTS HOME AFTER MONTHS ON TIANGONG STATION - Three Chinese astronauts are safely back on Earth after a smooth weekend landing to end a six-month mission to the country's Tiangong space station. Shenzhou 15 mission commander Fei Junlong and crewmates Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu returned to Earth at 6:34 a.m. Beijing Time on Sunday, June 4 (6:34 p.m. EDT or 2234 GMTon June 3) as the sun rose over their Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They had been aboard the Tiangong space station since November last year. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 4)
LOADED WITH SCIENCE, SUPPLIES, SPACEX FREIGHTER READY FOR LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - A freighter carrying solar panels to boost the International Space Station's electrical reserves for scientific activities, equipment to collect data on solar storms and the thawing of Earth's arctic permafrost is ready for launch to the International Space Station on Saturday. If the weather cooperates, liftoff will come at 12:34 p.m. EDT from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Space Force forecasters are predicting only a 30% chance of favorable conditions, however. More (Source: UPI - Jun 3)
THIRD SET OF UPGRADED SOLAR ARRAYS READY FOR RIDE TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Two more roll-out solar arrays will ride a SpaceX cargo ship to the International Space Station this weekend, continuing a years-long mid-life station upgrade as NASA plans procurement of a final set of new solar wings to fully reinforce the lab’s power supply. The two solar array wings are rolled up on spools to fit inside the 13-foot (4-meter) diameter of the Dragon spacecraft’s rear cargo bay. Later this month, astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg will head outside the space station for two spacewalks to install and assist in the deployment of the two roll-out solar arrays. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)
JAPAN HAS A WILD IDEA TO LAUNCH A SATELLITE MADE OF WOOD IN 2024 - A team of researchers want to put a wooden satellite into orbit. It's not as outrageous as you might think. Results from a recent test aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which exposed different woods to the vacuum of space, have been confirmed by the project's research team at Kyoto University, in Japan. Sure enough, the findings indicated that wood is remarkably resilient even in the environment of outer space. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 2)
NORTH KOREA VOWS TO PUT SPY SATELLITE IN ORBIT SOON AFTER FAILED LAUNCH - North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, said her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and promised Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. The remarks by Kim, a powerful ruling party official, came a day after a failed attempt at launching the country's first spy satellite, which plunged into sea. More (Source: Reuters - Jun 2)
BOEING MISSION TO SEND NASA ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION FACES MORE LENGTHY DELAYS - More lengthy delays could be in store for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Boeing had been working toward a late July launch of the first crewed Starliner test flight. But “we did have two new issues that cropped up as part of our review process,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for the CST-100 Starliner, during a Thursday news briefing. “So, we spent the last week really looking at those in more detail.” More (Source: CNN - Jun 2)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 52 STARLINK SATELLITES, LANDS ROCKET ON SHIP AT SEA - SpaceX launched 52 more of its Starlink broadband satellites early Wednesday morning (May 31) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the 52 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday at 2:02 a.m. EDT (0602 GMT; 11:02 p.m. on May 30 local California time). The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth as planned about 8 minutes and 45 seconds after launch on Wednesday. It made a vertical touchdown on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. Sponsored Links A wearable ED device with no awkward interruptionsEddie by Giddy More (Source: Space.com - Jun 1)
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