RUSSIA SAYS IT WILL QUIT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AFTER 2024 - Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country's new space chief said Tuesday amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over the fighting in Ukraine. Yuri Borisov, appointed this month to lead the state space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its obligations to its partners before it leaves. More (Source: NPR - Jul 27)
DISCO-BALL SATELLITE WILL PUT EINSTEIN'S THEORY TO STRICTEST TEST YET - A newly launched satellite aims to measure how Earth’s rotation drags the fabric of space-time around itself — an effect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity — ten times more accurately than ever before. The Laser Relativity Satellite 2 (LARES-2) launched from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 July. It was built by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) at a cost of around €10 million (US$10.2 million), and lifted off on the maiden flight of an upgraded version of the European Vega rocket, called Vega C. More (Source: Nature - Jul 26)
HUGE CHINESE ROCKET BOOSTER FALLING FROM SPACE AFTER LAUNCHING SPACE STATION MODULE - China has once again opted to let a huge rocket stage fall back to Earth on its own. The decision, the third time the country has opted not to control the disposal of the first stage of the Long March 5B rocket, once again puts China under scrutiny from space debris trackers after similar uncontrolled falls in 2020 and 2021. Jonathan McDowell, an experienced tracker of these events at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said U.S. Space Command orbital data is showing the 21-ton stage floating on its own. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 26)
NEW SCIENCE LAB FOR CHINA’S SPACE STATION LAUNCHES ON LONG MARCH 5B ROCKET - China’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket launched Sunday with the second major element of the Chinese Tiangong space station, sending the 25-ton Wentian science module on course for docking at the orbiting outpost. The Wentian lab module was buttoned up in the nose cone of the Long March 5B rocket when it lifted off at 2:22:32 a.m. EDT (0622:32 GMT) Sunday from the Wenchang space center on Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 25)
CHINA READIES TO LAUNCH WENTIAN MODULE FOR TIANGONG SPACE STATION ON SUNDAY - China is expected to launch the second module for its Tiangong space station on Sunday (July 24) from Wenchang spaceport in south China. The Wentian module will launch on board the huge Long March 5B rocket and should join up with the Chinese space station's Tianhe core module hours later, expanding the country's crewed space research facility. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 24)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 32ND MISSION OF THE YEAR, BREAKING RECORD SET IN 2021 - With 2022 barely half over, SpaceX launched its 32nd mission of the year Friday from California’s Central Coast, breaking the company’s record for most launches in a year and delivering 46 more Starlink internet satellites into polar orbit to provide global broadband service. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:39:40 a.m. PDT (1:39:40 p.m. EDT; 1739:40 GMT). Nine Merlin 1D engines powered up to full throttle, generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust as the Falcon 9 climbed through a fog layer blanketing the West Coast spaceport about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 24)
RUSSIAN AND EUROPEAN ASTRONAUTS CONDUCT RARE JOINT SPACEWALK - Two astronauts — one European and one Russian — exited the airlock on the International Space Station for a spacewalk on Thursday, marking the first time in more than 20 years such a joint endeavor has taken place. Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev entered the vacuum of space in their puffy white spacesuits before 11 a.m. ET, and they're expected to spend about seven hours working to install a 36-foot-long robotic arm on one of the space station's modules. More (Source: CNN - Jul 22)
STATION SET FOR THURSDAY SPACEWALK AS ADVANCED SPACE RESEARCH CONTINUES - A Russian cosmonaut and an Italian astronaut are finalizing preparations for a spacewalk on Thursday to configure the International Space Station’s third and newest robotic arm. As the pair was being assisted by two cosmonauts the rest of the Expedition 67 crew ensured ongoing advanced space research was proceeding full speed ahead aboard the orbiting lab. Station Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to exit the space station into the vacuum of space at 10 a.m. EDT on Thursday. More (Source: NASA - Jul 21)
NASA CONSIDERS SENDING SCIENTISTS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: REPORT - NASA is considering sending "hyper-specialized" scientists to the International Space Station to work alongside career astronauts. The idea is by no means new, as NASA used to fly payload specialists assigned to specific space shuttle experiments in the early 1980s, notably including three-time spaceflyer Charlie Walker on behalf of his employer, McDonnell Douglas. Payload specialist requirements were changed, however, when the Challenger launch disaster of 1986 killed seven crew members and shifted NASA safety protocols. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 21)
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