SES CLOSER TO $4 BILLION PAYOUT AFTER ULA LAUNCH TO NEAR-GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT - United Launch Alliance launched a pair of satellites for SES Oct. 4 that are vital to the operator’s bid to claim nearly $4 billion in C-band clearing proceeds. SES-20 and SES-21 lifted off 5:36 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and separated from their Atlas 5 rocket around six hours later. The lengthy mission dropped the Boeing-built satellites off at 35,888 kilometers above the equator at 1.9 degrees of inclination, much closer than a typical launch of spacecraft to geostationary transfer orbit. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 5)
SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCH OF 52 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM VANDENBERG - NASASpaceFlight.com Forums L2 Sign Up Artemis SpaceX Commercial ISS International Other Shop SpaceX delays launch of 52 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg written by Justin Davenport October 3, 2022 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 B1071-5 is ready to launch 52 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California. The Starlink 4-29 mission was targeting launch on Monday, Oct. 3; however, a report from T.S. Kelso on Twitter, who provides prelaunch tracking information from SpaceX, indicates a 24-hour delay to the mission to Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 4:35 PM PDT (23:35 UTC). This will mark SpaceX’s 44th launch of 2022–a launch every 6.27 days. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 4)
HOW TO WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH NASA ASTRONAUTS ON CREW-5 MISSION THIS WEEK - NASA and SpaceX are looking to get their next big mission off the ground in Florida as early as Wednesday. The Crew-5 mission will send NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada to the International Space Station aboard the Dragon Endurance capsule. They'll be joined by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. More (Source: CNET - Oct 3)
NASA AND SPACEX TO STUDY POSSIBLE PRIVATE HUBBLE SERVICING MISSION - NASA and SpaceX announced Sept. 29 they will study a concept to send a Crew Dragon spacecraft to reboost, and possibly service, the Hubble Space Telescope to extend its life. In a briefing called on several hours’ notice, NASA and SpaceX officials, along with billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, announced an unfunded Space Act Agreement to explore the possibility of at least reboosting Hubble’s orbit using a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The agreement came after SpaceX approached NASA about the concept. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 2)
PREPS RESUME FOR SPACEX CREW LAUNCH AFTER HURRICANE IAN - The next multinational crew scheduled to ride a SpaceX rocket and capsule to the International Space Station next week arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Saturday as ground teams rolled their Falcon 9 booster and Dragon Endurance spacecraft to the launch pad, resuming work suspended earlier in the week as Hurricane Ian moved across Florida. Commander Nicole Mann, pilot Josh Cassada, and mission specialists Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina rode a NASA Gulfstream business jet from their home base in Houston to Kennedy Space Center Saturday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 2)
FIREFLY SUCCEEDS ON SECOND ALPHA FLIGHT - With the goal of successfully reaching orbit, Firefly successfully launched FLTA002 – its second demonstration flight of the Alpha launch vehicle – on the mission dubbed “To The Black.” Launching from Space Launch Complex 2 West (SLC-2W) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the vehicle lifted off at 12:01 AM PDT (07:01 UTC) on Oct. 1. A scrub on Friday morning came after a hold was called at T-0 during engine ignition. FLTA002 launched with several small satellites into a 300 km circular low-Earth orbit (LEO) with a 137-degree inclination. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 2)
3 RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS RETURN SAFELY FROM INTL SPACE STATION - Three Russian cosmonauts returned safely Thursday from a mission to the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov touched down softly at 4:57 p.m. at a designated site in the steppes of Kazakhstan, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan. More (Source: ABC News - Sep 30)
WATCH LIVE EARLY THURSDAY: RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS DEPARTING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Three Russian cosmonauts will return to Earth Thursday (Sept. 29), and you can watch the whole thing live. Expedition 67 cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov will fly back to Earth on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS). Their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the Prichal module of the ISS at 3:34 a.m. EDT (0734 GMT) and arrive in Kazakhstan, outside of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, at 6:57 a.m. EDT (1057 GMT or 4:57 a.m. local time), NASA officials (opens in new tab) said. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 29)
SEE HURRICANE IAN CHURN IN VIDEO FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Cameras aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are providing a birds-eye view of Hurricane Ian as it churns northward toward Florida. The storm looks gigantic in video captured Monday (Sept. 26) by cameras mounted to the exterior of the ISS, which flies about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. And Hurricane Ian is starting to deliver on that threatening visual; it was expected to bring powerful winds and a life-threatening storm surge to western Cuba on Monday evening, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC). More (Source: Space.com - Sep 28)
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