SPACEX CREW LAUNCH SET FOR NOV. 14 - After a two-week delay to evaluate a concern with Falcon 9 rocket engines, NASA and SpaceX have set Nov. 14 as the target launch date for the first operational Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station, kicking off a half-year expedition in orbit for three U.S. astronauts and a veteran Japanese space flier. NASA announced the new target launch date late Monday. The Crew Dragon spaceship is set for liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:49 p.m. EST on Nov. 14 (0049 GMT on Nov. 15) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 28)
WHAT COMES AFTER THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION? - For the past two decades, the International Space Station has been humanity’s home away from home. It’s hosted hundreds of astronauts from 18 countries. It’s served as the platform for groundbreaking science experiments that have fundamentally changed our understanding of human biology, climate change, and the universe itself. It’s been a proving ground for futuristic technologies like organs on a chip and quantum communication terminals, and it's fostered the birth of a vibrant commercial space industry. The ISS is arguably the best thing we’ve ever done. But all good things must come to an end. More (Source: WIRED - Oct 28)
CHINA LAUNCHES THREE MILITARY SPY SATELLITES - Three mysterious payloads widely believed to be signals intelligence satellites for the Chinese military rocketed into orbit on top of a Long March 2C booster Monday from a launch base in southwestern China. The three Yaogan 30-type satellites lifted off aboard the Long March 2C rocket at 11:19 a.m. EDT (1519 GMT) Monday from the Xichang space center in the Sichuan province of southwestern China. Liftoff occurred at 11:19 p.m. Beijing time, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 27)
ABOUT 3% OF STARLINK SATELLITES HAVE FAILED SO FAR - SpaceX has drawn plenty of praise and criticism with the creation of Starlink, a constellation that will one day provide broadband internet access to the entire world. To date, the company has launched over 800 satellites and (as of this summer) is producing them at a rate of about 120 a month. There are even plans to have a constellation of 42,000 satellites in orbit before the decade is out. More (Source: Phys.org - Oct 27)
SPACEX JUST LAUNCHED ITS 100TH SUCCESSFUL FALCON ROCKET FLIGHT. YES, THERE'S A VIDEO. - SpaceX just launched its 100th successful mission, and the company put together an action-packed video to mark the milestone. SpaceX hit the century mark on Saturday (Oct. 24) with the liftoff of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 of the company's Starlink broadband satellites to orbit. That same day, SpaceX tweeted out a video documenting all 100 successful launches, starting with a September 2008 flight of a Falcon 1 booster. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 27)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES SOYUZ WITH NEXT-GENERATION NAVIGATION SATELLITE - Russia launched a next-generation navigation satellite to join its GLONASS constellation Sunday. Liftoff of the Uragan-K No.15L satellite, aboard a Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat rocket, took place at 23:08:42 Moscow Time (19:08:42 UTC) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northwest of the country. Spacecraft separation is expected to occur a little over three and a half hours after launch. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 26)
THE FIRST SATELLITE WITH AI ONBOARD IS NOW IN ORBIT, AND ITS TECH COULD COMPLETELY CHANGE HOW WE RESPOND TO WILDFIRES - On September 2, a satellite the size of a cereal box took off for space. Names PhiSat-1, its mission was to monitor polar ice and soil moisture, making it — at least superficially — a fairly unglamorous piece of kit. But for the satellite's creators — the European Space Agency (ESA), chip giant Intel, and Irish robotics company Ubotica — this launch represented months of work, and had been postponed by a failed rocket launch, two natural disasters, and a global pandemic. More (Source: Business Insider - Oct 26)
SPACEX ADDS ANOTHER 60 SATELLITES TO STARLINK NETWORK - SpaceX successfully deployed 60 more Starlink internet satellites in orbit Saturday, continuing a record launch cadence while engineers assess a concern with Falcon 9 rocket engines that has delayed other missions, including the next crew flight to the International Space Station. The 60 Starlink satellites blasted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 11:31:34 a.m. EDT (1531:34 GMT) Saturday. The mission was delayed from Thursday to allow time for engineers to assess a problem with a camera on the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 25)
US ASTRONAUT VOTES EARLY FROM SPACE STATION - ASA astronaut Kate Rubins shared her voting selfie from orbit after stating before her launch earlier this month that she would cast her ballot from the International Space Station. Since 1997, as a concession to the fact that most NASA astronauts live near the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas has had an extreme absentee ballot procedure in place for anyone who finds themselves off Earth on Election Day. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 24)
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