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)
RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS TOSS OLD EQUIPMENT OVERBOARD ON ISS SPACEWALK - Two Russian cosmonauts spent six hours outside the International Space Station on Thursday (June 22) cleaning up the exterior of the orbiting laboratory by removing and tossing overboard a trio of no longer needed devices, including a spent science experiment. Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, both of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, exited the space station's Poisk module at 10:24 a.m. EDT (1424 GMT) on Thursday. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 23)
TECHNICAL FAULT FORCES U.S. SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH TO BE POSTPONED TO THURSDAY - The launch of United Launch Alliance's heavy space launch vehicle with a spy satellite aboard for the U.S. Defense Department's NROL-68 space reconnaissance program was aborted early Wednesday due to a technical glitch. The launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was called off due to "an issue with a ground systems pneumatic valve," and liftoff had been pushed back to Thursday at 3:25 a.m. EDT, ULA said in a Twitter post. More (Source: UPI - Jun 22)
INTRODUCING CREW-7! - The final two crewmembers of Crew-7, for which ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is the pilot, have been announced. They will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer. In addition to Andreas and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli who were already announced as Crew-7 pilots, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos astronaut Konstantin Borisov will take two seats in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. More (Source: ESA - Jun 21)
NASA PLANS COVERAGE OF ROSCOSMOS SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Thursday, June 22, for station upgrades and retrieval of equipment. Coverage will begin at 9:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 10:20 a.m. and last up to seven hours. More (Source: NASA - Jun 21)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SPACE EXPERIMENT SATELLITE - China on Tuesday launched a Long March-6 carrier rocket to place a new experiment satellite in space. The rocket carrying the Shiyan-25 experiment satellite lifted off at 11:18 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi. The satellite successfully entered the preset orbit. This satellite will mainly be used to carry out new Earth-observation technology experiments. More (Source: Xinhua - Jun 21)
FAA REDUCES AIRSPACE RESTRICTIONS FOR CAPE CANAVERAL LAUNCHES - The Federal Aviation Administration has started to reduce the amount of airspace it closes for launches from Cape Canaveral as part of efforts to limit the impact of growing launch activity on commercial aviation. The FAA recently introduced a revised zone of restricted airspace around and extending offshore for many launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center. The revised zone keeps open airspace to the north of the spaceports that had previously been closed for all launches. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jun 21)
INDONESIA’S SATRIA-1 DEPLOYS SOLAR PANELS AHEAD OF GEOSTATIONARY TRIP - Indonesia’s Satria-1 broadband satellite deployed its solar panels after launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 to geosynchronous transfer orbit over the weekend, manufacturer Thales Alenia Space said June 19. It will take about five months for Indonesia’s first very high throughput (VHTS) satellite to reach its 146 degrees East orbital slot via onboard electric propulsion, Thales Alenia Space spokesperson Sandrine Bielecki said. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jun 20)
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