SPACEX SUPPLY SHIP DOCKS AT SPACE STATION - A day after launching from Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule approached the International Space Station for an automated docking Sunday with more than 7,700 pounds of supplies and experiments. The Dragon supply ship autonomously linked up with the zenith, or space-facing, docking port on the space station’s Harmony module at 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT) Sunday to wrap up a 17-hour pursuit of the complex. The cargo capsule launched at 2:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT) Saturday on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 29)
INDIA LAUNCHES SATELLITE FOR OCEAN MONITORING - India launched a satellite Saturday to measure ocean winds and water temperatures, adding a key data source for weather forecasters tracking tropical cyclone development around the world. The new ocean monitoring spacecraft, named EOS-06 or Oceansat 3, took off Saturday at 1:26 a.m. EST (0626 GMT) aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, India’s workhorse rocket. The PSLV launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Chennai. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 29)
SPACEX LAUNCHES NEW CARGO DRAGON SPACECRAFT TO SPACE STATION - A brand new SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched a new cargo Dragon spacecraft Nov. 26, carrying supplies, experiments and new solar arrays for the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 2:20 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage deployed the Dragon spacecraft into low Earth orbit 12 minutes later. The rocket’s first stage, making its first flight, landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 29)
CHINA PREPARES TO SEND NEW 3-PERSON CREW TO SPACE STATION - Final preparations were being made Monday to send a new three-person crew to China's space station as it nears completion amid intensifying competition with the United States. The China Manned Space Agency said the Shenzhou-15 mission will take off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 11:08 p.m. Tuesday night. More (Source: voanews.com - Nov 29)
SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS COULD HARM THE ENVIRONMENT, NEW WATCHDOG REPORT SAYS - Do people have a right to an unobstructed view of the heavens? For most of human history, such a question would have been considered nonsensical—but with the recent rise of satellite mega constellations, it’s now being asked again and again. Mega constellations are vast groups of spacecraft, numbering in the thousands, that could spark a multitrillion-dollar orbital industry and transform global connectivity and commerce. But the rise of mega constellations also threatens to clutter the night sky, cripple the work of some astronomers and create space debris that harms people on Earth and in space alike. More (Source: Scientific American - Nov 25)
THANKSGIVING SPACE FESTIVITIES COME FROM 'THE FUTURE,' ASTRONAUTS SAY - The NASA astronauts currently in space are living so far in the future that they celebrated U.S. Thanksgiving on Tuesday (Nov. 22), they joked in a video. Jokes aside, the space crew on the U.S. side of the International Space Station does plan to take some time on the holiday to watch some football (the pigskin kind) and to eat some special food, although the astronauts kept their meal secret on the video for now. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 25)
CREW GOES INTO THANKSGIVING WITH SPACEWALK AND DRAGON PREPS - Four Expedition 68 astronauts will relax on Thanksgiving day as three cosmonauts continue preparing for a spacewalk on Friday. The International Space Station residents are also expecting a space delivery this weekend bringing new roll-out solar arrays and science experiments. Three NASA astronauts and one astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spent Wednesday performing numerous research, cargo, and maintenance tasks. The quartet will also be off-duty the next day observing the U.S. holiday before going into a busy weekend. More (Source: NASA - Nov 24)
CHINA TO USE SPACE STATION TO TEST SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER - China intends to use its newly-completed Tiangong space station to test key technologies required for space-based polar power, according to a senior space official. Robotic arms already operating on the outside of Tiangong will be used to test on-orbit assembly of modules for a space-based solar power test system, Yang Hong, chief designer of the Tiangong space station said in a presentation at the ongoing China Space Conference. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 24)
JPSS-2 HAS A NEW NAME: NOAA-21 - NOAA’s JPSS-2 satellite successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 10 at 1:49 a.m. PST. This week, it was officially renamed NOAA-21. The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of satellites provides the latest advancement in observations gathered from a polar orbit. In the past, NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites were each assigned a letter (-A, -B, -C, etc.) as they were being designed, built, and launched. Then, once each satellite reached orbit, they were renamed and assigned a number. More (Source: NOAA - Nov 23)
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