NASA SEEKS SEAT ON APRIL SOYUZ MISSION TO ISS - NASA announced Feb. 9 it wants to obtain a seat on the next Soyuz mission to the International Space Station, launching in just two months, to ensure a U.S. presence on the station in the event of any commercial crew delays. In a procurement synopsis posted late Feb. 9, NASA said it wanted the seat on the next Soyuz mission as it “minimizes risks associated with any interruption in U.S. crew member presence on ISS” that might be caused by problems with commercial crew vehicles.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 11)

CHINA'S FIRST SPACE STATION MODULE IS READY FOR FLIGHT - The core module for China's planned orbital space station has passed a flight acceptance review and will now launch in the coming months, marking the beginning of a flurry of major missions by the country. The announcement from China Manned Space, the country's human spaceflight agency onJan. 14 comes as China gears up for the construction phase of its own, three-module space station.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 11)

NASA TELEVISION TO AIR SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP LAUNCH, DOCKING - NASA will provide live coverage on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station beginning at 11:15 p.m. EST Sunday, Feb. 14. The unpiloted Russian Progress 77 is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket at 11:45 p.m. (10:45 a.m. Monday, Feb. 15, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   More
(Source: NASA - Feb 11)

TELESAT TO BUILD A $5 BILLION GLOBAL SATELLITE NETWORK TO BRING FIBER-LIKE INTERNET TO BUSINESSES - Canadian telecommunications satellite operator Telesat announced on Tuesday that French-Italian space hardware manufacturer Thales Alenia Space will build its next-generation broadband satellite network called Lightspeed. Lightspeed will focus on providing high-speed fiber-like internet to Telesat’s customers around the globe. The network, known in the industry as a constellation, will consist of 298 next-generation satellites that orbit the Earth at an altitude of about 1000 kilometers...   More
(Source: CNBC - Feb 10)

A RUSSIAN 'SPACE TRUCK' JUST BURST INTO FLAMES ON PURPOSE AND THE PHOTO IS AMAZING - A Russian "space truck" has met its fiery doom on its way home to Earth. The cargo ship Progress MS-15 from Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, broke apart as it burned up in Earth's atmosphere after undocking from the International Space Station yesterday (Feb. 8). The astronauts living on the space station watched the craft's fiery demise from above and shared the experience on social media.    More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 10)

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)

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