RUSSIA SAYS PRIVATE SATELLITES COULD BECOME 'LEGITIMATE TARGET' DURING WARTIME - Russia continues its trend of making provocative statements about the international order in space. As the United States continues to leverage more commercial satellites for intelligence and communications work, Russia has issued a warning that these may become a "legitimate target" for wartime operations. That's according to statements made by a Russian delegation on Monday (Sept. 12) at a meeting of the United Nations' open-ended working group (OEWG) on reducing space threats, which is being held in Geneva from Sept. 12 to Sept. 16.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 17)

JAPAN, GERMANY DECLARE MORATORIUM ON ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE TESTS - Japan and Germany pledged this week not to conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing, throwing their weight behind the U.S.-driven initiative launched in April to promote peaceful and safe use of outer space. The two countries announced their commitment during the second session of the U.N. Open-Ended Working Group on reducing space threats, which is underway from Sept. 12 in Geneva.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 16)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES RADAR SATELLITE TO ORBIT ON 30TH ELECTRON MISSION - Rocket Lab's 30th Electron rocket sent a commercial radar satellite soaring to Earth orbit Thursday (Sept. 15). The Electron booster lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on the North Island's Mahia Peninsula on Thursday at 4:38 p.m. EDT (2038 GMT, or 8:38 a.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 16).   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 16)

VAST SPACE TO DEVELOP ARTIFICIAL-GRAVITY SPACE STATION - Vast Space, a Southern California startup founded by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb, plans to establish an artificial-gravity space station in low Earth orbit. McCaleb envisions a future where millions of people are living throughout the solar system. Since other companies are helping to reduce launch costs, McCaleb thinks the next important step will be creating large structures where people can live and work in space.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 16)

CHINA'S NEW SPACE STATION HAS A BIG ROLE TO PLAY—SCIENTIFICALLY AND DIPLOMATICALLY - When the International Space Station (ISS) goes out of service in 2030, low-Earth orbit won’t be empty of cosmic labs. Already flying—if only partially constructed—is China’s two-module (soon to be three) Tiangong space station. Compared to the 16-module ISS, China’s orbiting platforms is a modest machine, but as Popular Science reports in a story that nicely frames China’s overall ambitions in space, Tiangong has a big role to play.   More
(Source: Time - Sep 13)

KT SAT ORDERS KOREASAT 6A COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE FROM THALES - Thales Alenia Space said Sept. 12 it has signed a contract to deliver a communications satellite for South Korea’s KT SAT in the fourth quarter of 2024. The Koreasat 6A spacecraft will have 20 transponders for fixed satellite services and six for TV broadcasting to replace Koreasat 6, which launched to geostationary orbit (GEO) at 116 degrees East in December 2010. Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy built Koreasat 6 and has a long history of providing satellites for South Korea.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 13)

BLUE ORIGIN CAPSULE ESCAPES ROCKET FAILURE ON UNCREWED FLIGHT OVER TEXAS - The suborbital rocket developed by Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin suffered its first launch failure Monday, when the main engine on the New Shepard booster appeared to cut out about a minute after liftoff from West Texas. The crew capsule, which carried NASA-funded experiments but no people, safely landed under parachutes after firing an abort motor to escape the stricken booster.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 13)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH FIVE SPARE IRIDIUM SATELLITES - Iridium will launch five of its remaining six ground spare satellites on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in 2023, the company announced Sept. 8. Iridium said it selected SpaceX for the launch of the five satellites, sharing a launch with other, unnamed payloads. The launch is scheduled for the middle of 2023 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. “We have always said that when the right opportunity presented itself, we would launch many, if not all, of our remaining ground spares, and just such an opportunity came about,”...   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 12)

SPACEX ROCKET LAUNCHES BLUEWALKER 3, THE LARGEST COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY EVER, AND ACES RECORD 14TH LANDING - paceX launched a novel — and colossal — commercial communications satellite into orbit late Saturday and set a new launch record for its Falcon 9 rocket at the same time. The Falcon 9 launched into orbit from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying 34 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites and BlueWalker 3, a prototype satellite built by AST SpaceMobile that's billed as the largest commercial communications array ever flown in space. Liftoff was at 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT) on Saturday night (Sept. 10), with the Falcon 9 booster making some SpaceX history when it returned to Earth.    More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 11)

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