NEXT SPACEX LAUNCH TO DEPLOY FEWER STARLINK SATELLITES INTO HIGHER ORBIT - A Falcon 9 rocket will launch SpaceX’s next batch of Starlink internet satellites Monday into a higher, more circular orbit than recent flights, reducing potential risks from a solar storm like the one that destroyed at least 38 Starlink craft earlier this month. SpaceX is set to launch its seventh mission in a little more than seven weeks Monday, with liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for 9:44 a.m. EST (1444 GMT) from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX has two more Falcon 9 rockets scheduled to blast off in the next 10 days from different launch pads in Florida and California.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 21)

NORTHROP GRUMMAN SENDS NASA SCIENCE, CARGO TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A fresh supply of 8,300 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 12:40 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 19, aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft, and is now traveling to the International Space Station. The Cygnus spacecraft, which was launched on an Antares rocket, is scheduled to arrive at the space station around 4:35 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 21. NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency’s website will provide live coverage of the spacecraft’s approach and arrival beginning at 3 a.m.   More
(Source: NASA - Feb 20)

ASTRONAUTS SNAP STUNNING VIEWS OF FEBRUARY'S FULL SNOW MOON FROM SPACE (PHOTOS) - Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) captured stunning views of February's Full Snow Moon this week. Full moons occur when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, which happens roughly every 29.5 days. The Full Snow Moon arrived on Wednesday (Feb. 16) at 11:57 a.m. EST (0457 GMT), offering striking views from Earth and space. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei shared a photo of the full moon from his vantage point on the ISS. The moon peeks over Earth's horizon, shining bright against the dark backdrop of space.    More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 19)

PROGRESS SUPPLY FREIGHTER DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION - Two days after launching from Kazakhstan, a Russian Progress cargo freighter docked with the International Space Station on autopilot Thursday with a fresh delivery of food, crew supplies, experiments, and CubeSats that will be released outside the complex on a future spacewalk. The Progress MS-19 spacecraft docked with the space station’s Poisk module at 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 GMT) Thursday. The final approach occurred on autopilot, with the Progress spacecraft’s on-board computer receiving navigation data from a Kurs rendezvous radar.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 18)

RUSSIAN CARGO CRAFT NEARS STATION, U.S. SPACE FREIGHTER AT LAUNCH PAD - A Russian resupply ship is targeting the International Space Station for a cargo delivery early Thursday. While two cosmonauts get ready to support the cargo craft’s arrival, the rest of the Expedition 66 crew juggled lab maintenance, space research, and robotics training ahead of a U.S. cargo mission due to launch on Saturday. Nearly three-and-a-half tons of food, fuel, and supplies are racing toward the orbiting lab today aboard the ISS Progress 80 resupply ship from Roscosmos.   More
(Source: NASA - Feb 17)

EU STATES AGREE ON NEED TO BUILD OWN SATELLITE CONSTELLATION - European Union ministers, meeting on space policy in Toulouse, on Wednesday agreed that the bloc needed an autonomous satellite constellation infrastructure for high-speed internet access, France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said. “This is probably the most important achievement of today’s meeting,” Le Maire told a news conference after the meeting. French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke at the event, said that bundling efforts to build up a satellite constellation independently from more advanced projects like Elon Musk’s SpaceX was for Europe was a “matter of sovereignty”.   More
(Source: WTVB - Feb 17)

‘THIS IS ROCKET SCIENCE’: MICROMETEORITE COLLISION BLAMED FOR NBN SATELLITE INTERNET OUTAGE - A micrometeorite slamming into a satellite was the likely cause of a seven-hour outage for NBN Co internet users in December, a Senate hearing has been told. About 46,500 of NBN Co’s 112,000 satellite users in regional and remote parts of Australia were left without internet between 8.30pm on 21 December and 3.20am the following morning due to the incident.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Feb 17)

SEE A LARGE ROBOTIC ARM 'CRAWL' ACROSS CHINA'S SPACE STATION (VIDEO) - Footage from China's space station shows how its large robotic arm can "crawl" along the outside of the spacecraft. The new video from the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA) shows the space station's 33.5-foot-long (10.2 meters) robotic arm rising up from behind the Tianhe module and reaching out to find a docking port in the foreground. The footage was captured by panoramic camera D on the Tianhe core module, which launched to China's new Tiangong space station in April 2021.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 16)

INDIA PUTS THREE SATELLITES INTO ORBIT IN THE FIRST LAUNCH OF 2022 - India launched three satellites Feb. 14 on its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in a rideshare mission marking the nation’s first launch of the year. The PSLV-C52 rocket lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Center 6:59 p.m. EST, said India’s space agency ISRO in a statement. The launch was live-streamed on YouTube, which showed the rocket blasting off with bright flame jetting from its first-stage booster and soaring into the dark sky. The agency said the three satellites had been deployed successfully into a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529 kilometers after a flight of about 17 minutes and 34 seconds.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 15)

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