STARTUP AND ESTABLISHED IOT SATELLITE OPERATORS EXCHANGE BLOWS IN REGULATORY BATTLE - U.S.-based startup Swarm Technologies and 28-year old Orbcomm, both pursuing the fast-growing market for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to satellites, are locked in a regulatory tussle over plans to expand overseas. Orbcomm is challenging a letter the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sent March 10, which aimed to clarify how it and Swarm would share spectrum in Very High Frequency (VHF) bands worldwide.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 27)

HUGE DELTA IV HEAVY ROCKET LAUNCHES US SPY SATELLITE TO ORBIT - A new U.S. spy satellite launched into space Monday afternoon (April 26) on the mightiest rocket built by the United Launch Alliance (ULA): the massive Delta IV Heavy. The behemoth blasted off at 4:47 p.m. EST (2047 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying the classified NROL-82 satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).    More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 27)

ONEWEB ADDS 36 MORE SATELLITES TO INTERNET NETWORK - A Soyuz rocket lifted off Sunday from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East with 36 internet satellites built on Florida’s Space Coast for OneWeb, bringing the company’s fleet to 182 spacecraft, more than a quarter of the way to building out a constellation of nearly 650 orbiting relay nodes. The 151-foot-tall (46-meter) Soyuz rocket climbed off its launch pad at Vostochny, Russia’s newest spaceport, with nearly million pounds of thrust. Arcing toward the north, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket dropped its four first stage boosters about two minutes after liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 26)

THE US AIR FORCE WANTS TO BEAM SOLAR POWER TO EARTH FROM SPACE (VIDEO) - Space-based solar power won't be just a sci-fi dream forever, if things go according to the U.S. Air Force's plans. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing a project called SSPIDR ("Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research"), which aims to mature the technology needed to harvest solar energy in space and beam it down for use on Earth.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 26)

SOYUZ ROCKET SET TO LAUNCH MORE ONEWEB INTERNET SATELLITES - A Soyuz rocket is standing on a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East for liftoff Sunday with the next 36 satellites for OneWeb’s internet network, the sixth Soyuz mission dedicated to the commercial broadband constellation. The 36 satellites, built on Florida’s Space Coast by a joint venturer between between OneWeb and Airbus, are stowed inside the nose cone of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket at Vostochny, Russia’s newest spaceport in the far eastern Amur Oblast near the Chinese border.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 25)

SPACEX'S FIRST REUSED CREW DRAGON DOCKS AT SPACE STATION WITH FOUR CREW-2 ASTRONAUTS - A used SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the company's Crew-2 mission docked successfully at the orbiting lab early Saturday (April 24). The Crew Dragon Endeavour, which launched SpaceX's first crewed flight for NASA in May 2020, linked up with the station's U.S. built Harmony module at 5:08 a.m. EDT (0908 GMT) as both spacecraft sailed 264 miles above the Indian Ocean.    More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 24)

OFF THE EARTH, FOR THE EARTH; ENDEAVOUR LIFTS OFF WITH INTERNATIONAL CREW FOR SIX MONTH MISSION - SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour began its second mission Friday with a crew of four astronauts on a long-duration trip to the International Space Station. Liftoff, atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, occurred right on time at 05:49:02 EDT / 09:49:02 UTC on Friday, 23 April 2021. The Crew-2 mission will see Endeavour carry NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to join the Expedition 65 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 23)

BURPS IN SPACE: NEW SATELLITE TO TRACK GLOBAL METHANE EMISSIONS - In space, no-one can hear you belch – at least, not for the time being. New Zealand has announced mission control for a new satellite that will orbit the earth observing methane produced by burps or other flatulence from cows. The digestive processes of its 6.3 million-strong cow population are among New Zealand’s most critical environmental problems. Agriculture is one of the country’s biggest producers of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global heating and climate breakdown.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Apr 23)

SPACEX AND ONEWEB SPAR OVER SATELLITE CLOSE APPROACH - An alleged close approach between satellites from OneWeb and SpaceX led to a meeting between the companies and the Federal Communications Commission, but the companies don’t completely agree on what resulted from that discussion. OneWeb officials said in early April that they had to move one of their satellites to avoid a close approach with a SpaceX Starlink satellite. The OneWeb satellite, OneWeb-0178, was one of 36 satellites launched March 25 on a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 23)

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