CHINA COMPLETES T-SHAPED TIANGONG SPACE STATION WITH NEW MENGTIAN MODULE MOVE - The basic construction of China's space station is complete, following a maneuver to shift the recently arrived Mengtian module to its permanent docking port. China launched Mengtian, the third and final module for its Tiangong space station, on Oct. 31. Mengtian, which means "dreaming of the heavens," docked at a forward port at Tiangong 13 hours later. The Mengtian module was then moved from that forward port on Tiangong to a portside berth on the station's docking hub.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 7)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES SWEDISH SATELLITE BUT FAILS TO CATCH BOOSTER WITH HELICOPTER - Rocket Lab launched a Swedish research satellite to orbit today (Nov. 4) but didn't manage to snag the returning booster with a helicopter. A Rocket Lab Electron launcher lifted off today at 1:27 p.m. EDT (1727 GMT; 6:27 a.m. on Nov. 5 local New Zealand time), kicking off a mission the company called "Catch Me If You Can." The mission was a success; the Electron deployed the satellite, known as MATS ("Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy"), an hour after liftoff as planned. But Rocket Lab wasn't able to pull off the catch alluded to in the flight's name.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 5)

CHINA’S MYSTERY SPACEPLANE RELEASES OBJECT INTO ORBIT - China’s secretive reusable spaceplane has released an object into orbit, according to tracking data from the U.S. Space Force. China carried out the second launch of its “reusable experimental spacecraft” from Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert atop a Long March 2F rocket Aug. 4. The spacecraft has now been in orbit for 90 days. Two weeks ago the spacecraft raised its perigee—or the point during its orbit at which a spacecraft is closest to Earth—to shift to a near-circular 597 by 608-kilometer orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 5)

CHINESE ROCKET PLUMMETS TO EARTH, AND ONE COUNTRY HALTS ITS AIR TRAFFIC - A Chinese rocket booster made an out-of-control reentry into Earth's atmosphere over the water early Friday, the US military's Space Command confirmed. The booster is the first stage of a Long March 5B rocket that several days ago sent a large module to orbit to expand China's Tiangong space station. The booster eventually broke up over the Pacific Ocean.    More
(Source: CNET - Nov 5)

KOSMOS-2558: RUSSIA'S KILLER SATELLITE THAT COULD TRIGGER ARTICLE 5 - Two blips of light in the night sky, whizzing around the globe every 90 minutes, could be where Russia opts to clash with Nato over the Ukraine war. The first blip you see, if you look up at the right place and time even with a naked eye, is an American spy satellite called USA-326, launched on 2 February into an orbit some 500km above the earth and likely capable of taking images as detailed as legible car number plates.    More
(Source: EUobserver - Nov 4)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES POSSIBLE MISSILE-TRACKING SATELLITE AMID CONTINUING THREATS - The Russians sent a possible missile-detection satellite to space Wednesday (Nov. 2) as the country ramps up its rhetoric about attacking U.S. satellites over Ukraine. A Soyuz-2.1b medium-class rocket launched with the satellite, whose purpose is not officially disclosed, at 1:48 a.m. EDT (0648 GMT or 9:48 a.m. Moscow time), according to Reuters (opens in new tab), who cited Russian news reports pointing to a ministry statement. The launch took place from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 4)

SPACEX LAUNCHES AIRBUS-BUILT TV BROADCASTING SPACECRAFT FOR EUTELSAT - SpaceX launched the second in a series of three Falcon 9 rocket missions early Thursday for the European satellite operator Eutelsat, delivering to orbit a television broadcasting craft that also hosts an EU-funded payload to provide precise navigation data to airplanes. After a two-hour delay, the Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin main engines and climbed away from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT) Thursday to begin a 36-minute mission to deploy Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13G communications satellite into an elongated transfer orbit stretching as far as 35,700 miles (57,500 kilometers) from Earth.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 4)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES TUNDRA MISSILE WARNING SATELLITE FROM PLESETSK - At 06:48 UTC on Nov. 2, Russia’s Soyuz-2.1b launched from Site 43/4 at Plesetsk Cosmodrome, carrying the sixth satellite of Russia’s next-generation early warning system. Upon reaching orbit, the spacecraft was designated as Kosmos-2563. The Tundra series of satellites, also known as Kupol or Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema (EKS) satellites, is the next generation of Russian early warning satellites, designed to replace the US-K and US-KMO early warning satellites of the Oko-1 system.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 3)

SPIRE SELECTED TO DESIGN SATELLITE FOR DARPA EXPERIMENT IN VERY LOW ORBIT - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected Spire Global to design a small satellite for an experiment to study high-frequency radio signals in the upper layers of the atmosphere, the company announced Nov. 1. The value of the contract was not disclosed. Spire will design a cubesat to carry a sensor in a very low Earth orbit experiment intended to learn how radio signals behave in the ionosphere, which spans the upper edges of the Earth’s atmosphere to the lower regions of space.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 2)

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