CHINA ROLLS OUT ROCKET FOR SHENZHOU-14 CREWED MISSION - China is preparing to launch three astronauts to its Tiangong space station to oversee a crucial phase of construction of the orbital outpost. The Long March 2F rocket was rolled out to the pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert early on May 29. The 62-meter-long rocket was transferred vertically across the roughly 1,500 meters from the assembly building to the pad at no faster than 30 meters per minute. The launcher and the Shenzhou-14 crew spacecraft had been assembled and stored vertically at the site for more than 280 days as it stood on standby in case of need of an emergency on the space station. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 30)
GENERAL DYNAMICS WINS GROUND SYSTEMS CONTRACT FOR SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY’S MEGACONSTELLATION - General Dynamics Mission Systems won a $324.5 million contract to operate the ground systems and manage network operations of the Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation, the agency announced May 26. The seven-year contract is for $162.9 million as a baseline, with $161.5 million in options to establish the ground operations and integration (O&I) segment for SDA’s Tranche 1 constellation, a mesh network projected to have as many as 166 communications, data-relay and sensor satellites to support military users around the world. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 29)
SPACEX REPLACING HEAT SHIELD ON UPCOMING CREW DRAGON MISSION AFTER FAILED TEST - SpaceX will replace the heat shield on the next Crew Dragon spacecraft flying to the International Space Station after it failed inspections, but NASA says there is no risk of a similar problem for the spacecraft currently at the station. In a May 24 statement to reporters, NASA said that a heat shield structure that SpaceX built for the Crew-5 mission to the station, slated to launch in early September, failed an acceptance test earlier this month and will not be used on that spacecraft. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 29)
LAUNCHED IN SECRET: ARMENIA'S FIRST SATELITE JOINS EARH ORBIT - On May 26, during a government meeting, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced that Armenia’s first satellite of Armenia had been launched into space: “On May 25, 2022, at 22:35 Yerevan time, the first satellite of the Republic of Armenia was launched into orbit from the space station at Cape Canaveral, USA”. When the satellite was launched, Minister of High-Tech Industry Robert Khachatryan and Armenian Ambassador to the United States Lilit Makunts were on site. More (Source: JAM-news - May 27)
‘UNSUSTAINABLE’: HOW SATELLITE SWARMS POSE A RISING THREAT TO ASTRONOMY - It’s been three years since SpaceX, an aerospace company in Hawthorne, California, launched its first batch of Starlink Internet-communication satellites, sparking concern among astronomers about the streaks the satellites leave in photographs of the night sky. Since then, many other Starlinks have launched: more than 2,300 of them now orbit Earth, comprising nearly half of all operational satellites. But accumulating evidence reveals just how much these satellite ‘megaconstellations’ will interfere with astronomical observatories and other skywatchers around the globe. More (Source: Nature - May 27)
SPACEX LAUNCHES TRANSPORTER-5 DEDICATED SMALLSAT RIDESHARE MISSION - SpaceX launched several dozen payloads on its fifth dedicated rideshare mission May 25, illustrating the continued demand for such missions even as dedicated small launch vehicles emerge. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:35 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s booster, flying its eighth mission, landed back at Cape Canaveral’s Landing Zone One eight and a half minutes after liftoff. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 27)
STARLINER COMPLETES OFT-2 TEST FLIGHT WITH WHITE SANDS LANDING - After successfully rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing’s Starliner completed its mission, arriving back to Earth after a six-day-long mission in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port at the Harmony module of the ISS at 2:36 p.m. today, wrapping up its stay at the orbiting laboratory. Boeing and NASA teams saw Starliner touchdown at 6:49 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, at White Sands Space Harbor at the US Army’s White Sands Missile Range Facility in New Mexico. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 26)
STARLINER’S HATCH CLOSED, PREPS FOR WEDNESDAY DEPARTURE - NASA astronauts living aboard the International Space Station closed the hatch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 25. The uncrewed spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously undock from the space station to begin the journey home at 2:36 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 25. NASA and Boeing are targeting 6:49 p.m. for the landing and conclusion of Orbital Flight Test-2, wrapping up a six-day mission testing the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system. More (Source: NASA - May 25)
MILITARY LOOKING FOR NEW WAYS TO ACQUIRE AND USE COMMERCIAL SATELLITE DATA - Over a two-day conference last week, U.S. military and intelligence officials were briefed on the capabilities of commercial spy satellites and how data from these satellites could be used in military operations. Defense and intelligence agencies are longtime customers of commercial imagery companies and their consumption of commercial imagery has increased during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But there is also an emerging demand for new types of data now being collected by commercial satellites, such as radar imagery, radio-frequency signals, maritime and aerial traffic data. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 24)
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