RUSSIA WILL LAUNCH A CARGO MISSION TO THE SPACE STATION EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. WATCH IT LIVE - Russia will launch a robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station early Friday morning (June 3), and you can watch the action live. The uncrewed Progress 81 freighter is scheduled to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency; coverage will begin at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Jun 3)
NASA JUST BOUGHT THE REST OF THE SPACE STATION CREW FLIGHTS FROM SPACEX - NASA said this week that it plans to purchase five additional Crew Dragon missions from SpaceX to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Although the space agency's news release does not specifically say so, these may be the final flights NASA needs to keep the space station fully occupied into the year 2030. As of now, there is no signed international agreement to keep the station flying until then, but this new procurement sends a strong signal that the space agency expects the orbital outpost to keep flying that long. More (Source: Ars Technica - Jun 3)
SPACE ROCKET WITH SEPARATIST PRO-RUSSIAN FLAGS HEADING TO ISS - A rocket bearing flags of the separatist Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics will lift off from Russia's famous Baikonur launchpad, headed for the International Space Station. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement: "The final pre-launch operations with the Donbass launch vehicle, the launch of which is scheduled for June 3, 2022 at 12:32 Moscow time, are underway at the Baikonur Cosmodrome." More (Source: Newsweek - Jun 2)
STATION PREPS FOR PROGRESS AND DRAGON CARGO MISSIONS - There are now four spacecraft parked at the International Space Station today after a Russian cargo craft undocked Wednesday morning. A fifth spaceship will arrive on Friday to replace it and replenish the Expedition 67 crew with food, fuel, and supplies. The ISS Progress 79 resupply ship undocked from the rear port of the Zvezda service module at 4:03 a.m. EDT today completing a 214-day cargo mission at the station. The trash-filled space freighter reentered Earth’s atmosphere just over three hours later for a fiery, but safe demise over the Pacific Ocean. More (Source: NASA - Jun 2)
NEW AND IMPROVED SATELLITES WILL HELP TRACK STORMS THIS HURRICANE SEASON - Atlantic hurricane season begins today (June 1), and several new weather satellites will collect valuable data to improve hurricane forecasting this year. Hurricanes, also called tropical cyclones, are large, rotating storms that form when water from the surface of the ocean in the tropics evaporates and condenses to form clouds and rain. Satellites provide vital data on current weather conditions, allowing meteorologists to predict the path and severity of these storms more accurately. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 2)
ROCKET TO LAUNCH CHINA’S NEXT SPACE STATION MODULE ARRIVES AT LAUNCH CENTER - A Long March 5B rocket has arrived at Wenchang spaceport as China gears up to send its second space station module into orbit. The components of the third Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket arrived at Wenchang May 29, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced (Chinese). The launcher components were manufactured and tested in Tianjin, north China, and shipped to Wenchang, on the coast of the south island province of Hainan via specially constructed cargo vessels. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jun 1)
NASA TO PROVIDE LIVE COVERAGE OF SPACE STATION CARGO LAUNCH, DOCKING - NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 67 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Russian Progress 81 is scheduled to launch at 5:32 a.m. EDT (2:32 p.m. Baikonur time) Friday, June 3, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Coverage will begin at 5:15 a.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. More (Source: NASA - Jun 1)
ELON MUSK DETAILS GENERATION 2 STARLINK SATELLITES - Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet company, has developed a second-generation satellite for low Earth orbit, but it's too big for takeoff. The Gen2 satellite is considerably larger than the over 2,500 Starlink satellites orbiting 340 miles above the Earth's surface. Gen2 satellites are 22 feet long and weigh 2,755 pounds, according to an interview with Musk on the YouTube show Everyday Astronaut on Thursday. The first-generation satellites weigh 573 pounds, or about one-fifth as much as Gen2. More (Source: CNET - Jun 1)
BETELGEUSE'S 'GREAT DIMMING' HAD AN UNLIKELY OBSERVER: A JAPANESE WEATHER SATELLITE - Astronomers have a new way to study stars: take advantage of meteorological satellites orbiting Earth. That's the conclusion of a new paper that presents new data from a Japanese weather satellite that just so happened to observe the red supergiant star Betelgeuse during a period of inexplicable dimming. The serendipitous observations could mean a new tool for astronomers trying to understand how a red supergiant star loses mass and ultimately explode as a supernova. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 1)
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