MORE AMATEUR RADIO ASTRONAUTS HEAD FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Three of the four new astronauts on February's planned launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) are amateur radio operators. The four crew members that comprise the SpaceX Crew-6 mission pose for a photo during a training session on the crew access arm at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in Florida. From left are, Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Mission Specialist Sultan Al Nedayi, and Commander Stephen Bowen. Photo Courtesy of SpaceX. More (Source: ARRL - Jan 7)
NASA TO PROVIDE LIVE COVERAGE OF SPACEX CARGO CRAFT STATION DEPARTURE - A SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft is set to depart the International Space Station on Monday, Jan. 9, returning scientific research samples and hardware to Earth for NASA. The agency will provide live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure on NASA Television, the NASA app, and online at 4:45 p.m. EST. Ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will send commands at 5 p.m. for Dragon to undock from the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station. More (Source: NASA - Jan 7)
ALBANIA LAUNCHES TWO SATELLITES TO CRACK DOWN ON TERRITORIAL ILLEGALITY - Albania launched its first two satellites, Albania 1 and Albania 2, into orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this week, hoping they will aid a crackdown on drug cultivation and other crimes. The satellites were a part of the SpaceX Transporter-6 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 40. They came following a $6 million deal with Satelllogic USA signed in 2022 to create a dedicated satellite constellation to monitor the territory. More (Source: EURACTIV.com - Jan 6)
AIRBUS JOINS STARLAB COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION PROJECT - Airbus Defence and Space is joining a commercial space station project led by Voyager Space, a move that could potentially make it easier for European governments to use the station after the retirement of the International Space Station. Denver-based Voyager Space announced Jan. 4 a partnership with Airbus on its Starlab commercial space station project. Airbus will provide “technical design support and expertise” for Starlab, the companies said, but did not disclose additional details about the partnership or financial terms. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 5)
SPACE MISSIONS TO WATCH IN 2023 - 2022 surpassed the record number of 135 orbital launches in 2021 with 178 successful launches, half of which came from either China or SpaceX. The last year also saw the DART impact, the start of science operations for the James Webb Space Telescope and the completion of Artemis 1. At the same time, 2022 saw humanity miss a Mars launch window — for the first time since 2009 — as the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced the European Space Agency to part ways with Roscosmos. Now, in 2023, here’s what we can expect to see for astronomy and planetary missions. More (Source: Sky & Telescope - Jan 4)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 114 SMALL SATELLITES ON FIRST MISSION OF 2023 - SpaceX’s first launch of the year fired away from Cape Canaveral Tuesday and hauled 114 small satellites into polar orbit for operators in 23 countries, deploying a range of payloads for tech demo, Earth observation, and communication missions. A 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket did the lifting, kicking off the mission at 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT) with a thundering launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch marked the 1st of as many as 100 missions on SpaceX’s schedule for 2023, following a record 61 launches last year. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 4)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH 1ST ROCKET OF 2023 WITH EOS SAT-1 AND 113 OTHER SATELLITES ON TUESDAY - SpaceX is ready to launch some belated New Year's fireworks of its own on Tuesday with a mission to fly 114 different satellites into orbit to kick off 2023. A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX will launch the company's epic Transporter-6 rideshare mission at 9:56 a.m. EST (1355 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. You can watch the launch live here at Space.com in a livestream brought to you by EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA). More (Source: Space.com - Jan 3)
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)
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