NORTHROP GRUMMAN CYGNUS CARGO SHIP DEPARTS SPACE STATION TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENT IN ORBIT - The latest Cygnus cargo ship departed the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 20) after sending a haul of cargo to the orbiting crew. The Northrop Grumman NG-16 resupply vessel was released from the grip of the station's robotic arm at 11:01 a.m. EST (1601 GMT) by a command from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston as both spacecraft sailed high over the South Pacific Ocean. The Cygnus spacecraft floated away from the International Space Station under the supervision of Matthias Maurer, an astronaut of the European Space Agency on the station's Expedition 66 crew. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 21)
OUTPOST TO RETURN SATELLITES AND PAYLOADS FROM ORBIT - Two Made In Space co-founders teamed up with a paragliding expert to found Outpost, a startup focused on returning satellites and payloads from orbit. “There are a lot of ways to get satellites and payloads to space today, and very few ways to get things back to Earth,” Jason Dunn, Outpost co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews. Outpost intends to begin solving that problem with a “low-mass, high-efficiency” Earth return capability for satellites, said Dunn, who co-founded Made In Space and served as director before it was purchased by Redwire in 2020. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 20)
STATION RESUMES NORMAL OPERATIONS, BUT RISK FROM RUSSIAN ASAT TEST CONTINUES - The seven-person crew living on the International Space Station resumed normal operations Wednesday, two days after closing off parts of the complex as precaution following a widely-condemned Russian anti-satellite test that created a new cloud of space debris. NASA says the debris field, which U.S. Space Command says numbers more than 1,500 trackable objects, will continue to pose a risk to the space station. But the most danger was in the first 24 hours after the anti-satellite test early Monday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 20)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES 2 SATELLITES TO ORBIT, RECOVERS ELECTRON BOOSTER - Rocket Lab successfully launched two satellites into orbit and recovered the mission's booster, taking another step in its quest to build a partially reusable launch vehicle. The company's two-stage Electron rocket topped with two commercial Earth-observation satellites lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site, on the North Island's Mahia Peninsula, Wednesday (Nov. 17) at 8:38 p.m. EST (0138 GMT and 2:38 p.m. New Zealand time on Nov. 18). More (Source: Space.com - Nov 19)
HEAR HOW NASA ALERTED ASTRONAUTS TO INCOMING SPACE DEBRIS AFTER RUSSIAN ANTI-SATELLITE TEST - Newly released audio shows the quick scramble the Expedition 66 crew undertook to get to safety following an anti-satellite test on Monday (Nov. 15). A Russian impactor was deliberately smashed into a defunct Soviet satellite, Cosmos 1408, causing a cloud of debris that came unexpectedly close to the International Space Station early that morning. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 19)
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES BLACKSKY SATELLITES - Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket placed two BlackSky imaging satellites into orbit Nov. 17 on the rocket’s first launch in three and a half months. The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 8:38 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed two BlackSky Gen-2 satellites into orbits at an altitude of 430 kilometers nearly an hour later. BlackSky later confirmed both satellites were operating as expected after deployment. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 18)
SPACE DEBRIS FROM RUSSIAN ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE TEST SPOTTED IN TELESCOPE IMAGES AND VIDEO - Pieces of a shattered Soviet-era satellite are visible in new telescope images after its destruction by a Russian anti-satellite weapons test on Monday (Nov. 15). The images were captured by Numerica Corp., a Colorado-based company provides tracking of space debris objects, and shared by the company's partner Slingshot Aerospace on Twitter. They show images and video of the debris in the wake of a direct-ascent anti-satellite test by Russia Monday that sent a missile from the ground to destroy a defunct satellite called Cosmos 1408. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 18)
JESSICA WATKINS TO BE FIRST BLACK WOMAN ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW - When NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins launches to the International Space Station next year, her debut spaceflight will make history. Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to join the space station crew, and live and work in space on a long-duration mission on the orbiting outpost. The agency announced Tuesday that Watkins will fly to the space station in April 2022, alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency. More (Source: NBC News - Nov 18)
FRENCH MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SATELLITES LAUNCH ON VEGA ROCKET - A European Vega rocket fired into space from French Guiana Tuesday and deployed three French military satellites to locate sources of radio and radar transmissions around the world, clearing the way for final modifications on the Vega launch pad for an uprated version of the booster set to debut next year. The 98-foot-tall (30-meter) launcher ignited its solid-fueled booster stage and climbed off its launch pad at 4:27:55 a.m. EST (0927:55 GMT), rapidly rising above four lightning protection towers and heading north-northeast from the European-run spaceport on the northern coast of South America. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 17)
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