NASA AND ROCKET LAB CLEAR WAY FOR ELECTRON LAUNCH FROM VIRGINIA IN 2022 - Rocket Lab‘s launch site at the Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern coast of Virginia is expected to see a launch in 2022, as Rocket Lab and NASA near completion of a new flight safety certification system. Launch Complex 2 will be the company’s first launch site in the United States. It was built specifically for the Electron rocket and is expected to support monthly orbital launches for both U.S. government and commercial missions.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jan 2)

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WRAPS UP A BUSY 2021 - The ISS, now in its twenty-first year of continuous human occupation, has had a busy year of operations. Two new modules were added and 18 visiting vehicles were at the Station throughout the year. In total, 23 humans called the orbiting outpost home in 2021. This year marked the completion of the Russian Orbital Segment – shortened to ROS – with the arrival of Nauka and Prichal, the first of which replaced the Pirs module.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 2)

IRAN LAUNCHES ROCKET INTO SPACE AMID NUCLEAR TALKS - Iran launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three devices into space, authorities announced Thursday, without saying whether any of the objects had entered Earth’s orbit. It was not clear when the launch happened or what devices the carrier brought with it. Iran aired footage of the blastoff against the backdrop of negotiations in Vienna to restore Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. An eighth round had been underway this week and is to resume after New Year’s holidays.   More
(Source: NBC News - Jan 2)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES THIRD AND FINAL ANGARA A5 DEMONSTRATION MISSION - Russia has launched its third and final demonstration flight of the Angara A5 rocket on Monday, December 27. Angara is being developed and built by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and is intended to replace several existing launch vehicles. Angara attempted to place its 2,400 kg mass simulator in a near geostationary orbit (GEO) using a new Persei upper stage. After a few hours, the Persei upper stage was to perform two burns to place the payload in a graveyard orbit, a few hundred kilometers above GEO. Russian reports, however, suggest that Persei only reached an initial low Earth parking orbit before suffering an engine failure.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 31)

IRAN’S SIMORGH ROCKET FALLS SHORT OF ORBIT WITH THREE PAYLOADS ABOARD - Iran’s Simorgh rocket appears to have suffered another failure during a previously-unexpected launch Thursday. Iranian media has reported that the rocket lifted off from the Imam Khomeini Space Centre at 03:30 UTC (07:00 local time) Thursday morning with three payloads aboard, and although a successful launch was announced, no objects have been detected in orbit. Iran made its first successful satellite launch in February 2009, using a Safir rocket to deploy the Omid spacecraft into low Earth orbit.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 31)

HERE'S 7 THINGS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TAUGHT US IN 2021 - The International Space Station is the world's most extreme and expensive scientific laboratory. In its more than 20 years of operations it has housed thousands of experiments, providing fascinating insights into the effects of microgravity on the human body, cultured cells or various materials and chemical processes. Here are the most interesting findings that the space station delivered in 2021.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 31)

TELESCOPE TOWER EXTENDS ON WEBB OBSERVATORY - The James Webb Space Telescope extended a four-foot tower Wednesday to give the observatory’s mirrors and instruments, designed to function at cryogenic temperatures, enough separation from the hot side of the spacecraft after the mission’s sunshield deploys over the next few days. Webb’s Deployable Tower Assembly moved the telescope’s mirrors, still folded up in their launch configuration, away from the spacecraft bus. The telescope structure contains Webb’s 18 gold-coated hexagonal primary mirror segments and four infrared instruments mounted in a carbon composite module.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 31)

NASA INVITES MEDIA TO VIEW NOAA’S WEATHER SATELLITE AHEAD OF LAUNCH - Media are invited to view the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) satellite Thursday, Jan. 20, at 9:30 a.m. EST at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Media will have an opportunity to photograph GOES-T and interview project and program officials. Media interested in attending this event must apply by 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, and submit their request online at https://media.ksc.nasa.gov.   More
(Source: NASA - Dec 30)

CHINA URGES US TO PROTECT ITS SPACE STATION FROM SATELLITES - China is calling on the United States to protect a Chinese space station and its three-member crew after Beijing complained that satellites launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX nearly struck the station. A foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington on Tuesday of ignoring its treaty obligations to protect the safety of the Tiangong station’s three-member crew following the July 1 and Oct. 21 incidents.   More
(Source: AP News - Dec 30)

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