NASA TV TO COVER SPACEX CARGO DRAGON DEPARTURE FROM SPACE STATION - A SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft returning science to Earth for NASA is set to depart the International Space Station on Thursday, Aug. 18. NASA will provide coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website website beginning at 10:45 a.m. EDT. Ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will send commands at 11:05 a.m. for Dragon to undock from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station. Controllers will command a deorbit burn the following day.   More
(Source: NASA - Aug 12)

3RD CHINESE SPACE STATION MODULE ARRIVES AT SPACEPORT AHEAD OF OCTOBER LAUNCH - China is gearing up to complete its Tiangong space station with a third module launch in less than 18 months. The Mengtian experiment module arrived at Wenchang spaceport in south China on Tuesday (Aug. 9) after being shipped in containers from the northern port city of Tianjin, China’s human spaceflight agency announced (opens in new tab). Mengtian ("Dreaming of the Heavens") will next be assembled and put through testing at Wenchang in preparation for a scheduled launch in October on a Long March 5B rocket.    More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 12)

CHINA LAUNCHES 16 NEW SATELLITES - China on Wednesday sent 16 new satellites into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi. The satellites, including a Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D09 satellite and Yunyao-1 04-08 satellites, were launched by a Long March-6 carrier rocket at 12:50 p.m. Beijing Time and entered the planned orbit successfully. The new batch of satellites is mainly used in the fields such as commercial remote sensing and atmospheric imaging.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Aug 11)

BIG NEW CHINESE ROCKET LOFTS 6 EXPERIMENTAL SATELLITES ON DEBUT LAUNCH - China now has a new launch service provider and a big, new flight-proven rocket. The four-stage Lijian 1 rocket, also referred to as ZK-1A, lifted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:12 a.m. EDT (0412 GMT; 12:12 p.m. local time) on July 27, carrying six satellites into orbit on its debut flight. The 100-foot-tall (30 meters) rocket — China's largest solid-fueled launch vehicle — was developed by CAS Space, a spinoff from the state-owned Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 11)

FALCON 9 ROCKET DEPLOYS SPACEX’S 3,000TH STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITE - Fifty-two satellites are on the way to join SpaceX’s Starlink internet network after a sky-lighting blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday night, a mission that included the 3,000th spacecraft to launch for the Starlink constellation. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:14:40 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0214:40 GMT Wednesday).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 11)

NASA CUBESAT BUMPED FROM RIDESHARE LAUNCH BECAUSE OF ORBITAL DEBRIS MITIGATION CONCERNS - A NASA cubesat was removed from a recent rideshare launch opportunity on a U.S. Space Force mission because the spacecraft could not meet guidelines for deorbiting at the end of its life. The GTOSat mission, developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was manifested to fly as a secondary payload on the Atlas 5 launch of the SBIRS GEO-6 missile-warning satellite. The SBIRS satellite was successfully launched Aug. 4.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 11)

US OFFICIALS CONCERNED AS RUSSIA LAUNCHES IRANIAN SATELLITE - Russia has successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit amid US concerns over its planned purpose. The satellite, called Khayyam, was launched from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. Iran has said it will be used for environmental monitoring and will remain under Tehran's control. But last week, US officials told the Washington Post that they feared the satellite could be used by Moscow to spy on troop movements in Ukraine.    More
(Source: BBC News - Aug 10)

RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES IRANIAN SATELLITE - A Russian rocket on Tuesday successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit. The Soyuz rocket lifted off as scheduled at 8:52 a.m. Moscow time (0552 GMT) Tuesday from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. About nine minutes after the launch, it placed the Iranian satellite called Khayyam into orbit. It’s named after Omar Khayyam, a Persian scientist who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries.   More
(Source: AP News - Aug 10)

BENCHMARK UNVEILS SMALL SATELLITE COLLISION-AVOIDANCE KIT - At the Small Satellite Conference, Benchmark Space Systems unveiled a collision-avoidance kit designed to help small satellites dodge debris and steer clear of other spacecraft. Benchmark is taking orders its “Cola Kit,” which the company plans to begin shipping to customers in early 2023. The Cola Kit is the size of a two-unit (2U) cubesat.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Aug 9)

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