LOOKING TO THE HEAVENS: JAPANESE TEMPLE PLANNED FOR INSIDE SATELLITE - A “space temple” is planned for the inside of a private satellite to be launched in 2023, and the holy place will be reachable from Earth, organizers said Friday. Kyoto’s Daigoji Temple and Terra Space inc., a satellite developer, have teamed up to launch an ultrasmall satellite the size of a jewelry box that will orbit around Earth. The temple, named Jotenin Gounji Temple, will be placed inside the satellite along with a small Buddha statue and mandala paintings, Terra Space said. More (Source: The Japan Times - Feb 6)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY TESTS - China carried out its fourth orbital space launch on Thursday, sending a large satellite towards geostationary orbit from the hills of Xichang in the southwest of the country. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10.36 a.m. EST Feb. 4 (1536 GMT, 11:36 p.m. local time) sending the TJSW-6 communication technology experiment satellite into orbit. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 6)
SPACEX FIRES 60 STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITES INTO ORBIT, WITH MORE SET TO LAUNCH FRIDAY - Sixty more SpaceX-owned Starlink internet satellites rocketed through a moonlit winter sky over Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher early Thursday, while another Falcon 9 stood on a different launch pad a few miles away to loft another 60 Starlink payloads Friday. Nine Merlin 1D engines flashed to life and sent a rumble across Florida’s Space Coast at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) Thursday. Hold-down clamps released to allow the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket to climb off pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 5)
NO SPACEX DOUBLEHEADER FOR NOW, BUT RANGE IS READY FOR TWO LAUNCHES IN A DAY - One of the two Falcon 9 rockets SpaceX planned to take off in a span of less than five hours earlier this week will remain grounded until at least Sunday, preventing Cape Canaveral from hosting two launches on the same day for the first time in decades. But the military-run Eastern Range was ready for the back-to-back missions, and probably won’t have to wait long for the next chance for a launch doubleheader. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 5)
NASA SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADES SPACE STATION'S POWER SYSTEM AFTER EFFORTS OF SEVERAL YEARS - After 13 different astronauts conducted 14 spacewalks over several years, the primary power system of the International Space Station (ISS) has now been fully upgraded to lithium-ion technology, NASA has said. The space station's primary power system originally used nickel-hydrogen batteries for storage, the US space agency said on Tuesday. More (Source: The Weather Channel - Feb 5)
SATELLITE SPOTS SPACEX'S STARSHIP SN9 FROM SPACE AHEAD OF EXPLOSIVE TEST FLIGHT - New satellite imagery shows SpaceX's Starship prototype poised on the launch pad ahead of its high-altitude test flight Tuesday (Feb. 2), which saw the prototype crash-land after successfully completing complex maneuvers in flight. A SkySat satellite operated by the San Francisco-based company Planet captured high-definition satellite images of Starship SN9 at the company's South Texas site, near the Gulf Coast, hours before the launch. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 5)
SPACEX SAYS ITS STARLINK SATELLITE INTERNET SERVICE NOW HAS OVER 10,000 USERS - SpaceX disclosed in a public filing on Thursday that its Starlink satellite internet service now has “over 10,000 users in the United States and abroad.” “Starlink’s performance is not theoretical or experimental ... [and] is rapidly accelerating in real time as part of its public beta program,” SpaceX wrote in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. More (Source: CNBC - Feb 5)
ROBOT SATELLITE SWARMS INCREASE COMMUNICATION POSSIBILITIES - A NASA mission now underway after a January launch will be an experiment to maximize the effectiveness of CubeSats by demonstrating how they might track and communicate with each other. This is a crucial step toward development of swarming satellites, which could number in the thousands and work cooperatively to aid in communications, imaging, and forecasting tasks. More (Source: ZDNet - Feb 4)
THE SPACE TOURISM WE WERE PROMISED IS FINALLY HERE—SORT OF - SpaceX weathered through the onset of the covid-19 pandemic last year to become the first private company to launch astronauts into space using a commercial spacecraft. It’s poised to build on that success with another huge milestone before 2021 is over. On Monday, the company announced plans to launch the first “all-civilian” mission into orbit by the end of the year. Called Inspiration4, the mission will take billionaire Jared Isaacman... More (Source: MIT Technology Review - Feb 4)
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