COSMONAUTS FINISH SPACEWALK FOR WORK ON SCIENCE MODULE - Expedition 68 Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both of Roscosmos, concluded their spacewalk at 4:07 p.m. EST after 6 hours and 25 minutes. Prokopyev and Petelin completed their major objective, preparing a radiator on the Rassvet module for installation on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. More (Source: NASA - Nov 18)
‘PUTIN NEEDS THE ISS’: US ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY ON FUTURE OF SPACE COOPERATION - AND CHASING UFOS - Scott Kelly, a former commander of the International Space Station (ISS), says he doesn’t see any potential for space cooperation between the United States and Russia in the near future, aside from “practical” considerations to keep the ISS in orbit. The retired NASA astronaut, who famously spent almost an entire year in space alongside a Russian cosmonaut, told Euronews Next that pragmatism meant Russia was unlikely to pull out of the ISS any time soon, despite repeated threats to do so. Those threats have come amid the ongoing deterioration of relations between Moscow and the West over Russia’s war in Ukraine. More (Source: Euronews - Nov 18)
A SATELLITE THAT LAUNCHED ABOARD SLS IS ALREADY IN TROUBLE - The Artemis 1 mission taking off from the Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday morning. The launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 mission sent the Orion capsule on a journey to the Moon, in addition to 10 cubesats included as secondary payloads. The Space Launch System’s upper stage successfully deployed the tiny satellites yesterday, but one of them appears to be malfunctioning. The jumbo Moon rocket took off on Wednesday at at 1:47 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officially kickstarting NASA’s Artemis Moon program. The rocket skillfully placed the Orion capsule in space for its 25.5 day journey to the Moon and back, in a mission that will prepare NASA for future crewed missions to the lunar surface. More (Source: Yahoo News - Nov 18)
SPACERYDE ANNOUNCES MULTIPLE LAUNCHES WITH ISILAUNCH - Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde revealed plans Nov. 15 to launch four private commercial flights for ISILaunch, a subsidiary of Innovative Solutions In Space B.V. of the Netherlands. Customers will pay $250,000 to launch 25-kilogram payloads on SpaceRyde’s Ryder rocket and Flying Spider balloon. The flights are scheduled to begin in 2024. For the SpaceRyde flights, ISILaunch will offer customization including scheduling weeks prior to launch, access to custom orbits and various fairing configurations. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 17)
SLS LAUNCHES ARTEMIS 1 MISSION - After years of delays, NASA’s Space Launch System lifted off for the first time Nov. 16, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a shakedown cruise around the moon. The SLS lifted off from Launch Complex 39B here at 1:47 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage, called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), separated from the core stage eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The Orion spacecraft will separate from the ICPS two hours and five minutes after liftoff, after the stage completes a translunar injection burn. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 16)
FIRST-TIME NASA SPACEWALKERS VENTURED OUTSIDE THE SPACE STATION TUESDAY - The first in a series of end-of-the-year spacewalks kicked off Tuesday morning outside the International Space Station. First-time spacewalkers and NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio began their excursion outside the space station at 9:14 a.m. ET and ended at 4:25 p.m. ET, lasting for 7 hours and 11 minutes. Cassada wore the spacesuit with red stripes as extravehicular crew member 1, while Rubio was in the unmarked suit as extravehicular crew member 2. More (Source: CNN - Nov 16)
CHINA’S NEW SATELLITE-HUNTING RADAR AIMS TO BLIND US - China’s new electronically scanned array radar aims to blunt the military advantages long provided by satellite intelligence, raising proliferation concerns in Washington and other Western capitals. The 10-meter-tall SLC-1 radar unveiled at this year’s Zhuhai Airshow can detect and track low-orbiting satellites and predict their paths, its manufacturer China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) claimed at the show, the South China Morning Post reported last week. More (Source: Asia Times - Nov 15)
CHINESE ROCKET BODY BREAKS UP IN ORBIT AFTER SUCCESSFUL SATELLITE LAUNCH - China sent the Yunhai 3 environmental monitoring satellite into orbit on Friday (Nov. 11), on the second launch of the nation's new Long March 6A rocket. The Long March 6A lifted off from the hilly Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China at 5:52 p.m. EST on Nov. 11 (2252 GMT; 6:52 a.m. Beijing time on Nov. 12), just hours before China launched its latest cargo mission to the Tiangong space station. The satellite entered its intended orbit, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight (SAST), the state-owned manufacturer of the launch vehicle, announced (opens in new tab) within an hour of launch. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 15)
AST SPACEMOBILE HITS KEY MILESTONE TOWARD SATELLITE-TO-SMARTPHONE 5G SERVICE - Satellite-to-smartphone connectivity venture AST SpaceMobile announced Monday that the wide antenna of its recently launched test satellite deployed successfully — a critical milestone in the company’s development of a global network to provide 5G broadband service. The BlueWalker 3 satellite, launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in September, deployed its 693-square-foot antenna — which the company calls the largest-ever array deployed in low Earth orbit. More (Source: CNBC - Nov 15)
Previous Next
