NASA COULD BRING ASTRONAUTS HOME FROM SPACE STATION BEFORE REPLACEMENTS ARRIVE - Four astronauts could leave the International Space Station on Sunday without their replacement team having arrived to take over, NASA announced Thursday, but the timing remains uncertain due to weather conditions. The four members of the Crew-2 mission, including a French and a Japanese astronaut, are due to return to Earth this month after spending about six months on board the ISS.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Nov 6)

BOEING GETS GREEN LIGHT FOR SATELLITE INTERNET CONSTELLATION - The Federal Communications Commission has authorized a satellite internet project from Boeing first proposed in 2017. Boeing can now move forward with building, launching, and operating its own broadband internet network from space, joining its main aerospace competitor SpaceX. Boeing’s plan involves placing 132 satellites into low Earth orbit at an altitude of 1,056 kilometers (about 656 miles).   More
(Source: The Verge - Nov 5)

CHINA LAUNCHES TWO CLASSIFIED MILITARY SATELLITES - China launched two classified military satellites Wednesday on top of a Long March 2C rocket augmented by a restartable upper stage. The Long March 2C launcher lifted off from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 3:43 a.m. EDT (0743 GMT) Wednesday, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the country’s primary state-owned aerospace contractor. Liftoff occurred at 3:43 p.m. Beijing time.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 5)

CADETS FROM THE U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY BUILD SATELLITE OPERATING IN SPACE - Cadets from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs are getting hands on experience when it comes to space research. Cadets helped build and operate a satellite that is now successfully operating in space. The FalconSAT-8 was launched aboard the Air Force X-37B orbital test vehicle in May of 2020.   More
(Source: KKTV - Nov 4)

EUROPE ANNOUNCES NEW SATELLITE CONSTELLATION TO TRACK HUMAN-MADE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS - A new space mission will track human-made emissions of greenhouse gases from space to help keep the world on track to meet climate change mitigation targets. The new mission, announced by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union's Earth-monitoring program Copernicus during the U.N Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow on Tuesday (Nov 2), will rely on a dedicated constellation of satellites.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 3)

AMAZON TO LAUNCH FIRST TWO INTERNET SATELLITES IN 2022 - Amazon is getting ready to go to space. The first two prototype satellites from Project Kuiper, the internet-from-space venture from the e-commerce giant, are scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2022, Amazon announced on Monday. That will formally kick off its competition with SpaceX, the space company owned by Elon Musk, and OneWeb, among other rivals, for beaming high-speed internet connections to customers from low Earth orbit.   More
(Source: The New York Times - Nov 3)

CREW DRAGON LAUNCH DELAYED BY “MINOR MEDICAL ISSUE” WITH AN ASTRONAUT - The planned launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Wednesday carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station has been delayed to at least Saturday because of a “minor medical issue” with one of the crew members, NASA announced Monday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 2)

ARIANE 6 UNDERGOING PREPARATIONS FOR ITS 2022 DEBUT - ArianeGroup and the European Space Agency are carrying out preparations for the maiden launch of the Ariane 6 rocket next year. Ariane 6 represents the next generation of the Ariane family of rockets, intended to allow its customers lower-cost access to space. The rocket and launch pad still have an extensive test program ahead of them, with a current target launch date in the second half of 2022. Ariane 6 is the sixth member of the Ariane family of rockets, whose development began in the 1970s to allow the ESA (European Space Agency) to place its own satellites–and commercial payloads–into geostationary orbit.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 2)

RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP DELIVERS EARLY HALLOWEEN TREATS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - An uncrewed Russian cargo ship linked up with the International Space Station late Friday (Oct. 29) to deliver nearly 3 tons of supplies and some treats just ahead of Halloween. The supply ship, called Progress 79, docked at the space station Friday two days after launching into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The two ships met at 9:31 p.m. EDT (131 Oct. 30 GMT) as they sailed 258 miles over Argentina, just south of Buenos Aires.    More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 31)

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