SATELLITE MANUFACTURERS CONTINUE TO DIVERSIFY - Companies with a history of manufacturing large geostationary satellites have succeeded in diversifying their product lines to attract new customers. “We are not on the precipice of change; The entire business has changed,” Cyrus Dhalla, Northrop Grumman Tactical Space Systems Division senior vice president and general manager, said March 13 during a manufacturing panel at the Satellite 2023 conference here. Gone are the days of 20 annual orders for large geostationary communications satellites. Now, there may be “10, 12, 13, 14” orders per year, said Claude Rousseau, NSR research director and panel moderator. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 15)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FIRES THRUSTERS TO DODGE SPACE JUNK - The International Space Station (ISS) had to perform a debris avoidance maneuver to dodge yet another piece of space junk on Tuesday (March 14). Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos reported that the incident occurred at 2:54 p.m. Moscow time, or 7:54 a.m. EDT (1154 GMT) on Tuesday, in a statement (opens in new tab) on Telegram. The Russian Progress MS-22 cargo capsule currently docked at the orbital laboratory fired its thrusters for 135 seconds to move the station to safety and adjust its average altitude to 260 miles (419 km) above Earth's surface. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 15)
SPACEX CARGO DRAGON SPACECRAFT LIFTS OFF FROM FLORIDA - A SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft packed with nearly 6,300 pounds of fresh food, hardware, and experiments for the International Space Station lifted off Tuesday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, kicking off a 36-hour transit to the orbiting research complex where it will dock for a month-long mission. Liftoff of the Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 8:30:42 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0030:42 GMT Wednesday). The Falcon 9 thundered into a mostly clear sky on a crisp evening at the Florida spaceport. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 15)
CHINA LAUNCHES PAIR OF MYSTERIOUS EARTH-MAPPING SATELLITES - China launched a pair of cartography satellites on Thursday (March 9) to boost the country's Earth observation and mapping capabilities. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off into a pre-dawn sky above Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China at 5:41 p.m. EST on Thursday (2241 GMT, or 6:41 a.m. Beijing time on March 10), shedding insulation tiles as it climbed. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 14)
NASA WANTS NEW 'DEORBIT TUG' TO BRING SPACE STATION DOWN IN 2030 - NASA aims to develop a spacecraft capable of steering the International Space Station (ISS) to a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere when its time in orbit is up. We first learned about this plan on Thursday (March 9), when the White House released its 2024 federal budget request. NASA's $27.2 billion allocation included $180 million "to initiate development of a new space tug" that could safely deorbit the ISS over the open ocean after its operational life ends in 2030, as well as potentially perform other activities. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 14)
RELATIVITY SPACE ABORTS LAUNCH OF TERRAN 1, THE WORLD'S FIRST 3D-PRINTED ROCKET, TWICE IN 1 DAY - An attempt by startup Relativity Space to launch the world's first 3D-printed rocket on Saturday (March 11) was cut short by two different aborts amid weather and range safety delays. The 3d-printed rocket, called Terran 1, was scheduled to launch on a debut flight from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a three-hour window on Saturday afternoon. Despite three attempts, the company was unable to launch the rocket after suffering two last-minute aborts, including on that fired up its engines, and one hold when boat encroached in the offshore safety zone. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 13)
ROCKET LAB’S SECOND LAUNCH FROM VIRGINIA WILL LOFT TWO COMMERCIAL RADAR SATELLITES - Rocket Lab’s second mission from a new launch pad in Virginia is set to take off with two commercial radar remote sensing satellites for Capella Space. The company had a two-hour launch window opening at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) for liftoff Saturday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, but officials scrubbed the launch attempt due to upper level winds that were out limits. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 12)
CANADIAN MILITARY ORDERS SPACE SURVEILLANCE MICRO SATELLITE - Canada’s Department of National Defence is moving ahead with a new microsatellite project for space domain awareness. The Redwing satellite will monitor objects in congested orbits and will be able to record and transmit tracking data from anywhere in its orbit, according to the department. Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand announced March 9 that a contract worth $15.8 million Canadian dollars ($11.3 million) has been awarded to Magellan Aerospace of Winnipeg, Manitoba. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 12)
ASTRONAUT CREW SPLASHES DOWN NEAR FLORIDA, ENDING FIVE-MONTH STAY IN SPACE - The four astronauts who make up the Crew-5 team aboard the International Space Station returned home from a five-month stay in space Saturday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule disembarked from the space station at 2:20 am ET, beginning the final leg of the astronauts’ journey. The spacecraft then maneuvered back toward Earth before plunging back into the atmosphere for a landing off the coast of Tampa, Florida just after 9 p.m. ET Saturday. More (Source: CNN - Mar 12)
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