ROCKET STARTUP ASTRA TO LAUNCH SATELLITE FOR US SPACE FORCE THIS MONTH - The small-launch startup Astra will get a satellite to orbit for the first time this month, if all goes according to plan. The U.S. Space Force has booked two missions with Astra, the Bay Area company announced today (Aug. 5). The first flight will launch a test payload for the Department of Defense's Space Test Program from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, during a window that runs from Aug. 27 through Sept. 11. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 6)
NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR NEXT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CARGO LAUNCH - NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting 5:56 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 10, for the company’s 16th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Live coverage of the launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website beginning at 5:30 p.m. NASA also will hold a prelaunch news briefing Monday, Aug. 9. More (Source: NASA - Aug 5)
STARBASE SURGE SEES SPACEX SPEED AHEAD WITH BOOSTER 4 AND SHIP 20 - In a marked increase to the already-impressive production cadence at SpaceX Starbase, it’s all hands on deck with Booster 4 and Ship 20 preparations ahead of the duo meeting at the launch site. Booster 4 was stacked on Sunday, with all 29 Raptors installed by Monday morning. It then rolled to the launch site on Tuesday and was installed on the Orbital Launch Mount on Wednesday. Ship 20 has since moved into the vacated High Bay for nosecone mating, which was completed ahead of Wednesday morning. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 5)
GOES-17 SATELLITE BOUNCES BACK FROM GLITCH WHILE MONITORING CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES - A weather satellite has recovered from a brief anomaly and is back to studying Earth and its ongoing wildfires. GOES-17 (Geostationary Orbital Environmental Satellite 17), an Earth-monitoring satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), suffered an anomaly on July 22, according to a NOAA statement. The anomaly, thought to be the result of a computer malfunction, caused the satellite to enter a "safe mode"... More (Source: Space.com - Aug 4)
CHINESE COMMERCIAL LAUNCHER FAILS DURING CLIMB TO ORBIT - The launch of a solid-fueled rocket developed by the Chinese commercial space firm iSpace failed Tuesday, the second launch failure in three orbital attempts by the startup company, Chinese state media said. A Hyperbola 1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base at 3:39 a.m. EDT (0739 GMT; 3:39 p.m. Beijing time), China’s government-run Xinhua news agency said. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 4)
LAUNCH OF BOEING CREW CAPSULE SCRUBBED DUE TO PROPULSION SYSTEM ISSUE - Officials scrubbed the planned launch of a Boeing-built crew capsule Tuesday to examine a potential technical issue in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, delaying the start of a critical unpiloted test flight to prove the ship is ready to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing announced the scrub around three hours before the mission’s scheduled launch time of 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT) Tuesday. The Starliner crew capsule’s Atlas 5 launch was already loaded with cryogenic propellants when officials announced the delay. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
SPACE STATION SITUATION WITH RUSSIAN MODULE MISFIRE MORE SERIOUS THAN STATED: REPORT - Last week, a Russian module accidentally pushed the International Space Station out of place. Now, a NASA flight director has revealed that the event was more serious than NASA initially reported. On Thursday (July 29) morning, Russia's long-awaited research module Nauka docked with the space station. But a few hours later, the module accidentally fired its thrusters, briefly tilting the space station and causing it to lose what engineers call "attitude control." More (Source: Space.com - Aug 3)
BOEING CREW CAPSULE SET FOR LAUNCH TUESDAY ON TEST FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION - An Atlas 5 rocket was hauled back to its seaside firing stand Monday for launch Tuesday on a flight to boost Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit for a second unpiloted test to prove the commercial ferry ship is ready to carry astronauts. The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 is scheduled for blast off from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:20 p.m. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
SSTV TRANSMISSIONS SCHEDULED FROM ISS - Friday and Saturday, August 6 – 7, Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will transmit slow-scan television (SSTV) images from the station on 145.800 MHz FM. They will use SSTV mode PD-120. The transmissions are part of the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment (MAI-75) and will be sent via RS0ISS, the ham station in the Russian Zvezda (Service) module using a Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver. More (Source: ARRL - Aug 2)
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