RUSSIAN SUPPLY SHIP LAUNCHES TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Russia’s Progress MS-23 cargo freighter launched Wednesday from Kazakhstan on a mission hauling more than 2.7 tons of fuel, food, experiments, and supplies to the International Space Station. The Progress MS-23 supply ship lifted off at 8:56:07 a.m. EDT (1256:07 UTC) from the Site 31 launch complex at Baikonur, located in a remote part of Kazakhstan east of the Aral Sea. Russian ground teams at Baikonur rolled the Progress MS-23 spacecraft and its Soyuz rocket to the launch pad Sunday, then raised the launcher vertical for final mission preparations.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 25)

VIRGIN ORBIT TO CEASE OPERATIONS, SELL ASSETS OF RICHARD BRANSON'S SATELLITE LAUNCHER - Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is shutting down less than two months after the satellite launch start-up filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a Tuesday company announcement. Virgin Orbit will cease operations and sell its assets to four winning bidders, the company announced Tuesday. Those bidders include three aerospace companies — Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and Vast Space subsidiary Launcher — with combined bids totaling almost $36 million, according to court documents.   More
(Source: ABC News - May 25)

ARABSAT 7B TO BE SLC-40’S QUICKEST TURNAROUND - SpaceX is set to launch the Arabsat 7B satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for Arabsat atop its Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is currently scheduled for May 23 at 11:25 PM EDT (03:25 UTC on May 24) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch will mark the quickest turnaround time of SLC-40 ever at four days, 21 hours, and five minutes.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 24)

ORBITAL SIDEKICK ACQUIRES FIRST LIGHT IMAGERY - Hyperspectral startup Orbital Sidekick is acquiring imagery from its first two satellites launched in April on the SpaceX Transporter-7 rideshare flight. “We recently acquired first light, which was very exciting,” Katie Corcoran, OSK vice president of government affairs, said May 22 at the GEOINT Symposium here. “We have two healthy payloads on orbit right now.”   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 24)

THE SPACEPORT COMPANY DEMONSTRATES OFFSHORE LAUNCH OPERATIONS - Two companies have demonstrated the ability to conduct launches from a floating platform in U.S. territorial waters, a concept that could help address congestion at terrestrial launch sites. The Spaceport Company announced May 23 it hosted four sounding rocket launches by Evolution Space on May 22 from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The launches were part of a proof-of-concept test of the ability to conduct launches from an offshore platform.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 24)

AXIOM’S SECOND PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION DOCKS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Four commercial space fliers who launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Axiom’s second private astronaut mission Sunday arrived at the International Space Station on a SpaceX crew capsule Monday to start an eight-day stay full of scientific experiments, student outreach events, and sightseeing. Docking of SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft at the space station’s Harmony module occurred at 9:12 a.m. EDT (1312 UTC), completing an automated rendezvous that saw the capsule match orbits with the complex with a sequence of thruster firings after launching Sunday from Florida’s Space Coast.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 23)

CHINA LAUNCHES "MACAO SCIENCE 1" SPACE EXPLORATION SATELLITES - China successfully sent two satellites of "Macao Science 1," a space exploration program, into space on Sunday. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said that the satellites were launched at 4:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) by a Long March-2C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China and entered the preset orbits successfully. It was the 474th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. The launch also sent a scientific experiment satellite named Luojia-2 into space.   More
(Source: China Military - May 22)

ICEYE TO SUPPLY UAE SAR SATELLITES - Finland-based Iceye announced an agreement May 17 to develop a five-satellite constellation for Bayanat, a United Arab Emirates geospatial analysis firm, and Emirati fleet operator Yahsat. The first Iceye-built Emirati synthetic aperture radar satellites is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2024. Iceye also is providing the ground segment.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 22)

TWO AMERICANS, TWO SAUDIS LAUNCH ON COMMERCIAL ASTRONAUT MISSION - Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, with more time in space than any other American, rocketed back into orbit for the fourth time Sunday, riding a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher from Florida with a fare-paying investor and private pilot, and the first two Saudi Arabian astronauts to fly to the International Space Station. The four-person crew strapped into their seats on SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 UTC) Sunday, then ground teams evacuated the pad to allow SpaceX to start loading liquid propellants into the Falcon 9 rocket shortly after 5 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC).   More
(Source: SpoaceFlight Now - May 22)

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