DID ASTRONOMERS SEE A DISTANT, DYING STAR? OR AN EARTH-BOUND SATELLITE? - Last year, astronomers caught a surprising flash of light from the most distant galaxy known — GN-z11, which existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. The team proposed, after ruling out other possibilities, that what they had seen was the fading afterglow of a dying star. The event would have heralded the earliest example of star death in the known universe. That is, if the light came from a star at all. Two studies appearing October 4th in Nature Astronomy make the case that what the original team saw was not a natural phenomenon but the chance passing of a manmade object in Earth orbit. More (Source: SkyandTelescope.com - Oct 5)
RUSSIA WILL LAUNCH A FILM CREW TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TUESDAY AND YOU CAN WATCH IT LIVE - A cosmonaut, a film director and an actor will launch on a mission Tuesday (Oct. 5) in part to film a movie on the International Space Station (ISS), and you can watch it live. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the three crewmembers will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT or 6:55 p.m. local time). You can watch the coverage live on NASA Television, NASA social media, the NASA website or here and on the Space.com homepage. NASA's webcast will begin at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Oct 5)
SOYUZ ROCKET ROLLS OUT FOR LAUNCH OF RUSSIAN FILM CREW - A Soyuz rocket rolled out to its launch pad in Kazakhstan Friday, ready to blast off Tuesday to the International Space Station with veteran Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild, and film director Klim Shipenko. The Soyuz-2.1a launcher, positioned on its side on a special railroad car, emerged from an integration building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome and rode to the Site 31 launch pad just after sunrise Friday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 4)
ISRO’S COMMERCIAL ARM TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST DEMAND-BASED COMMUNICATION SATELLITE NEXT YEAR - NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the newly created commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will put together its first demand-based communication satellite for the satellite-based DTH television services provider Tata Sky. The GSAT-24, a 4,000 kg class Ku-band satellite with all transponders dedicated for DTH services, will be launched by the Ariane-5 from Europe’s Arianespace early next year. More (Source: The Indian Express - Oct 3)
CHINA DELAYS LAUNCH OF NEXT MISSION TO TIANGONG SPACE STATION - A source at the launch centre says there are no technical issues, but putting back Shenzhou 13’s lift-off time will ensure the preparations are spot on. The crew will spend six months at the space station and will be given supplies to ensure they hold the first Lunar New Year celebration in space More (Source: South China Morning Post - Oct 2)
US INKS $20 MILLION DEAL TO LAUNCH HIGH-TECH WEATHER SATELLITES IN SPACE - The United States is aiming to launch a group of small satellites to fill a critical gap in the ability to foresee precipitation dangers, like the deluge that overwhelmed Northeastern cities at the start of September. The US Air Force announced Thursday a nearly $20 million contract with Tomorrow.io to develop and deploy an entire constellation of small satellites equipped with advanced radar to measure precipitation from space. More (Source: CNN - Oct 1)
PLANNED LAUNCH OF 9 JAPANESE SATELLITES SCRUBBED LATE IN COUNTDOWN - Tonight's planned launch of the RAISE 2 satellite and rideshare payloads was scrubbed due to an apparent issue with a ground station. JAXA has not yet announced a new target date. Nine small satellites were scheduled to launch to Earth orbit atop Japan's Epsilon rocket tonight (Sept. 30), and you can watch the action live. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 1)
A VIRGINIA COMPANY HAS CONNECTED MOBILE PHONES DIRECTLY TO SATELLITES - A space startup says it has successfully demonstrated the ability to use ordinary, unmodified mobile telephones to connect to satellite Internet services. The Virginia-based company, Lynk, sent its "Shannon" satellite into orbit three months ago as part of a rideshare mission on a Falcon 9 rocket. After some initial tests, the company said "hundreds" of mobile phones in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Bahamas were able to connect with the satellite as it passed overhead, as if it were a virtual cell phone tower in space. More (Source: Ars Technica - Oct 1)
NASA, SPACEX ADJUST NEXT SPACE STATION CREW ROTATION LAUNCH DATE - NASA and SpaceX now are targeting 2:43 a.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 30, for the agency’s Crew-3 launch to the International Space Station. The date adjustment provides two consecutive launch attempts for the crew rotation mission with the backup time and date of 2:21 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 31. More (Source: NASA - Oct 1)
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