ISRO TO LAUNCH INDIA'S NEWEST ROCKET SSLV TOMORROW - The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch India's newest rocket Small Satellite Launch Vehicle - Developmental Flight 1 (SSLV-D1) on Sunday. The countdown down for the SSLV-D1 launch will start about six-and-half-hours before the lift off which is scheduled at 9.18 a.m. on Sunday. More (Source: The Economic Times - Aug 7)
ITALIAN SATELLITE MAY FLY NASA EARTH SCIENCE PAYLOAD - NASA is in talks with the Italian Space Agency to fly an Earth science instrument originally planned to go on a commercial smallsat. At a meeting of the Earth Science Advisory Committee Aug. 2, Greg Stover, program manager for NASA’s Earth System Pathfinder Program, said NASA was in talks with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to fly the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument on a future Italian satellite. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 7)
LOCKHEED MARTIN TO LAUNCH 3 SATELLITES IN 2023 TO ADVANCE JOINT ALL-DOMAIN OPERATIONS - Lockheed Martin said that it plans to launch three company developed satellites next year to help demonstrate Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO). The effort is part of the company’s Space-Augmented JADO Environment (SAJE) test bed. “In 2023, Lockheed Martin will launch its own constellation of small satellites to demonstrate how space can provide global battlefield awareness, sensing and connectivity in even the most austere, denied or contested areas,” per Lockheed Martin. More (Source: Via Satellite - Aug 7)
NASA HALTS ALL SPACEWALKS AT ISS OVER SPACESUITS SAFETY ISSUE - NASA has halted all of its spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS) due to safety concerns of spacesuits after water leaked into one astronaut's helmet while working outside the station, CNN reported on Saturday. Dina Contella, NASA's space station operations integration manager, said in June that the existing suits of NASA have "been the workhorse for the agency for 40 years" and have been worn on 169 of the 250 spacewalks. More (Source: CGTN - Aug 7)
CHINESE SPACE FIRM RAISES FUNDS FOR COMMERCIAL WEATHER DATA SATELLITE CONSTELLATION - A Chinese private company wants to build a constellation of 80 satellites to provide weather data, further illustrating the growth and scope of China’s commercial space sector. Tianjin-based Yunyao Yuhang recently secured nearly $14.8 million in “Pre-A+” funding, the company announced Aug. 4, following a previous round worth “tens of millions of yuan” in July 2021. The new round was led by Zhongwei Yihe Investment. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 6)
AGING TELESAT SATELLITE RUNNING OUT OF FUEL AS PROJECTED LEO COSTS SOAR - Canada’s Telesat is bracing for a revenue hit in 2023 after being forced to retire its Anik F2 satellite from full service three years earlier than planned. The aging Boeing-built satellite has been operating under a workaround mode for the past year after two of its four station-keeping thrusters suffered an anomaly. One of the thrusters failed while the second continued to support operations with some constraints, Telesat said Aug. 5, enabling the company to avoid impacting Anik F2 customers that are mainly based in Canada. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 6)
CHINA LAUNCHES CARBON AND ECOSYSTEM MONITORING SATELLITE - China launched a carbon and ecosystem monitoring satellite and two smaller payloads with the country's 28th launch of 2022 late on Wednesday (Aug. 3). Liftoff of the Long March 4B rocket carrying the three satellites occurred at 11:08 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (0308 GMT or 11:08 a.m. Beijing time on Aug. 4) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 6)
RUSSIA'S WITHDRAWAL FROM ISS ANOTHER SIGN OF ITS SPACE DECLINE - Russia announced this week that it will pull out of the International Space Station program after 2024. There certainly are important near-term challenges related to Russia's withdrawal from the ISS partnership that will need to be addressed, but the bigger issue may be the continuing decline of the Russian space enterprise and the potential security implications for the future. More (Source: UPI - Aug 5)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES US SPY SATELLITE ON MYSTERY MISSION - Another U.S. spy satellite has taken flight on a mystery mission. The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) NROL-199 spacecraft launched today (Aug. 4) atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster from New Zealand, rising off the pad at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT; 5 p.m. local time in New Zealand). If all goes according to plan, Rocket Lab will deploy the satellite about an hour after liftoff. The launch occurred about two days later than planned after high winds delayed an attempted liftoff on Aug. 2. Rocket Lab shut down its webcast shortly after the Electron reached orbit at the request of the NRO. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 5)
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