RELATIVITY SPACE REVEALS FULLY REUSABLE MEDIUM LIFT LAUNCH VEHICLE TERRAN R - Relativity Space, leveraging their 3D printing technology, has announced the next step towards supporting multiplanetary spaceflight: a fully reusable, medium lift launch vehicle named Terran R. The company’s second launch vehicle, succeeding the Terran 1 rocket to debut later this year, will have more payload capacity than the partially reusable SpaceX Falcon 9, and is only the second fully reusable commercial launch vehicle to be revealed publicly after SpaceX’s Starship.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 9)

JEFF BEZOS IS GOING TO SPACE (FOR A FEW MINUTES) - Jeff Bezos has already selected a hobby for his post-CEO life: space travel. Just two weeks after he steps down as CEO of Amazon, Bezos will climb aboard a rocket made by his space exploration company Blue Origin. "If you see the earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It's one earth," Bezos said in a video posted to Instagram on Monday morning.   More
(Source: NPR - Jun 8)

RUSSIA’S SPACE CHIEF THREATENS TO LEAVE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PROGRAM UNLESS U.S. LIFTS SANCTIONS - Russia’s space chief threatened Monday to withdraw from the International Space Station program if U.S. sanctions against Moscow’s space entities are “not lifted in the near future.” “If the sanctions against Progress and TsNIIMash remain and are not lifted in the near future, the issue of Russia’s withdrawal from the ISS will be the responsibility of the American partners,” Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said during a Russian parliament hearing on Monday, according to an NBC translation.   More
(Source: CNBC - Jun 8)

SPACEX DRAGON DOCKS AT SPACE STATION TO DELIVER NEW SOLAR ARRAYS AND TONS OF SUPPLIES - A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station today (June 5) to deliver new solar arrays along with tons of fresh research experiments and NASA supplies as part of the company's 22nd cargo resupply mission. The uncrewed Dragon autonomously linked up with the orbiting laboratory at 5:09 a.m. EDT (0909 GMT), parking at the zenith, or space-facing, side of the station's Harmony module.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 6)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 2ND MISSION IN THREE DAYS WITH SIRIUSXM-8 - SpaceX launched its 18th mission of 2021 with the SiriusXM-8 (SXM-8) high-power broadcasting satellite. A Falcon 9 rocket lofted the SXM-8 satellite to a sub-synchronous geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) after launching from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) on Sunday, June 6 at 00:26 EDT/04:26 UTC. The 45th Weather Squadron at Space Launch Delta 45 predicted a 70% chance of favorable weather with Debris Cloud and Anvil Cloud rules as the primary concerns.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 6)

SPACEX TARGETING OVERNIGHT SUNDAY FALCON 9 LAUNCH WITH SIRIUSXM SATELLITE - Downrange from where SpaceX recently launched a spacecraft full of supplies to the International Space Station, the company is targeting early Sunday to send up another Falcon 9, this time with a spacecraft for satellite radio provider SiriusXM. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 40 is scheduled for some time after 12:26 a.m. Sunday during a one hour and 59-minute launch window.   More
(Source: WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando - Jun 5)

A HUGE PIECE OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL BE TOSSED INTO THE SKY NEXT MONTH - Next month, a big module called Pirs will be jettisoned from the Russian half of the International Space Station and fall into Earth’s atmosphere. No need to worry about pieces of metal falling from the sky, though, as calculation suggests that the giant debris should have completely burned up before making it to the ground. Still, it will be the first ISS module to be completely decommissioned and discarded in space. On Wednesday, a pair of ISS residents, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, went outside the orbital lab and performed a seven-hour spacewalk to prepare for Pirs’s release.   More
(Source: 25544 - Jun 5)

NASA CHIEF SAYS RUSSIA LEAVING ISS COULD KICK OFF A SPACE RACE - The United States has for decades enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia that has often served as a powerful symbol of cooperation between the East and West in the post-Cold War era. But that cooperation could soon dissolve, and it has NASA's new chief, Bill Nelson, concerned. Russian officials are threatening to pull out of the International Space Station, the orbiting laboratory that the US and Russia have jointly operated for two decades, as soon as 2024 in favor of operating an independent space station.   More
(Source: CNN - Jun 5)

CHINA LAUNCHES FENGYUN-4B WEATHER SATELLITE TO ORBIT - A new Chinese weather satellite launched into orbit Wednesday (June 2) with "complete success," according to one of the participating state contractors. The Fengyun-4B soared into space aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, at 12:17 p.m. EDT (1717 GMT, or 12:17 a.m. local time Thursday, June 3).    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 4)

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