SPACE DOMAIN AWARENESS: A SECRET WEAPON AGAINST SHADOWY THREATS IN ORBIT - When China fired a missile into one of its own weather satellites in a 2007 show of force, experts called the demo the beginning of a new antisatellite arms race. Fast forward to 2022, and a Chinese space tug is spotted towing a dead navigation satellite into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary belt. “This is the type of space event that makes the hair on the back of people’s necks stand up,” said Brian Young, a former space control officer at the U.S. Air Force Space Command and now vice president of KBR’s military space business.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 17)

NASA COVERAGE SET FOR AXIOM MISSION 1 DEPARTURE FROM SPACE STATION - NASA will provide live coverage of the undocking and departure of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) prior to its return to Earth from the International Space Station. The four-member private astronaut crew is scheduled to undock at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, April 19, to begin the journey home with splashdown off the coast of Florida no earlier than 7:19 a.m. EDT Wednesday, April 20. Teams will monitor weather at the splashdown sites prior to undocking to ensure conditions are acceptable for a safe recovery of the Dragon spacecraft and Ax-1 astronauts. If needed for any reason, there are additional opportunities for the crew’s departure from the space station on Tuesday, April 19 and Wednesday, April 20.   More
(Source: NASA - Apr 16)

CHINA LAUNCHES CHANG ZHENG 4C FROM TAIYUAN WITH DAQI-1 ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE - A Chang Zheng 4C has launched from Launch Complex 9 (LC-9) at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China at 2:16 AM local time on April 16 (18:16 UTC on April 15) with the Daqi-1 environmental monitoring satellite. The Chang Zheng 4C (also known as Long March 4C) is a small to medium-sized satellite launch vehicle which the Chinese program has frequently used to fly Earth observation satellites. The CZ-4C has been in service since 2006 with 41 successes (including today) out of 43 attempts.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 16)

CHINA’S CHANG ZHENG 3B/E LAUNCHES CHINASAT 6D - China has successfully launched the ChinaSat 6D satellite into geostationary transfer orbit Friday via their Chang Zheng 3B/E rocket. The launch took place at 12:05 UTC (20:05 local time) from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The ChinaSat 6D satellite, also known as Zhongxing 6D, was deployed into orbit by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The Chang Zheng 3B/E (CZ-3B/E) – or Long March 3B/E – rocket is the most powerful of the Chang Zheng 3 series of rockets that China uses for most of its geostationary satellite launches.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 16)

SHENZHOU-13 MISSION ENDS WITH SAFE RETURN OF CHINESE TAIKONAUT TRIO - The Chinese Shenzhou-13 spacecraft and its crew of three taikonauts ended their six-month mission with a return to Earth on Saturday, 16 April after completing the first long-duration stay aboard the Chinese Space Station. The spacecraft undocked and began the trip home on Friday, 15 April, ahead of reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Touchdown occurred at the Dongfeng Landing Site in China’s Inner Mongolia region, located only a handful of kilometers away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Complex.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 16)

SCIENTISTS SAY THIS NEW SATELLITE IS A GAME CHANGER FOR TRACKING HOW OUR ENVIRONMENT IS CHANGING - Space technology has long been used to help forecast weather, spot wildfires and aide scientists’ understanding of the climate crisis. But this next-generation German satellite is being called a game changer for its ability to use more than 250 colors to produce the most precise data on water, soil and vegetation in satellite history, scientists say. The Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program, or EnMAP, is capable of measuring things that would otherwise be invisible, from the degree of pollution in a river flowing through a forest to the nutrient supply within a plant.   More
(Source: CNN - Apr 16)

CHINESE SHIYAN-10 SATELLITE REAPPEARS IN NEW MOLNIYA ORBIT MONTHS AFTER LAUNCH ANOMALY - A classified Chinese satellite has been tracked operating in a specialized orbit, six months after an anomaly during launch appeared to leave it stranded in an initial transfer orbit. Shiyan-10 is now in a “Molniya” orbit according to tracking data from the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron (SPCS). The satellite is in a highly elliptical 1,880 by 38,881 kilometer altitude orbit with an inclination of 63.6 degrees. This indicates that the spacecraft has made a big alteration to its earlier orbital inclination to serve a specific set of tasks over the northern hemisphere.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 16)

SATELLITE IMAGE PINPOINTS RUSSIAN CRUISER MOSKVA AS SHE BURNED - The Russian cruiser Moskva will go down in history. The sinking will be studied and written about, both as a single event and, likely, a key moment in the War. The fog of war is still obscuring the event, and information operations are clouding it further. But we can look again at the open source intelligence (OSINT) picture. In particular, the ship’s movements and where she was when it happened.   More
(Source: Naval News - Apr 16)

SPACE FORCE LOOKING AT WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO REFUEL SATELLITES IN ORBIT - The U.S. Space Force in 2025 plans to launch to geostationary orbit three small satellites that will attempt to dock with a propellant tanker so they can be refueled in space. The idea is to “test out pieces of the refueling infrastructure,” Col. Joseph Roth, director of innovation and prototyping at U.S. Space Systems Command, told SpaceNews last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 15)

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