NASA ROCKET, SATELLITE TAG-TEAM TO VIEW THE GIANT ELECTRIC CURRENT IN THE SKY - Some 50 miles up, where Earth’s atmosphere blends into space, the air itself hums with an electric current. Scientists call it the atmospheric dynamo, an Earth-sized electric generator. It’s taken hundreds of years for scientists to lay the groundwork to understand it, but the principles that keep it running are only just now being revealed in detail.   More
(Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Jul 6)

RADIO TELESCOPE FACES “EXTREMELY CONCERNING” THREAT FROM SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS - A multibillion-dollar radio telescope is moving into its construction phase while still working to raise funding and deal with satellite megaconstellations whose interference “change the game” for their plans. In a June 29 talk at the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society, Philip Diamond, director general of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Observatory, announced that the observatory’s council had formally approval plans to move into the construction phase of the radio telescope.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 4)

CHINA LAUNCHES FIVE SATELLITES ON A CHANG ZHENG 2D - At 02:51 UTC, or 10:51 AM Beijing time on Saturday, July 3, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) successfully launched a Chang Zheng 2D rocket from LC-9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, carrying five satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit. The launch is the beginning of what is expected to be a busy launch period for the Chinese space program.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jul 4)

RICHARD BRANSON TO FLY IN SPACE JULY 11, NINE DAYS BEFORE RIVAL BEZOS - Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic, will fly into space aboard his company’s VSS Unity rocketplane July 11 for an up-and-down test flight, beating Amazon-founder and rival Jeff Bezos into sub-orbital space by nine days. “I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality,” Branson tweeted.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 4)

CHINA BEGINS CONSTRUCTION OF NEW SURVEY TELESCOPE TO DETECT SPACE DEBRIS - The construction of a survey telescope array, which will be mainly used to detect space debris in medium and high orbits, has begun in northwest China's Qinghai Province, taking advantage of the plateau region's clear night skies. The multi-application survey telescope array, MASTA, developed by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is under construction in the town of Lenghu, Qinghai, with an average altitude of 3,800 meters above sea level.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Jul 3)

AIRBUS SHIPS EUTELSAT QUANTUM SATELLITE AHEAD OF ARIANESPACE LAUNCH - Airbus has shipped Eutelsat’s QUANTUM satellite to French Guiana ahead of its July launch. The QUANTUM launch has been pushed back multiple times, and is now set for Arianespace launch from French Guiana in the third quarter. The QUANTUM satellite is software-defined, and is pitched as the first universal satellite to repeatedly adjust to business requirements. It will offer dynamic beam shaping and vessel-tracking capabilities, and dynamic traffic shaping to respond to demand.    More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jul 3)

OQ TECHNOLOGY PUTS ITS FIRST COMMERCIAL 5G IOT SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - OQ Technology confirms the launch of its first commercial 5G IoT satellite bringing it closer to delivering IoT and machine-to-machine services using 5G connectivity. The company successfully launched its Tiger-2 satellite aboard the SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare mission organised by Spaceflight.   More
(Source: Capacity Media - Jul 3)

RUSSIAN PROGRESS CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT SPACE STATION AFTER TWO-DAY JOURNEY - An uncrewed Russian cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station after a two-day journey to deliver food, fuel and supplies for the orbiting outpost’s crew. The Progress MS-17 freighter linked up with the Poisk mini research module on the space-facing side of the station’s Russian segment on Thursday (July 1). The automated docking occurred at 8:59 p.m. EDT (0059 GMT on July 2).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 2)

ONEWEB ON THE VERGE OF COMMERCIAL SERVICE AFTER ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH - A Russian Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage deployed 36 more OneWeb internet satellites into orbit Thursday, bringing the company’s fleet to 254 spacecraft, enough to start commercial service above 50 degrees latitude. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket fired off a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East at 8:48:33 a.m. EDT (1248:33 GMT) to begin a nearly four-hour mission delivering the 36 OneWeb satellites to orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 2)

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