NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR CREW TO MOVE SOYUZ SPACE STATION LOCATION - NASA will provide live coverage as three crew members aboard the International Space Station take a short trip inside the Soyuz MS-23 beginning at 4:15 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 6, to relocate the spacecraft from one parking place to another. Undocking is scheduled at 4:45 a.m. with redocking planned at 5:23 a.m. Watch the relocation coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, or online at: https://www.nasa.gov/live More (Source: NASA - Apr 5)
JAPAN DELAYS H2A LAUNCH IN THE WAKE OF H3 FAILURE - Japan has delayed the launch of a H-2A rocket planned for May to no earlier than August in the wake of the failed inaugural flight of H3 rocket. The Japanese space agency JAXA announced the delay March 31, saying it is “difficult to start the preparation for the [H-2A] launch this month, because an investigation of the H3 launch failure is underway.” The H3 and H-2A rockets share many components, particularly in their upper stage engines. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 4)
USING JWST, SCIENTISTS OBSERVE SILICATE CLOUDS AND MEASURE THE TEMPERATURE OF EXOPLANETS - With help from the joint NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, two teams of scientists have made groundbreaking, first-of-their-kind discoveries on two exoplanets. One team utilized the immense power of Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instruments to observe and characterize clouds and molecules in the atmosphere of an exoplanet located 40 light-years away. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 4)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 10 SATELLITES FOR U.S. SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off April 2 at 10:29 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, carrying 10 military satellites, including two built by SpaceX. The mission to low Earth orbit is the first launch of a new military communications and missile tracking constellation built by the Space Development Agency (SDA), a U.S. Space Force organization created to accelerate the use of commercial space technologies in military systems. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 3)
U.S. MILITARY BEGINS LAUNCHING SATELLITES TO COUNTER HYPERSONIC MISSILE THREAT - The first 10 spacecraft for a planned U.S. military mega-constellation launched from California Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, setting in place the keystone for a multibillion-dollar network of hundreds of small satellites to improve defenses against hypersonic missiles and other emerging threats. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 3)
FRANK RUBIO’S FIRST SPACEFLIGHT WILL TURN INTO THE LONGEST MISSION BY A US ASTRONAUT - Astronaut Frank Rubio traveled to the International Space Station on September 21, 2022, for what he thought would be a six-month mission. But he’ll wind up staying in space for over a year — breaking the record for the longest mission conducted by a US astronaut. Rubio will return to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft no earlier than September 27, NASA officials said Wednesday, meaning he will have logged a total of at least 371 days in orbit. That tour of duty will beat the previous record of 355 days set by US astronaut Mark Vande Hei in 2022. More (Source: CNN - Apr 3)
CHINA LAUNCHES 4 INSAR SATELLITES AND NEW YAOGAN RECONNAISSANCE SAT - China conducted a pair of launches across Thursday and Friday, sending interferometric synthetic aperture radar and reconnaissance satellites in orbit. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 6:50 a.m. Eastern, March 30, carrying four PIESAT-1 constellation satellites. The satellites are named PIESAT-1 (A-01) and PIESAT-1-B (01 through 03). The four X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellites will orbit in a hub and spoke formation, with PIESAT-1 (A-01) as the hub. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 2)
SEIZED PROPERTY AT BAIKONUR THREATENS SOYUZ-5 PROGRAM - In early March 2023, reports began to circulate that Kazakhstan had seized the property of Roscosmos at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This has raised questions regarding launch operations from the spaceport, including important crew and cargo logistics flights for the International Space Station (ISS). However, it is likely that the development of the Soyuz-5 rocket, as well as liquid oxygen and nitrogen production, are larger concerns as a result of the recent legal action. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 1)
VIRGIN ORBIT LAYS OFF MOST EMPLOYEES - Virgin Orbit announced late March 30 it was laying off the vast majority of its employees after failing to raise additional funding, putting the launch company’s future in jeopardy. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Virgin Orbit announced it was laying off approximately 675 employees, or 85% of its workforce. The company said the layoff was necessary “to reduce expenses in light of the Company’s inability to secure meaningful funding.” More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 1)
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