NOAA TO MOVE NEW WEATHER SATELLITE QUICKLY INTO POSITION - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will move its next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellite into position over the Western United States soon after launch to speed up data delivery to the National Weather Service. The GOES-T satellite, scheduled to launch March 1 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, will be renamed GOES-18 after launch.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 26)

AXIOM SPACE PLANS TO BUILD A MOVIE STUDIO MODULE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION BY 2024 - U.K.-based Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) has announced plans to launch a movie production studio module intended to connect to the International Space Station (ISS). The company, which is co-producing Tom Cruise's upcoming unnamed space movie, has commissioned Houston-based Axiom Space to build an inflatable space station module that contains a production studio — including a sports arena — by December 2024.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 26)

CARGO DRAGON RETURNS TO EARTH, BRINGING CRS-24 MISSION TO A CLOSE - After a month-long stay at the International Space Station, NASA and SpaceX have successfully returned the CRS-24 Cargo Dragon back to Earth. Ground controllers commanded the undocking of the Dragon spacecraft from the Harmony module’s zenith – or space-facing – port at 10:35 AM EST (15:35 UTC) on Sunday, January 23. Once the spacecraft undocked from the Station, it performed a series of maneuvers to lower its orbit and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. This set up a splashdown off the coast of Florida at approximately 4:05 PM EST on Monday, January 24.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 26)

GPS SATELLITE SVN-47 DECOMMISSIONED, SVN-41 RETURNS TO BROADCAST ALMANAC - The U.S. Space Force has announced the decommissioning of GPS satellite SVN-47 (PRN-22), which officially took place Jan. 18. The satellite has been unusable since Dec. 2. SVN-47 was a replacement satellite in the second generation of GPS satellites (GPS-IIR), launched Dec. 21, 2003. The announcement was made in a Notice Advisory to NavStar Users (NANU 2022001) issued by NAVCEN, U.S. Coast Guard.   More
(Source: GPS World - Jan 25)

LIVING ON THE EDGE: SATELLITES ADOPT POWERFUL COMPUTERS - The latest Apple Watch has 16 times the memory of the central processor on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. For the new iPhone, 64 times the car-size rover’s memory comes standard. For decades, people dismissed comparisons of terrestrial and space-based processors by pointing out the harsh radiation and temperature extremes facing space-based electronics. Only components custom built for spaceflight and proven to function well after many years in orbit were considered resilient enough for multibillion-dollar space agency missions.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 25)

SO YOU LAUNCHED A SATELLITE… NOW WHAT? - Just over a week ago, we launched 44 of our latest SuperDoves to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket. A successful rocket launch is a feat in and of itself and requires months of coordination from our Manufacturing Team to build, test, tinker with, and ship our hardware to the launch site (more on our manufacturing process here), but that’s not where the job ends.   More
(Source: Planet Labs - Jan 25)

WEBB REACHES ORBITAL DESTINATION A MILLION MILES FROM EARTH - The James Webb Space Telescope slipped into orbit around a point in space nearly a million miles from Earth Monday where it can capture light from the first stars and galaxies to form in the aftermath of the Big Bang. As planned, the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on Christmas Day put the telescope on a trajectory that required only a slight push to reach the intended orbit around Lagrange Point 2, one of five where the pull of sun and Earth interact to form stable or nearly stable gravitational zones.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 25)

CARGO DRAGON CAPSULE DEPARTS SPACE STATION - SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft, closing out a month-long mission, undocked from the International Space Station Sunday after a two-delay in its departure to wait for better weather in the capsule’s recovery zone off the coast of Florida. The gumdrop-shaped cargo freighter undocked from the station’s Harmony module at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1540 GMT) Sunday. A series of departure maneuvers using the ship’s Draco thrusters guided Dragon away from the complex, setting up for a deorbit burn at 3:18 p.m. EDT (2018 GMT) Monday to allow the spacecraft to drop out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 24)

SPACEX DELAYS DRAGON CARGO SHIP DEPARTURE FROM SPACE STATION DUE TO SPLASHDOWN WEATHER. HOW TO WATCH IT SUNDAY. - SpaceX postponed the departure of its latest Dragon cargo ship from the International Space Station on Saturday (Jan. 22) by at least a day due to bad weather at its landing site. You can watch the next undocking attempt live on Sunday, NASA said. The Dragon CRS-24 cargo ship was scheduled to undock from the space station at 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT) on Saturday and return to Earth early Monday morning. But bad weather at potential splashdown locations in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast prevented the departure, according to SpaceX.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 23)

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