SPACEX'S FALCON HEAVY, WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL ROCKET, LAUNCHES US MILITARY SATELLITES IN 1ST FLIGHT IN 3 YEARS - The world's most powerful rocket currently in operation took flight this morning (Nov. 1) for the first time in more than three years. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which consists of three of the company's modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters strapped together, lifted off today from Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT) amid thick fog at the launch pad. The Heavy carried a handful of classified payloads toward geostationary orbit for the U.S. Space Force on a mission called USSF-44.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 2)

FINAL MODULE DOCKS AT CHINA’S TIANGONG SPACE STATION - A third module has arrived at China’s space station, completing the construction of the country’s crewed orbital outpost. A Long March 5B rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 3:37 a.m. Eastern Oct. 31. Launch success was announced inside 25 minutes of launch with the Mengtian module in low Earth orbit. Mengtian used its own propulsion to match orbit and rendezvous with the Tiangong space station—currently in a roughly 380 by 387-kilometer orbit—and connected with a forward port on Tiangong’s docking hub just under 13 hours after launch at 4:27 p.m. Eastern, China’s human spaceflight agency, CMSA, confirmed.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 1)

CHINA LAUNCHES MENGTIAN SCIENCE MODULE TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION - China launched its second space station module of the year aboard a Chang Zheng 5B rocket Monday. The Mengtian module lifted off at 07:37 UTC, and once docked will complete the initial phase of the construction for China’s Tiangong space station. The launch of the Mengtian Laboratory Cabin Module, meaning “Dreaming of the Heavens,” follows the successful addition of the Wentian module to China’s Tiangong station on July 24. Like Wentian and the Tianhe core module that was launched in April 2021, Mengtian will ride into orbit aboard China’s Chang Zheng 5B (CZ-5B) rocket, also known in English as the Long March 5B.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 1)

FINAL ATLAS 5 LAUNCH FROM CALIFORNIA DELAYED FOR BATTERY REPLACEMENT - The final flight of an Atlas 5 rocket from California has been delayed from Tuesday until no earlier than Nov. 9 to replace a battery on the launcher’s Centaur upper stage, United Launch Alliance and NASA officials said. The Atlas 5 rocket’s Centaur upper stage will place the JPSS 2 weather satellite into polar orbit for NOAA and NASA, then the rocket stage will perform a deorbit burn and deploy a joint ULA-NASA re-entry technology experiment named LOFTID, or the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 1)

FIRST NORTHSTAR SSA SATELLITES TO LAUNCH IN 2023 BY VIRGIN ORBIT - NorthStar Earth and Space, a company planning a constellation of satellites to collect space situational awareness data, will launch its first satellites in mid-2023 with Virgin Orbit. NorthStar announced Oct. 27 that its first three satellites, 12-unit cubesats built by Spire, will be launched by Virgin Orbit in mid-2023. The companies did not disclose terms of the launch deal or where the launch, using Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne air-launch system, will take place.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 31)

CHINA TO LAUNCH MENGTIAN SCIENCE MODULE TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION - China plans to launch its second space station module of the year aboard a Chang Zheng 5B rocket Monday. The Mengtian module is scheduled for liftoff at 07:37 UTC, completing the initial phase of construction for China’s Tiangong space station. The launch of the Mengtian Laboratory Cabin Module, meaning “Dreaming of the Heavens,” follows the successful addition of the Wentian module to China’s Tiangong station on July 24. Like Wentian and the Tianhe core module that was launched in April 2021, Mengtian will ride into orbit aboard China’s Chang Zheng 5B (CZ-5B) rocket, also known in English as the Long March 5B.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 31)

ADVANCED EARTH-MONITORING JPSS-2 SATELLITE IS 'GO' FOR LIFTOFF ON NOV. 1 - A powerful weather satellite is all set to launch early Tuesday morning (Nov. 1) — provided the weather cooperates. The Joint Polar Satellite System-2 satellite, or JPSS-2 for short, and its United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket passed their launch readiness review, mission team members announced on Friday (opens in new tab) (Oct. 28).   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 31)

CHINA SUCCESSFULLY PLACES SHIYAN-20C SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - The China Aerospace Science Corporation (CASC) successfully launched the classified Shiyan-20C satellite to low Earth orbit. Launched from Site 9401 (SLS-2) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, the Chang Zheng 2D lifted off at 9:01 AM local time (01:01 UTC) on Oct. 29. Shiyan-20C marked the 147th orbital launch attempt in 2022 worldwide. While no official records are kept, this is the greatest number of orbital launch attempts made in any year ever, greater than the 144 launch attempt record set in 2021. According to CASC, the satellite was successfully placed into a 700 km altitude orbit.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 31)

RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT SPACE STATION - Russia’s Progress MS-21 resupply spacecraft completed an automated docking with the International Space Station at 10:49 p.m. EDT Thursday (0251 GMT Friday) to deliver more than 2.7 tons of cargo to the lab’s seven-person crew. The unpiloted cargo freighter launched Tuesday on top of a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, beginning a two-day pursuit of the space station. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket placed the Progress MS-21 supply ship into orbit about nine minutes after liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 29)

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