ARISS SEEKS HOSTS FOR HAM RADIO CONTACTS WITH SPACE STATION CREW - Starting on October 1, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) will accept applications from US schools, museums, science centers, and community youth organizations — individually or working together — interested in hosting amateur radio contacts with crew members on the International Space Station (ISS). Contacts will be scheduled between July 1 and December 31, 2022. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw a sizeable number of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. More (Source: ARRL - Sep 17)
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: CHINA’S SHENZHOU-12 CREW SAFELY BACK ON EARTH - Having extended the record of Chinese astronauts' longest stay in space in a single flight mission to 90 days, the Shenzhou-12 mission crew returned to Earth at the designated Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday, marking a successful conclusion of the first crewed mission at the country's space station building stage. More (Source: Global Times - Sep 17)
HUMANITY NEEDS A SPACE-RESCUE CAPABILITY, REPORT STRESSES - With an increasing cadence, humans from multiple nations are rocketing into Earth orbit, and soon some will head outward to the moon. Given the boost in commercial and governmental flights, the chances of a stranded crew requiring an in-space rescue are on the rise. But the United States government and commercial spaceflight providers have no plans in place to conduct a timely rescue of a crew from a distressed spacecraft in low Earth orbit, or anywhere else in space. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 16)
SPACEX LAUNCHES INSPIRATION4, FIRST ALL-PRIVATE ORBITAL MISSION - SpaceX has successfully launched the first-ever all-private orbital mission, Inspiration4. The first-of-its-kind flight saw four private astronauts take flight on a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon ahead of a three-day stay in Low Earth Orbit. The flight is part of a large fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital, a pediatric cancer hospital. Liftoff, from historic pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center took place at the opening of the five-hour launch window at 8:02 PM EDT on September 15 (00:02 UTC September 16). More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 16)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED MILITARY SATELLITE - A classified Russian military satellite, possibly designed with a new miniature reconnaissance camera, launched Sept. 9 on a single-core version of the Soyuz rocket. The Soyuz 2-1v rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in far northern Russia at 2:59 p.m. EDT (1859 GMT), according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Liftoff from Plesetsk occurred at 10:59 p.m. Moscow time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 15)
ARIANESPACE SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES 34 MORE ONEWEB INTERNET SATELLITES TO ORBIT - Nearly three dozen OneWeb internet satellites took flight today (Sept. 14), continuing to build out the company's broadband constellation. A Soyuz rocket topped with 34 OneWeb spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 2:07 p.m. EDT (1807 GMT; 1:07 a.m. Sept. 15 local time in Baikonur). If everything goes according to plan, all 34 satellites will have deployed into a near-polar orbit with an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers) by about three hours and 45 minutes after liftoff. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 15)
WHY SPACEX'S PRIVATE INSPIRATION4 MISSION TO EARTH ORBIT IS SO IMPORTANT - I get butterflies before every major rocket launch, and the fluttering is going to be particularly intense on Wednesday night (Sept. 15). That's when SpaceX's private Inspiration4 mission is scheduled to lift off, sending four astronauts on a three-day orbital jaunt. Crewed missions are especially anxiety-inducing, given the intrinsic danger of spaceflight, but there are extra white-knuckle layers to this one. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 14)
SPACEX BEGINS SECOND STARLINK SHELL WITH VANDENBERG LAUNCH - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying a total of 51 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit. This was the first launch in support of deploying the second shell of Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC-4E) at 8:55 PM Pacific time (03:55 UTC on September 14). More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 14)
NASA PICKS SPACEX'S FALCON HEAVY TO LAUNCH GOES-U WEATHER SATELLITE - SpaceX's big Falcon Heavy rocket just got another gig. NASA has picked Falcon Heavy to launch the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U), with a planned liftoff in April 2024 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, agency officials announced on Friday (Sept. 10). The total launch cost for NASA will be about $152.5 million, they added. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 13)
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