2.9-TON BATTERY PALLET BECOMES LARGEST OBJECT DISCHARGED FROM SPACE STATION - A pallet of batteries was released from the International Space Station, becoming the heaviest single piece of junk ever jettisoned from the station. Mission controllers in Houston commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release an external pallet loaded with the 2.9 tons of nickel-hydrogen batteries into Earth's orbit Thursday morning. More (Source: UPI.com - Mar 16)
NASA TAPS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR SPACE STATION DUCT TAPE DISPENSER - For more than 50 years, NASA astronauts have relied on duct tape as a fix-it-all for everything from a lunar rover on the moon to an air leak on board the International Space Station. Up until now, though, they have not had an easy way to dispense the adhesive. Enter high school students from five different states, who have come up with the solution. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 16)
SPACEX EXTENDS ITS OWN ROCKET REUSE RECORD ON STARLINK LAUNCH - Using a Falcon 9 booster flying for a record ninth time, SpaceX’s swift sequence of launches continued Sunday with a predawn liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center carrying another set of 60 Starlink internet satellites, the company’s third mission in 10 days. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket climbed away from pad 39A at Kennedy and arced toward the northeast and propelled its 17-ton (15.6-metric ton) payload into space. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 15)
SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS WRAP UP MAINTENANCE WORK ON SPACE STATION - Two astronauts tackled a list of leftover maintenance tasks outside of the International Space Station Saturday (March 13), completing work that was originally scheduled to be done on previous spacewalks. Expedition 64 crewmates Victor "Ike" Glover and Mike "Hopper" Hopkins, both with NASA, ventured out of the space station's Quest airlock on Sunday (March 13) for the 6 hour and 47 minute extravehicular activity (EVA). The spacewalk, which began at 8:14 a.m. EST (1314 GMT), marked their third outing together since arriving at the station in November on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Resilience." More (Source: Space.com - Mar 14)
AUSTRALIA'S FIRST SATELLITE THAT CAN HELP DETECT BUSHFIRES WITHIN ONE MINUTE OF IGNITION SET FOR LAUNCH - Imagine a system that could detect any bushfire in Australia within minutes of ignition so firefighters could tackle the blaze before it spreads. Last week saw an important development on the road to this future: a Queensland-based company, Fireball, announced the first purpose-built satellite for fire detection in Australia. Scheduled for launch a year from now, the satellite is the first of a planned constellation of 24 that will monitor Australia from low Earth orbit. More (Source: ABC News - Mar 14)
CHINA LOFTS THREE MILITARY YAOGAN SATELLITES IN CHANG ZHENG 4C LAUNCH - China continues to upgrade its oceanic surveillance systems with the launch of three new satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The Group 04 of Yaogan Weixing-31 satellites launched at 02:20 UTC on 13 March from launch pad 94 of the LC-43 launch complex on a Chang Zheng 4C rocket. As usual, Chinese media refer to the new satellites as being used “for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests,”... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 14)
NSIL INVITES INDIAN INDUSTRY TO MANUFACTURE POLAR SATELLITE LAUNCH VEHICLE (PSLV) ROCKETS - State-run NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to make polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) rockets by Indian industry for carrying communication or observation satellites into the Earth's lower orbits, an official said on Friday. "We have recently issued an RFP to manufacture the entire PSLV rocket by the Indian industry, which has been making various subsystems and components for rockets launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)... More (Source: The Weather Channel - Mar 14)
ASTRONAUTS PLAN SATURDAY SPACEWALK AT SPACE STATION - Two NASA astronauts are scheduled for the fifth spacewalk of the year Saturday at the International Space Station. Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover will exit the station's Quest airlock about 7:30 a.m. EST to conduct space-based maintenance on the orbiting platform for about 6 1/2 hours. Hopkins and Glover will attempt to connect power cables for the new European science platform, Bartolomeo, that they could not connect in January due to a mechanical problem. More (Source: UPI - Mar 13)
SPACE STATION CREW TO RELOCATE SOYUZ TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW CREWMATES - Three residents of the International Space Station will take a spin around their orbital neighborhood in the Soyuz MS-17 on Friday, March 19, relocating the spacecraft to prepare for the arrival of the next set of crew members. Live coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website will begin at 12:15 p.m. EDT. More (Source: NASA - Mar 13)
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