RUSSIAN ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE TEST DRAWS CONDEMNATION FROM SPACE COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES - Across the globe, nations and space companies alike are speaking out about Russia's anti-satellite (ASAT) test that forced astronauts in space to take cover. On Monday (Nov. 15), the seven astronauts and cosmonauts living on board the International Space Station were forced to take shelter in the spacecraft they flew to the station. The orbiting lab was passing through a cloud of space debris that threatened the station and its inhabitants. Later that day, the U.S. State Department revealed, with confirmation from the Pentagon, that the space debris — which will be trapped in orbit for years to come — was the result of a Russian anti-satellite test.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 23)

ASTRA REACHES ORBIT FOR FIRST TIME, CLEARING WAY FOR COMMERCIAL LAUNCHES - Astra launched its first rocket into orbit from Alaska early Saturday after falling short on three previous tries, an achievement company officials said will unlock “tremendous demand” for its small satellite launch service. Company officials did not disclose a scheduled for its next mission in a virtual briefing with reporters Monday. But a NASA official said Astra’s next mission will carry six small CubeSat payloads into orbit for the space agency, and could take off before the end of the year.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 23)

CHINA’S CHANG ZHENG 4B LAUNCHES GAOFEN 11-03 SATELLITE - Keeping up a rapid pace of launches this year, China deployed the Gaofen 11-03 satellite Saturday using its Chang Zheng 4B rocket. The launch took place from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 01:51 UTC (09:51 Beijing Time) and marks China’s forty-fourth orbital mission of 2021. Gaofen 11-03 is the third in a series of high-resolution optical imaging Gaofen 11 satellites, part of the wider Gaofen series which aims to provide China with a global high-definition Earth-imaging capability for civil applications. Gaofen means “high resolution,” and the Gaofen constellation is unrelated to the smaller commercial Jilin-1 Gaofen satellites.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 22)

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)

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