TURKEY TO LAUNCH TüRKSAT 5B SATELLITE ON DEC. 19 FROM US - Turkey's new telecommunication satellite Türksat 5B will be sent to orbit on Dec. 19 via the Space X Falcon 9 rocket from the U.S. state of Florida, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said Friday. The satellite, produced by Airbus, was transferred from France to the U.S. on Nov. 29, the minister said during a news conference in the capital Ankara. More (Source: Daily Sabah - Dec 11)
CHINA SENDS CLASSIFIED SHIJIAN SATELLITES INTO ORBIT WITH MILESTONE LONG MARCH LAUNCH - A Long March 4B launched the Shijian-06 (05) group of satellites Dec. 9, marking the 400th launch of China’s Long March family of launch vehicles. The Long March 4B lifted off from Site 9401 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 7:11 p.m. Eastern, rising into a dark blue pre-dawn desert sky. The Shijian-6 (05) satellites, which could be a pair of satellites to join four earlier pairs satellites in the series, with the previous launch occurring in 2010, were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite Co., Ltd. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 11)
VIRGIN ORBIT ADDS SPIRE SATELLITE TO NEXT LAUNCH - Virgin Orbit will fly a Spire cubesat in addition to several other payloads on its next LauncherOne launch, scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 22. Virgin Orbit announced Dec. 9 that Spire’s ADLER-1 three-unit cubesat had been added to the manifest for that upcoming launch, called “Above the Clouds” by Virgin Orbit. The satellite, whose name is derived from Austrian Debris Detection Low Earth (orbit) Reconnoiter, was developed in partnership with the Austrian Space Forum and Findus Venture GmbH. It will collect data on the environment of “micro” space debris in low Earth orbit using a short-range radar provided by Spire. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 11)
A SATELLITE STAR IS BORN - Lockheed Martin Space has named its latest GPS III satellite after the famous Hollywood actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. The 10th (SV10) satellite in the GPS III contract was given the name after reaching the production milestone known as the “core mate” when the space vehicle’s operations and mission payload electronics are joined to the vertical propulsion core assembly. All previous nine satellites in the GPS III system have been named after famous explorers, astronauts or scientists. Hedy Lamarr was chosen because of her work on developing patented frequency-hopping technology that laid the foundation for secure Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth technologies used by billions of people worldwide today. More (Source: Aerospace Manufacturing - Dec 10)
JAPANESE TYCOON ARRIVES AT ISS AS RUSSIA RESUMES SPACE TOURISM - A Japanese billionaire arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking Russia's return to space tourism after a decadelong pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States. Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier on Wednesday. They docked with the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 1:40 p.m. GMT, the Russian space agency said. More (Source: The Japan Times - Dec 10)
CHINESE ASTRONAUTS TO DELIVER LIVE SCIENCE LESSON FROM SPACE STATION THURSDAY. WATCH IT LIVE. - China's Shenzhou 13 astronauts are all set to present a science lesson live from the orbiting Tiangong space station on Thursday. Astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu will begin the class at 2:40 am EST (0740 GMT, 3:40 pm Beijing time) on Thursday (Dec. 9) from inside the Tianhe module, the core (and currently only module) of the Tiangong station. You can watch the live science lesson (in Mandarin) in the window below, courtesy of China's CCTV news outlet. on YouTube. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 10)
NASA, SPACEX LAUNCH IXPE X-RAY OBSERVATORY ATOP FALCON 9 - NASA and SpaceX have launched the revolutionary Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space observatory from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Thursday morning atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 1:00 a.m. EST (06:00 UTC). IXPE is a 325 kg, three-telescope polarized x-ray observatory. A joint venture between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, IXPE will help the astronomical community better understand the physics behind — and formation of — black holes, neutron stars, supernova remnants, magnetars, and pulsars by specifically looking at polarized x-rays surrounding the objects. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 10)
NASA TO LAUNCH NEW X-RAY TELESCOPE DESIGNED TO UNRAVEL MYSTERIES OF BLACK HOLES - We're about to get a new perspective on some of the most extreme objects in the universe. In the early morning hours of December 9, NASA will launch its Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission, or IXPE, to measure X-rays released by black holes and neutron stars. The satellite is scheduled to launch around 1 a.m. ET Thursday morning aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Live coverage of the launch will be available on NASA TV and the agency's website. More (Source: CNN - Dec 9)
JAPANESE BILLIONAIRE LAUNCHES TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WHILE WAITING FOR SPACEX MOON RIDE - Three new spacefarers launched to the International Space Station this morning, a crew consisting of a Russian cosmonaut and two Japanese space tourists. One of the tourists on board was Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire who announced his intention a few years back to fly around the Moon on SpaceX’s future Starship rocket one day. The trio lifted off on top of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan at 2:38AM ET, docking with the space station around six hours later at 8:40AM ET. Maezawa’s crewmates include Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japenese tourist Yozo Hirano, who is Maezawa’s producer and manager. The group is slated to spend roughly 12 days on the ISS before heading back to Earth on December 19th. More (Source: The Verge - Dec 9)
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