DELAYED INDONESIAN BROADBAND SATELLITE SATRIA FULLY FUNDED - Indonesia’s government has secured financing to continue manufacturing the SATRIA broadband satellite, although its intended orbital slot remains up in the air. Thales Alenia Space started developing the Ka-band spacecraft in September after receiving partial financing, which spokesperson Sandrine Bielecki told SpaceNews covered work up until this point. Bielecki said the program can continue uninterrupted now the project has secured about $545 million in funding, partly backed by France’s Bpifrance export-credit agency.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 5)

SPACEX STICKS 75TH FALCON ROCKET LANDING AFTER LAUNCHING 60 MORE STARLINK SATELLITES - Launching through a blanket of low-hanging clouds and light mist, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast early Thursday and delivered 60 more Starlink internet satellites to orbit. The rocket’s first stage touched down on SpaceX’s floating landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean to complete its eighth trip to space and back. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket flashed to life and lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:24:54 a.m. EST (0824:54 GMT).    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 4)

SPACEX TO TRY AGAIN TO LAUNCH LONG-DELAYED STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 4 for the launch of the Starlink v1.0 L17 mission with a new batch of Starlink satellites from historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center aboard a flight proven Falcon 9 booster. The previous launch attempt on Sunday, February 28 ended in a scrub at T-1 minute 24 seconds. SpaceX is now targeting 03:24 EST (08:24 UTC) Thursday for the launch of the oft-delayed mission that originally had its launch date set for January 27. An additional launch window on Thursday morning is available at 05:42 EST, or 10:42 UTC.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 4)

SPACEX'S SN10 STARSHIP PROTOTYPE LANDS AFTER EPIC TEST LAUNCH — BUT THEN EXPLODES - SpaceX's latest Starship prototype went out in a blaze of glory. The Starship SN10 spacecraft touched down successfully after a high-altitude test flight today (March 3), a major milestone for the company and its crewed Mars ambitions. But the vehicle didn't manage to hold itself together, exploding about eight minutes after landing.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 4)

SPACEX IS READY TO LAUNCH MORE ASTRONAUTS WITH CREW-2 NEXT MONTH - SpaceX's second fully-crewed astronaut flight, Crew-2, is prepared for launch, mission team members said Monday (March 1) during a news briefing. Crew-2, which is set to launch April 20, follows the company's Demo-2 launch in May 2020, the first crewed test flight for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Crew-1 launch in November 2020, which saw the company's first fully crewed mission to space. Like Crew-2, these missions took place as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 3)

INDIAN PSLV ROCKET LAUNCHES BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA-1 SATELLITE - India launched its first mission of the year late Saturday, sending Brazil’s Amazonia-1 Earth observation satellite and 18 smaller payloads into orbit. The 44-meter-high PSLV-C51 rocket with two solid side boosters lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the Indian island of Sriharikota at 11:54 p.m. Eastern Feb. 28.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 2)

CHINA PREPARING TO BUILD TIANGONG STATION IN 2021, COMPLETE BY 2022 - China is gearing up for its next big leap in space exploration: the construction of its modular crewed space station, the Tiangong. Starting in 2021, the construction of the Tiangong orbital space station is expected to be complete in 2022 after eleven missions, including three launches of different modules, four launches of cargo vehicles and four crewed launches. This step comes after a phased approach to human spaceflight development, beginning with the uncrewed test flights of a crewed space vehicle...   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 2)

FIRST EVER SPACE HOTEL SLATED TO BE OPERATIONAL BY 2027 - An out-of-this-world hotel is just a few years away from becoming a reality. This decade will see the start and completion of construction on humanity’s first ever hotel in outer space, according to the group behind it, Orbital Assembly. The 3-year-old company plans to begin building Voyager Station in low Earth orbit in 2025, and believes its interstellar resort may be operational as soon as 2027, the Daily Mail reported.   More
(Source: New York Post - Mar 2)

SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY EXPERIMENT TO FLY ON NORTHROP GRUMMAN’S CAPSULE TO SPACE STATION - Northrop Grumman’s next cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station will carry a Space Development Agency payload to collect data for the development of missile-tracking sensors. The experiment known as Persistent Infrared Payload is scheduled to launch in July on the NG-16 Cygnus cargo mission on a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. Northrop Grumman received a $13.8 million contract in June from the Space Development Agency for this experiment.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 2)

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