CHINA’S NEW SPACE STATION IS POWERED BY ION THRUSTERS - China’s first module of its upcoming Tiangong space station makes use of ion drives, technology that could vastly cut down the time it takes to travel to Mars — and greatly reduce the amount of fuel needed to make that trip, as the South China Morning Post reports. The module, called Tianhe and launched in late April, is powered by four ion thrusters that use electricity to accelerate ions as a form of propulsion.    More
(Source: Futurism - Jun 3)

ALL-NEW FALCON 9 ROCKET AND DRAGON CARGO CRAFT SET FOR LAUNCH THURSDAY - In what’s become a rarity for SpaceX and its workhorse fleet of “flight-proven” hardware, a brand new Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule are scheduled to launch Thursday on a NASA-contracted flight to deliver more than 7,300 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station. The two-day flight to the space station is set to begin at 1:29:15 p.m. EDT (1729:15 GMT) Thursday with a launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)

D-ORBIT UNVEILS THIRD MISSION FOR ION SATELLITE CARRIER - D-Orbit plans to transport satellites into six distinct orbits in addition to hosting three payloads on a June flight of the Italian firm’s In-Orbit Now (ION) Satellite Carrier. Customers for the third ION mission, which D-Orbit calls Wild Ride, include Elecnor Deimos of Spain, Bulgaria’s EnduroSat and Kuwaiti Orbital Space.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 2)

VIASAT TO ADD MILITARY-GRADE ENCRYPTION TO EXPERIMENTAL LINK 16 SATELLITE - A new Link 16-capable satellite being developed by Viasat will feature military-grade encryption, the company announced June 1. Link 16 is the U.S. military’s primary tactical data exchange network, allowing joint war fighters to share information on the location of friendly and enemy forces to build a common operating picture of the battlefield.   More
(Source: C4ISRNet - Jun 2)

SPACEWALKING COSMONAUTS WILL DECOMMISSION AN OLD SPACE STATION MODULE EARLY WEDNESDAY. WATCH IT LIVE! - Two Russian cosmonauts will prepare a long-time docking module for eventual dismemberment from the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Wednesday (June 2) — and you can watch it live. Coverage will begin at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT), and you can watch it live here on Space.com or on NASA Television and here at Space.com. Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov are expected to start their spacewalk at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT). The extravehicular activity, or EVA, should last six and a half hours, although the timing is subject to change depending on how the procedures go.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 2)

SPACE STATION ROBOTIC ARM HIT BY ORBITAL DEBRIS IN 'LUCKY STRIKE - A piece of space junk smacked into the robotic arm on the International Space Station, but near-term operations should not be affected, according to the agencies involved. Robotic operators noticed a hole in the station's Canadarm2 provided by the Canadian Space Agency, which has been in service in orbit since 2001, during a routine inspection on May 12, the CSA officials said in a blog post Friday (May 28). Officials called the hole a "lucky strike" given the relatively small size of the arm, which is 57.7 feet (17.6 meters) long and has a diameter of just 14 inches (35 cm).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 1)

CHINA'S CARGO SPACECRAFT DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION MODULE - China's cargo spacecraft, carrying supplies, equipment and propellant, docked with the space station's key module Tianhe on Sunday, the official news agency Xinhua reported. The Tianzhou-2, or "Heavenly Vessel" in Chinese, autonomously rendezvoused and docked with Tianhe at 5:01 a.m. Beijing time, Xinhua said Sunday.   More
(Source: CNN - May 31)

ONEWEB SURPASSES 200 SATELLITES WITH SOYUZ LAUNCH - Launching through heavy rainfall, a Soyuz booster vaulted away from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia to place 36 more OneWeb internet satellites into orbit Friday, giving the London-based company a fleet of 218 spacecraft, one-third of its planned constellation. The 218-satellite constellation is also enough to make OneWeb owner of the second-largest fleet of active satellites in Earth orbit.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 31)

NASA SCHEDULES LIVE COVERAGE OF RUSSIAN SPACEWALK - Two Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Wednesday, June 2, to continue preparing the Pirs docking compartment airlock for undocking and disposal later this year. Live coverage will begin at 1 a.m. EDT, with the spacewalk beginning about 1:20 a.m. on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.   More
(Source: NASA - May 28)

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