CREW UNPACKING NEW SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FROM DRAGON - New science experiments continue to be unpacked from inside the newly-arrived SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The seven Expedition 67 crew members also ensured the International Space Station continues orbiting Earth in tip-top shape. NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines spent Monday unloading some of the more than 5,800 pounds of science experiments and crew supplies delivered on Saturday inside the Dragon cargo craft. The duo transferred time-critical research samples into the orbital lab to begin exploring a variety of space phenomena to benefit humans on and off the Earth.   More
(Source: NASA - Jul 19)

NORTHROP WINS SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY'S CONTRACT TO BUILD 14 SATELLITES - Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) said on Monday it had won a contract to build and deploy a low-Earth orbit constellation of 14 satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency. The satellites are part of the agency's plan to build the Tranche 1 Tracking Layer for detecting, identifying and track hypersonic weapons and other advanced missiles from their earliest stages of launch through interception.   More
(Source: Reuters - Jul 19)

SATELLITE DODGES SPACE DEBRIS AS IT SCRAMBLES AGAINST SPACE WEATHER - A European satellite that has been scrambling to escape premature death in Earth's atmosphere due to bad space weather has narrowly avoided a collision with a random piece of space junk. The satellite, part of the constellation Swarm, which monitors Earth's magnetic field, has been climbing to a higher altitude after it experienced increased drag due to changes in the density of the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere that occurred in response to solar activity.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 19)

SPACEX DEPLOYS 53 MORE STARLINK SATELLITES ON RECORD-TYING 31ST LAUNCH OF THE YEAR - Fifty-three more Starlink internet satellites thundered into orbit from Cape Canaveral atop a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday on SpaceX’s 31st launch of the year, tying the company’s number of missions for all of 2021 and maintaining a pace of one flight per week. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT) Sunday. Nine Merlin 1D engines flashed to life with 1.7 million pounds of thrust and burned rocket-grade kerosene fuel to drive the Falcon 9 launcher off the pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 19)

CHINA'S HOPES HIGH AS SPACE STATION NEARS COMPLETION - Chinese astronauts, known as taikonauts, and a ground crew are working to finish their country's first permanent orbiting space station and the world's second by year's end, official media outlets say. That milestone will boost China's national pride and provide it with new channels for economic development and a possible new tool for military use on the ground, analysts say.   More
(Source: voanews.com - Jul 17)

DRAGON DOCKS DELIVERING SCIENCE BENEFITTING HUMANS - While the International Space Station was traveling more than 267 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 11:21 a.m. EDT today, with NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins monitoring operations from the station. The Dragon launched on SpaceX’s 25th contracted commercial resupply mission for NASA at 8:44 p.m., Thursday, July 14, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After Dragon spends about one month attached to the space station, the spacecraft will return to Earth with cargo and research.   More
(Source: NASA - Jul 17)

NASA AND ROSCOSMOS REACH SWAP DEAL FOR ISS TRANSPORTATION - NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have reached an agreement to resume integrated crews on U.S. crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The news broke Friday, the same day that Russia removed Roscomos Director General Dmitry Rogozin from his post, installing Yury Borisov, former deputy prime minister.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jul 17)

VIASAT COMPLETES A MAJOR MILESTONE WITH THE 2ND VIASAT-3 SATELLITE PAYLOAD - Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) has delivered their second ViaSat-3 payload module to Boeing‘s El Segundo, California, facility, where it will be integrated with Boeing’s 702 spacecraft bus platform and undergo rigorous spacecraft environmental testing in preparation for launch. Viasat’s satellite payload, designed and built in-house, provides state-of-the-art electronics for receiving, transmitting and processing broadband internet data to and from the satellite at expected rates greater than 1 terabit a second...   More
(Source: SatNews - Jul 17)

WATCH SPACEX'S DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE DOCK WITH THE SPACE STATION SATURDAY MORNING - A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule will meet up with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday (July 16), and you can watch the orbital action live. The robotic Dragon launched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday night (July 14) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 delivered Dragon to low Earth orbit, and the rocket's first stage came back down for a successful landing on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 16)

Previous Next