PROGRESS RESUPPLY UNDOCKS FROM STATION, ENDS CARGO MISSION - The uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST on Fri., Feb. 17. Following undocking, Expedition 68 cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin sent commands from the station’s Roscosmos segment to rotate the Progress for additional visual inspections of the general area where a coolant loop leak occurred on Feb. 11. Loaded with trash, Progress is being deorbited by Roscosmos flight controllers over the Pacific Ocean after spending four months at the station. More (Source: NASA - Feb 20)
FIRST LAUNCH OF JAPAN’S H3 ROCKET ABORTED MOMENTS BEFORE LIFTOFF - Japan’s first H3 rocket, nearly a decade in development, was moments from liftoff Thursday (U.S. time) when the launch vehicle detected a problem and cut off the countdown just before sending a command to ignite two strap-on solid-fueled boosters. The H3 rocket’s two hydrogen-fueled main engines ignited about 6.3 seconds before liftoff, sending a plume of exhaust out of the flame trench at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. But the H3’s dual solid rocket boosters did not light when the countdown clock struck zero. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 20)
FALCON 9 LAUNCH FROM CALIFORNIA ADDS 51 MORE SATELLITES TO STARLINK NETWORK - A Falcon 9 rocket delivered 51 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit Friday after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, adding to SpaceX’s global broadband network that reaches all seven continents. The Starlink 2-5 mission began with liftoff at 11:12:20 a.m. PST (2:12:20 p.m. EST; 1912:20 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, a military spaceport about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. After a smooth 35-minute automated countdown, the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines and climbed away from Vandenberg with 1.7 million pounds of thrust. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 20)
RUSSIA DELAYS LAUNCH OF REPLACEMENT SOYUZ TO MARCH - Russia has pushed the launch of its next Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) into March, a delay of a few weeks. Soyuz vehicles are designed to carry astronauts, but this one, known as MS-23, will launch in an uncrewed state. It will be a replacement for the Soyuz MS-22 craft, which sprang a leak on Dec. 14 and lost all of its coolant to space, a problem that Russia's space agency Roscosmos traced to a likely micrometeoroid strike. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 17)
NASA UPDATES PLANS FOR USE OF COMMERCIAL SPACE STATIONS - NASA has released additional details about how it plans to use commercial space stations after the retirement of the International Space Station as some in industry seek to accelerate NASA’s support for them. NASA published two white papers Feb. 13 as part of a request for information (RFI) for its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations effort to support development of commercial stations. The documents provide new details about how NASA expects to work with companies operating those stations and the agency’s needs to conduct research there. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 17)
SPACEX DROPS PLANS TO CONVERT OIL RIGS INTO LAUNCH PLATFORMS - SpaceX has abandoned efforts to convert two oil rigs into launch platforms for its Starship vehicle, but the company still believes that offshore launch platforms will be part of its long-term plans. In 2020, SpaceX acquired two oil rigs, which it subsequently named Phobos and Deimos after the two moons of Mars. The company planned to convert the rigs into offshore launch platforms that would be used for its Starship vehicles. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 16)
SPACEX BREAKS LAUNCH PAD TURNAROUND RECORD WITH MIDNIGHT MISSION - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hauled 55 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit just after midnight Sunday from Cape Canaveral, breaking a record for the shortest time between missions — five days — from the same SpaceX launch pad. The mission was SpaceX’s 10th launch of the year, a pace of one launch every four days since Jan. 1. SpaceX is aiming to launch up to 100 Falcon rocket missions this year from launch pads in Florida and California, while teams in Texas ready for the first orbital test flight of the company’s giant new Starship launch vehicle. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 15)
RUSSIA DELAYS LAUNCH OF RELIEF SHIP TO KEEP INVESTIGATING SPACE STATION LEAK - Russia is delaying the launch of a ship to bring two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back from the International Space Station (ISS) while it investigates a pressure loss in another module, its space agency said on Monday. Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had said that a Soyuz MS-23 ship would be launched on Feb. 20 to bring back Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio. More (Source: Reuters - Feb 14)
LAUNCH DEMAND REMAINS HIGH DESPITE INDUSTRY STRUGGLES - Despite concerns about the viability of many new launch vehicle developers, many in the industry say those vehicles are needed as demand for launch outstrips supply. During a panel at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, Feb. 9, spacecraft developers and launch integrators said that, even with the predictions of “bloodletting” among small launch companies because of technical and financial challenges, new vehicles are needed to meet growing demand. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 13)
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