INDIAN PSLV ROCKET LAUNCHES BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA-1 SATELLITE - India launched its first mission of the year late Saturday, sending Brazil’s Amazonia-1 Earth observation satellite and 18 smaller payloads into orbit. The 44-meter-high PSLV-C51 rocket with two solid side boosters lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the Indian island of Sriharikota at 11:54 p.m. Eastern Feb. 28.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 2)

CHINA PREPARING TO BUILD TIANGONG STATION IN 2021, COMPLETE BY 2022 - China is gearing up for its next big leap in space exploration: the construction of its modular crewed space station, the Tiangong. Starting in 2021, the construction of the Tiangong orbital space station is expected to be complete in 2022 after eleven missions, including three launches of different modules, four launches of cargo vehicles and four crewed launches. This step comes after a phased approach to human spaceflight development, beginning with the uncrewed test flights of a crewed space vehicle...   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 2)

FIRST EVER SPACE HOTEL SLATED TO BE OPERATIONAL BY 2027 - An out-of-this-world hotel is just a few years away from becoming a reality. This decade will see the start and completion of construction on humanity’s first ever hotel in outer space, according to the group behind it, Orbital Assembly. The 3-year-old company plans to begin building Voyager Station in low Earth orbit in 2025, and believes its interstellar resort may be operational as soon as 2027, the Daily Mail reported.   More
(Source: New York Post - Mar 2)

SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY EXPERIMENT TO FLY ON NORTHROP GRUMMAN’S CAPSULE TO SPACE STATION - Northrop Grumman’s next cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station will carry a Space Development Agency payload to collect data for the development of missile-tracking sensors. The experiment known as Persistent Infrared Payload is scheduled to launch in July on the NG-16 Cygnus cargo mission on a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. Northrop Grumman received a $13.8 million contract in June from the Space Development Agency for this experiment.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 2)

SPACEX ABORTS LAUNCH OF FALCON 9 ROCKET CARRYING STARLINK SATELLITES - A veteran SpaceX rocket suffered a launch abort just minutes before liftoff Sunday night (Feb. 28) while attempting to launch a new fleet of the company's Starlink internet satellites. The Falcon 9 rocket was less than 90 seconds away from launching 60 Starlink satellites into orbit from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida when it experienced the automatic abort, SpaceX said.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 1)

ANOTHER TRIO OF CHINESE MILITARY SATELLITES SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED - Weeks after the launch of an earlier trio of Chinese military satellites, another spacecraft triplet successfully took off Feb. 24 aboard a Long March 4C rocket on a clandestine mission that analysts believe may involve spying on foreign naval forces. The Yaogan 31 triplet launched at 0222 GMT on Feb. 24 (9:22 p.m. EST on Feb. 23) from the Jiuquan space base on the Gobi Desert of northwestern China. Liftoff occurred at 10:22 a.m. Beijing time.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 1)

SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS PREPARE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR NEW SOLAR ARRAYS - Two spacewalking astronauts began preparing the International Space Station (ISS) for new solar arrays on Sunday (Feb. 28), battling tough bolts to kick off a major power upgrade for the orbiting lab. Expedition 64 flight engineers Kate Rubins and Victor Glover — both NASA astronauts — spent more than seven hours working outside the station during the spacewalk to install modification kits for the new solar arrays. They worked on the station's portside edge to install a bracket and support struts on two mast canisters at the base of the outpost's current solar wings there, but were only able to install one of the kits while assembling a second and storing it for later.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 1)

RUSSIA’S SOYUZ-2-1B LAUNCHES ARKTIKA-M NO.1 WEATHER SATELLITE - Russia launched the first in a new series of weather satellites to aid forecasting over its high-latitude regions. The Arktika-M No.1 satellite, aboard a Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat rocket, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:55 local time (06:55 UTC) on Sunday bound for an elliptical Molniya orbit. The Arktika (Арктика, meaning “Arctic“) satellites will carry out a variety of missions to compliment other satellite constellations with additional coverage of Russia’s most northern regions.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 28)

INDIAN ROCKET LAUNCHES BRAZILIAN SATELLITE TO TRACK AMAZON DEFORESTATION - An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle placed Brazil’s Amazonia 1 satellite into orbit Sunday to begin a mission monitoring deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, then released 18 smaller spacecraft at a lower altitude, marking a successful start to India’s 2021 launch schedule that could see as many as seven orbital-class rocket missions. The 144-foot-tall (44.4-meter) launch vehicle lifted off from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EST Saturday (0454 GMT; 10:24 a.m. local time Sunday) and headed southeast from the spaceport on India’s east coast.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 28)

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