RUSSIAN MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LAUNCHED ON SOYUZ ROCKET - A Russian Soyuz rocket delivered a military communications satellite to orbit Tuesday in the first space launch for Russia’s military since forces invaded Ukraine last month. The Soyuz launcher lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 8:48 a.m. EDT (1248 GMT) Tuesday. The rocket headed southeast from the military-run spaceport, located about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, and dropped its four kerosene-fueled first stage boosters two minutes into the mission.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)

CHINA LAUNCHES MILITARY SPY SATELLITE - China launched a classified military remote sensing satellite March 17 on a Long March 4C rocket. The three-stage rocket placed the Yaogan 34-02 satellite into an orbit at an altitude of 680 miles (1,100 kilometers). The Long March 4C lifted off from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 0709 GMT (3:09 a.m. EDT) on March 17. The launch occurred at 3:09 p.m. Beijing time, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the country’s largest state-owned space industry contractor.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)

CHINA PLANS TO OPEN ITS TIANGONG SPACE STATION FOR TOURISM WITHIN A DECADE - China is looking to spark interest in space tourism by opening its soon-to-be-completed space station to everyday citizens. Yang Liwei, who made history in 2003 by becoming China's first astronaut in space, told Chinese media earlier this month that people without formal astronaut training could soon visit the Tiangong space station. "It is not a matter of technology but of demand," Yang said when asked if the general public would be able to tour Tiangong. "And it can be realized within a decade as long as there is such demand."   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 25)

NASA, ESA ASSIGN ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION MISSION ON CREW DRAGON - NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have selected two astronauts to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. Two mission specialists will be announced later, following review by NASA and its international partners. The mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Moghbeli, Mogensen, and the additional mission specialists will join an expedition crew aboard the space station.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 25)

ASTRONAUTS COMPLETE SPACEWALK FOR SPACE STATION MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES - Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and installed refurbished ammonia jumpers in the lab’s cooling system to bring it back up to full efficiency, replaced a high-definition camera and made power and data connections on a European experiment platform. When the six-hour 54-minute excursion ended, astronaut Kayla Barron, helping German astronaut Matthias Maurer out of his spacesuit, reported water inside his helmet, bringing to mind a life-threatening malfunction during a 2013 spacewalk that flooded Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES MERIDIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE TO MOLNIYA ORBIT - Russia has launched the Meridian-M n°20L satellite onboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The launch lifted off at 12:48:22 UTC bound for a very highly elliptical Molniya orbit of 900 x 39,000 km, with an inclination of 65°. This kind of orbit allows the satellite to remain over a certain region for about eight hours at a time, which helps to provide communications to regions that are very north or very south of the equator, as these can be difficult to serve using geostationary satellites. The orbit is named after the Molniya satellite constellation, launched starting in 1964, that is replaced by these Meridian satellites.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 23)

ONEWEB SIGNS WITH SPACEX TO RESUME LAUNCHING INTERNET CONSTELLATION - OneWeb said Monday it has reached an agreement with SpaceX to resume launching the company’s satellite internet constellation later this year, just 18 days after suspending launches on Russian Soyuz rockets. Few details about the agreement were released Monday morning. “Terms of the agreement with SpaceX are confidential,” OneWeb said in a statement. OneWeb said the “first launch” with SpaceX is expected before the end of this year, suggesting the company anticipates multiple flights on SpaceX rockets.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 22)

ESA WEIGHS OPTIONS FOR REPLACING SOYUZ LAUNCHES - The European Space Agency is looking at options for launching missions that were to fly on Russia’s Soyuz rocket, including both non-European rockets and early use of the Ariane 6. The ESA Council meeting that concluded March 17 addressed Russia’s Feb. 26 decision to halt Soyuz launches from French Guiana and withdraw its personnel there in response to European sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. That decision puts five European missions in limbo: two launches of Galileo navigation satellites, ESA’s Euclid space observatory and EarthCARE Earth science satellites, and a French reconnaissance satellite.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 21)

CHINESE RESEARCHERS CLAIM TO DEVELOP SATELLITE-KILLING WEAPON - If researchers of China are to be believed, a microwave machine called 'Relativistic Klystron Amplifier (RKA)’ has been developed by them. What’s so special about it? The machine can be used to jam or destroy satellites in space, as per researchers. It seems to have the power to burn out sensitive electronics in satellites.   More
(Source: WION - Mar 20)

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