ASTROSCALE AND MOMENTUS OFFER CONCEPT FOR REBOOSTING HUBBLE - Two companies have disclosed details about how they could raise the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA evaluates that and other concepts offered to the agency. Astroscale and Momentus said May 9 that they submitted a response to a NASA request for information (RFI) issued in December 2022 seeking concepts from industry about how they could raise the orbit of Hubble, has been slowly descending since the last shuttle servicing mission in 2009. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 16)
SPACEX AX-2 PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION IS 'GO' FOR MAY 21 LAUNCH - The second-ever private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) remains on track to lift off this weekend. NASA, SpaceX and Houston company Axiom Space held a flight readiness review (FRR) today (May 15) for the Ax-2 mission, which is scheduled to launch four people toward the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon (May 21). More (Source: Space.com - May 16)
SPACEX JUST REVEALED PLANS TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION — AND YOU CAN RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW - SpaceX will launch what it is calling the world’s first commercial space station as early as 2025 with the goal of eventually developing a multi-module base. The space station, called the Vast Haven-1, will launch as early as August 2025 on a Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit, according to SpaceX. It will function as an independent crewed space station and will eventually be connected to a larger Vast space station. More (Source: Yahoo - May 16)
ISRO TO LAUNCH NAVIGATION SATELLITE NVS-01 ON MAY 29 - The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is planning to launch NVS-01, a navigation satellite on-board the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle or GSLV Mk-II, on May 29, a senior official said on Saturday. “The launch of NVS-01 is scheduled for around May 29. This will be a return flight mission for the GSLV launch vehicle, which will carry the next generation NavIC satellite. This satellite will replace the IRNSS-1G satellite launched in 2016,” a senior Isro official said, seeking anonymity. More (Source: Hindustan Times - May 15)
OVERNIGHT LAUNCH ADDS 56 MORE SATELLITES TO SPACEX’S STARLINK FLEET - Fifty-six more Starlink internet satellites lifted off early Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX’s 32nd launch of the year. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:03:30 a.m. EDT (0503:30 UTC) from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A little more than an hour later, the Falcon 9’s upper stage released the 56 Starlink internet satellites into orbit a few hundred miles above Earth. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 15)
NASA, SPACEX PREPARES FOR AXIOM SPACE MISSION 2 TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION MAY 21 - Liftoff of the Axiom Mission 2, the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, is scheduled for 5:37 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 21, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will travel to the orbiting outpost aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom, after launching on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. More (Source: Space Coast Daily - May 14)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 56 STARLINK SATELLITES EARLY SUNDAY - SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit early Sunday morning (May 14), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 56 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Sunday at 1:03 a.m. EDT (0503 GMT). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab). Coverage is expected to begin five minutes before launch. More (Source: Space.com - May 14)
RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS MOVE VITAL RADIATOR FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IN 5-HOUR SPACEWALK - Two Russian cosmonauts have completed a spacewalk to activate a radiator that they earlier helped relocate outside of the International Space Station. Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, both with the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos, successfully deployed the heat exchanger as their primary task during the 5 hour and 14 minute extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (May 12). More (Source: Space.com - May 13)
CHINA’S SPACEPLANE CONDUCTED PROXIMITY AND CAPTURE MANEUVERS WITH SUBSATELLITE, DATA SUGGESTS - China’s secretive spaceplane may have performed multiple recaptures of an object it released into orbit during its recently completed second flight as part of on-orbit testing. Private firm Leolabs, which provides space situational awareness data through its global network of radars for tracking objects in low Earth orbit, said its analysis found evidence of what appeared to be at least two and possibly three capture/docking operations with a co-orbiting object. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 12)
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