NASA CONSIDERS SPACEX AS EMERGENCY RETURN OPTION FOR ISS CREW - Three residents of the International Space Station are facing an uncertain future after a Russian Soyuz capsule sprung a dramatic coolant leak last month that has left the craft's spaceworthiness in doubt. The investigation is still ongoing, but NASA is thinking through ways to bring the affected crew home. It's possible SpaceX could play a role. NASA said in a statement last week that it "reached out to SpaceX about its capability to return additional crew members aboard Dragon if needed in an emergency, although the primary focus is on understanding the post-leak capabilities of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft." More (Source: CNET - Jan 3)
ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, ASTRONAUTS RING IN NEW YEAR 2023 AHEAD OF 2ND CHRISTMAS - A new year is rising in space. The seven Expedition 68 crew members celebrated the arrival of 2023 on the International Space Station in holiday style, including Santa hats, streamers and an adapted Orthodox Christmas tree ahead of the Russian celebration Jan. 6. "Just like back home, we have a tradition here to put up a New Year tree and decorate the interior of the space station to celebrate the New Year. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 2)
PLANET TO LAUNCH 36 SUPERDOVE SATELLITES WITH SPACEX - We are excited to share that we plan to launch 36 of our SuperDove satellites, Flock 4y, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than January 3, 2023 at 9:56 a.m. ET (14:56 UTC). Flock 4y is planned to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. These 36 SuperDoves will replenish our current fleet of approximately 200 satellites in orbit, working to provide a continuous, and complete view of the world from above every day. More (Source: Planet Labs - Jan 1)
EARTH LOOKS STUNNING IN THIS 1ST FULL VIEW FROM THE NOAA-21 SATELLITE - What can you spot in this latest global picture of Earth? There are crisp turquoise seas around Cuba, an agricultural fire in Northern India and, of course, the rest of our planet as seen in the first full view from NOAA's latest Earth-observing satellite NOAA-21. The Earth images that make up this mosaic, and a few closeups, were taken on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 by an instrument called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the satellite, which launched on Nov. 10 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 10. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 1)
CHINA TO LAUNCH NEW STATION MODULES AND COLLABORATE WITH EUROPE ON SCIENCE MISSIONS IN 2023 - With launch numbers 63 and 64 just before the end of this year, China finishes its most successful spaceflight year yet. Another Gaofen-11 launched from Taiyuan on a Chang Zheng 4B on Dec. 27 at 07:37 UTC, before the year was closed with the Shiyan 10-02 payload aboard a Chang Zheng 3B on Dec. 29 at 04:43 UTC, launching from the very busy Xichang Satellite Launch Center. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 31)
SEE THE BEST PHOTOS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OF 2022 IN THIS NASA VIDEO - NASA has released a stunning series of images that celebrate 2022 aboard the International Space Station. In 2022 the International Space Station (ISS) marked its 24th year orbiting Earth at an altitude of around 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth’s surface. The images, which can be seen as a montage on NASA Johnson's YouTube channel (opens in new tab), show that after nearly a decade and a half the station’s mission to further science is still going strong. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 31)
CHINA SENDS SECOND SHIYAN-10 TEST SATELLITE SENT INTO ORBIT WITH ITS FINAL LAUNCH OF 2022 - China has conducted its 64th and final launch of the year, sending the Shiyan-10 (02) into orbit from Xichang spaceport. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 11:43 p.m. Eastern Dec. 28, carrying Shiyan-10 (02). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), confirmed launch success shortly after. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 31)
SPACEX COMPLETES RECORD YEAR WITH ISRAELI IMAGING SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX capped off the busiest year in its two-decade history Dec. 30 with a Falcon 9 launch of a commercial Israeli imaging satellite. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:38 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage, flying its 11th mission, landed back at the launch site eight minutes after liftoff. The Falcon 9 upper stage deployed its payload, the EROS C3 imaging satellite, nearly 15 minutes after liftoff. The satellite was released at an altitude of nearly 500 kilometers in an unusual mid-inclination retrograde orbit, rather than the sun-synchronous orbit commonly used for optical imaging spacecraft. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 31)
WATCH THE LATEST WATER SATELLITE UNFOLD ITSELF IN SPACE - The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite launched into Earth orbit on Friday, Dec. 16, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, and engineers are working to prepare the mission to begin measuring the height of water on over 90% of Earth’s surface, providing a high-definition survey of our planet’s water for the first time. But before it can do that, the satellite would need to unfold its large mast and antenna panels (see above) after successfully deploying the solar panel arrays that power the spacecraft. The mission monitors and controls the satellite using telemetry data, but it also equipped spacecraft with four customized commercial cameras to record the action. More (Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - Dec 30)
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