SPACEX CREW DRAGON VEHICLE COULD BE USED TO EVACUATE ISS ASTRONAUTS IN AN EMERGENCY - A SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle currently docked to the International Space Station (ISS) could be used to transport extra crew members back to Earth in the event of an emergency, NASA announced. Following a coolant leak in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the ISS in December, international space agencies including NASA and Roscosmos worked together to come up with a plan to safely transport crew members home. The plan they settled on was to use a replacement Soyuz craft that will be launched in February.   More
(Source: The Verge - Jan 31)

SPACEX LAUNCHES HEAVIEST PAYLOAD ON FALCON 9 ROCKET - A Falcon 9 rocket thundered off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral before dawn Thursday with 56 Starlink internet satellites, setting a record for the heaviest cargo ever flown on a SpaceX rocket at more than 38,000 pounds. The mission was the fifth launch by SpaceX so far this year, and the 69th launch with a primary purpose of placing Starlink internet satellites into orbit. With the 56 fresh spacecraft launched Thursday, SpaceX has deployed 3,773 Starlink satellites, with plans to add thousands more in the coming years.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 30)

WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 49 STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITES TO ORBIT MONDAY AFTER DELAY - SpaceX plans to launch another set of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit on Monday (Jan. 30), and you can watch the action live. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 49 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off Monday from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT; 8:34 a.m. local California time).    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 30)

INDONESIA’S SURYA SATELLITE-1 SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED FROM THE ISS - This CubeSat was developed by the team of Surya University from the Republic of Indonesia and was selected as the winner in the third round of KiboCUBE program that is run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).   More
(Source: SatNews - Jan 29)

SATELLITE BILLED AS THE ‘FUTURE GPS’ BEGINS KEY TESTS - L3Harris announced Jan. 26 it delivered the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) to the U.S. Air Force and the spacecraft is now undergoing final tests in preparation for a planned launch in late 2023. NTS-3 is an experiment funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory that will broadcast positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals from geostationary Earth orbit. The goal is to demonstrate next-generation PNT technologies for the U.S. military and provide an alternative to GPS.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 28)

CHINA WANTS TO LAUNCH OVER 200 SPACECRAFT IN 2023 - China last year performed 64 orbital rocket launches and finished building its own space station, but the country is planning an even busier year for 2023. China's main space contractor and Long March rocket maker, CASC, announced (opens in new tab)on Jan. 18 that it is planning more than 60 launches this year, after carrying out 54 missions throughout 2022.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 28)

SPACEX LAUNCHES HEAVIEST PAYLOAD ON REUSED ROCKET'S 9TH FLIGHT - SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket lifted its heaviest payload ever into low Earth orbit on Thursday morning (Jan. 26), launching 56 new Starlink internet-beaming satellites. The Falcon 9 first-stage booster that propelled the mission during its ascent through Earth's atmosphere had been used eight times previously, including on two crewed missions to the International Space Station (Crew 3 and Crew 4, which launched in November 2021 and April 2022 respectively).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 27)

ASTEROID 2023 BU: SPACE ROCK PASSES CLOSER THAN SOME SATELLITES - Now it's over, we can say it: a biggish asteroid passed by Earth a short while ago. About the size of a minibus, the space rock, known as 2023 BU, whipped over the southern tip of South America just before 00:30am GMT. With a closest approach of 3,600km (2,200 miles), it counts as a close shave. And it illustrates how there are still asteroids of significant size lurking near Earth that remain to be detected.   More
(Source: BBC News - Jan 27)

JAPAN LAUNCHES INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE TO MONITOR WEATHER, NORTH KOREA - Japan successfully launched Thursday a rocket carrying a government intelligence-gathering radar satellite to improve disaster response and monitor developments at North Korean military sites. The No. 46 H2A rocket, operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima following a one-day delay due to poor weather. The satellite entered its planned orbit, Mitsubishi Heavy said.   More
(Source: Kyodo News - Jan 26)

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