NORTH KOREA CALLS FAILED SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH ‘THE MOST SERIOUS’ SHORTCOMING, VOWS 2ND LAUNCH - op North Korean officials vowed to push for a second attempt to launch a spy satellite as they called their country’s first, and failed, launch last month “the most serious” shortcoming this year and harshly criticized those responsible, state media reported Monday. In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite crashed soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to acquire a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the United States and South Korea.   More
(Source: AP News - Jun 19)

SPACEX LAUNCHES SATRIA-1 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE FOR INDONESIA, LANDS ROCKET AT SEA - SpaceX launched a new Indonesian communications satellite into orbit from Florida on Sunday (June 18) and capped the flight with a flawless rocket landing at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the SATRIA-1 telecommunications satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, soaring into the early evening sky at 6:21 p.m. EDT (2221 GMT) after a 15-minute delay due to high winds.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 19)

NASA AGREEMENTS TO SUPPORT WORK ON COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT AND SPACE STATIONS - NASA partnerships announced June 15 would support development of new commercial capabilities that include a Blue Origin crewed spacecraft and a Starship-derived space station from SpaceX. NASA announced the selection of seven companies for unfunded Space Act Agreements as part of its Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 (CCSC-2) initiative. NASA will provide the selected companies with technical expertise, assessments and data to assist the companies in the development of new capabilities.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 18)

SEE LATEST CONFIGURATION OF CHINA'S TIANGONG SPACE STATION IN STUNNING NEW VIDEO - China's space station is a busy place these days. New footage released by China's human spaceflight agency shows the Tiangong space station in its new configuration following a series of arrivals to and departures from the orbital outpost. The Tianzhou 5 cargo spacecraft undocked from Tiangong on May 5, freeing up a docking port for the next supply mission. The Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft — packed with supplies, scientific experiments and propellant — then launched for Tiangong on May 11. The mission was a precursor to the arrival of the station's next inhabitants.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 18)

CHINA LAUNCHES NATIONAL-RECORD 41 SATELLITES ON SINGLE ROCKET - China just broke its own national record for satellites launched by a single rocket. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China Thursday (June 15) at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT, or 13:30 local time). Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket as it rose into blue skies above the hills surrounding Taiyuan, and shock diamonds were visible in its purple exhaust plume. A total of 41 small satellites were released into orbit. These were the Jilin-1 GF06A0 satellites 1-30, Jilin-1GF03D 19-26, HEGS-1 and Jilin-1 PT02A01/02 for Chinese commercial remote sensing satellite company Changguang Satellite (CGST).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 18)

PLD SPACE SET TO LAUNCH SPAIN’S FIRST PRIVATE ROCKET INTO SPACE - PLD Space aimed to launch Spain’s first privately developed rocket into space, the Miura 1, on May 31 but was later scrubbed due to upper-level winds. After several delays due to weather, the company finally went ahead another attempt on Saturday, June 17. The launch window opened at 2:00AM CEST (00:00 UTC) running for eight hours until 10:00 AM CEST (08:00 UTC).   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight - Jun 17)

TECHNICAL PROBLEM POSTPONES FINAL ARIANE 5 LAUNCH - Arianespace has postponed the final launch of the Ariane 5, potentially for several weeks, after discovering a potential problem with pyrotechnical systems on the rocket. Arianespace announced June 15 it was postponing the 117th and final launch of the Ariane 5, which had been scheduled for June 16 from Kourou, French Guiana. A brief statement, made shortly after rollout of the rocket from its final assembly building to the launch pad was canceled, said only that there was “a risk to the redundancy of a critical function” on the rocket.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 17)

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE GETS SATELLITE SIDEKICK TO AID SEARCH FOR HABITABLE PLANETS - A deep-space telescope's search for potentially habitable exoplanets will get a stellar boost from a small satellite. The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST or Webb) far-reaching exoplanet search will receive some help from a much smaller satellite, which is optimized to look at star activity. The $8.5 million cubesat, selected by NASA, is called Monitoring Activity from Nearby Stars with UV Imaging and Spectroscopy, or MANTIS.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 17)

SPACE SYSTEMS COMMAND SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES THREE SATELLITES FOR U.S. SPACE FORCE ON SPACEX TRANSPORTER-8 MISSION - Space Systems Command (SSC)’s Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDA&CP) and Spaceflight Inc. successfully launched three Department of Defense (DoD) Research and Development (R&D) satellites, built by Blue Canyon Technologies, for the U.S. Space Force on a Space-X Falcon-9 rocket lifted off at 2:35 p.m. PT/5:35 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.   More
(Source: SpaceRef - Jun 16)

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