SATELLITE SPOTS SUPER BOWL 2021 STADIUM FROM SPACE (PHOTO) - Chiefs fans may want to look away. Newly released satellite imagery shows Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the site of Super Bowl LV. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won that game decisively yesterday (Feb. 7), beating the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. Maxar Technologies' GeoEye-1 satellite snapped the photo yesterday at 11:39 a.m. EST (1639 GMT), about seven hours before kickoff. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 9)
RUSSIAN SOYUZ ROCKET DELIVERS MILITARY INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Russia sent a spy satellite into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket Feb. 2 from a snowy launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, setting off on a mission to detect, locate, and characterize foreign military radio signals. The military satellite took off at 2045 GMT (3:45 p.m. EST; 11:45 p.m. Moscow time) Feb. 2 on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The defense ministry did not identify the type of satellite on the rocket, but the launch trajectory and the orbit of the payload indicated it is the next in a series of Russian military Lotos S1 intelligence-gathering spacecraft. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 9)
NASA, BOEING ADJUSTING SLS CORE STAGE PARAMETER LIMITS FOR SECOND GREEN RUN FIRING - In parallel with vehicle and test stand preparations for a second Green Run Hot-Fire test later in February, the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Program and Core Stage prime contractor Boeing are reviewing rule changes for the full, eight-minute firing. The Core Stage hardware and software executed the first-ever final countdown, engine start, and “plus count” firing well past T0 in the first test on January 16, but some pre-test predictions by analytical models did not match the integrated system behavior... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 8)
SPACEX DELAYING SUNDAY LAUNCH ATTEMPT OF STARLINK SATELLITES - SpaceX is once again delaying its launch of the next batch of Starlink satellites. The satellites were supposed to liftoff off from launch pad 39A initially on Thursday, then Friday and finally Sunday. Now, it's not clear when the launch attempt will happen. In a tweet on Friday, the space agency said it is "standing down from this weekend's launch attempt of Starlink from LC-39A for additional inspections before flying one of our fleet-leading boosters..." More (Source: FOX 35 Orlando - Feb 7)
AFTER SUCCESS IN 2019, CHINESE STARTUP FAILS ON SECOND ORBITAL LAUNCH ATTEMPT - The second orbital launch attempt by Chinese launch company iSpace failed shortly after liftoff Feb. 1, following a successful debut flight in 2019 that made iSpace the first private firm in China to put a payload into orbit. The Hyperbola 1 rocket took off at 0815 GMT (3:15 a.m. EST; 4:15 p.m. Beijing time) on Feb. 1 from the Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 7)
LOOKING TO THE HEAVENS: JAPANESE TEMPLE PLANNED FOR INSIDE SATELLITE - A “space temple” is planned for the inside of a private satellite to be launched in 2023, and the holy place will be reachable from Earth, organizers said Friday. Kyoto’s Daigoji Temple and Terra Space inc., a satellite developer, have teamed up to launch an ultrasmall satellite the size of a jewelry box that will orbit around Earth. The temple, named Jotenin Gounji Temple, will be placed inside the satellite along with a small Buddha statue and mandala paintings, Terra Space said. More (Source: The Japan Times - Feb 6)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY TESTS - China carried out its fourth orbital space launch on Thursday, sending a large satellite towards geostationary orbit from the hills of Xichang in the southwest of the country. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10.36 a.m. EST Feb. 4 (1536 GMT, 11:36 p.m. local time) sending the TJSW-6 communication technology experiment satellite into orbit. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 6)
SPACEX FIRES 60 STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITES INTO ORBIT, WITH MORE SET TO LAUNCH FRIDAY - Sixty more SpaceX-owned Starlink internet satellites rocketed through a moonlit winter sky over Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher early Thursday, while another Falcon 9 stood on a different launch pad a few miles away to loft another 60 Starlink payloads Friday. Nine Merlin 1D engines flashed to life and sent a rumble across Florida’s Space Coast at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) Thursday. Hold-down clamps released to allow the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket to climb off pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 5)
NO SPACEX DOUBLEHEADER FOR NOW, BUT RANGE IS READY FOR TWO LAUNCHES IN A DAY - One of the two Falcon 9 rockets SpaceX planned to take off in a span of less than five hours earlier this week will remain grounded until at least Sunday, preventing Cape Canaveral from hosting two launches on the same day for the first time in decades. But the military-run Eastern Range was ready for the back-to-back missions, and probably won’t have to wait long for the next chance for a launch doubleheader. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 5)
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