SATELLITE IMAGES, EXPERT SUGGEST IRANIAN SPACE LAUNCH COMING - Iran appears to be preparing for a space launch as negotiations continue in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers, according to an expert and satellite images. The likely blast off at Iran’s Imam Khomeini Spaceport comes as Iranian state media has offered a list of upcoming planned satellite launches in the works for the Islamic Republic’s civilian space program, which has been beset by a series of failed launches. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard runs its own parallel program that successfully put a satellite into orbit last year. More (Source: Politico - Dec 13)
ASTRA’S FIRST SATELLITE LAUNCH TO BE CONDUCTED FOR NASA FROM CAPE CANAVERAL’S SLC 46 IN JANUARY - Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) plans to deploy their first satellite into orbit for NASA in January of 2022. The company’s first launch from Cape Canaveral will be conducted from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46). Astra and Space Launch Delta 45, a part of the United States Space Force, enabled Astra to launch out of Cape Canaveral in record time – shortening the multi-year approval time to months. More (Source: SatNews - Dec 12)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S OCULUS OBSERVATORY HOSTS PASSIVE RADAR TO TRACK SPACE OBJECTS - South Australia’s Oculus Observatory, which opened Dec. 9, houses the first in a planned global network of passive radars to track objects in orbit. Located near the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve, the Oculus Observatory is designed to host multiple, complementary space surveillance sensors, said James Palmer CEO of Silentium Defence, the firm that designed, built and manages the Oculus Observatory. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 11)
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)
Previous Next
