SWEDEN TO LAUNCH SATELLITES FROM SPACE CENTER INSIDE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE - The space center in northern Sweden is mostly known for launching sounding rockets and research balloons. Now, the Swedish Space Corporation wants to be the first location north of the Arctic Circle to provide facilities for launching satellites into orbit. 90 million kronor (€8,6 million) was this week granted by the government and comes in addition to previous investment in creating a test facility at Esrange.    More
(Source: The Independent Barents Observer - Oct 16)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TRACKING RISING SEA LEVELS - A new payload that Elon Musk’s SpaceX will deliver into orbit next month will play a pivotal role in measuring sea level increases, potentially helping to spare economies from billions of euros in damages by the end of this century. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite lifts off Nov. 10 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Its mission will be to track how the accelerating rise of sea levels are changing coastlines, threatening the habitat of more than a third of the world’s population. The European Space Agency will provide details about the mission on Friday at 4 p.m. in Paris.    More
(Source: BloombergQuint - Oct 16)

SOYUZ CREW DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - In a mission marking the end of an era, NASA astronaut and former virus hunter Kate Rubins, using NASA’s last currently contracted seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, rocketed into orbit Wednesday with two cosmonaut crewmates on a record-setting flight to the International Space Station. Celebrating her 42nd birthday, Rubins’ launch came just two weeks before 20th anniversary of the arrival of the station’s first crew on Nov. 2, 2000. Since then, the lab complex has been continuously staffed by rotating crews, or expeditions, of American, Russian, Japanese, European and Canadian fliers along with a handful of space tourists.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 15)

US SPACE FORCE’S NEXT COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE CLEARS MILESTONE - The U.S. Space Force has completed preliminary design review of its new Wideband Global SATCOM satellites, bringing the program one step closer to beginning production. “This engineering design review is a key milestone because it means we are one step closer to delivering this groundbreaking satellite to the wa rfighter in record timing, significantly improving capacity and coverage to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.” said Col. John Dukes, chief of the Geosynchronous/Polar Division, which falls under the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Production Corps.   More
(Source: C4ISRNet - Oct 15)

SPACE STATION’S SOLAR PANELS, WINDOWS HAVE MARKS OF MICRO METEOR DAMAGE — COSMONAUT - The solar panels and windows of the International Space Station (ISS) have marks of minor damage from micrometeorite hits but they are smaller than the projected degradation, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov said at a pre-flight press conference on Tuesday.   More
(Source: TASS - Oct 15)

NASA ASTRONAUT KATE RUBINS IS READY FOR A 2ND 'BUCKET LIST' TRIP TO THE SPACE STATION - Just a few weeks ahead of the 20th anniversary of a continuous human presence in space, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov are scheduled to launch for a stay on the International Space Station. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan is scheduled for 1:45 am ET on Wednesday and will be broadcast live on NASA's website.   More
(Source: CNN - Oct 15)

SOYUZ CREW LAUNCHES ON 'ULTRAFAST' TWO-ORBIT FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION - An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have launched to the International Space Station just ahead of and to extend 20 years of a continuous human presence in Earth orbit. Kate Rubins of NASA, together with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, lifted off on Russia's Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday (Oct. 14). Their launch, atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, began at 1:45 a.m. EDT (0545 GMT; 10:45 a.m. local Kazakh time).   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 15)

SOYUZ MS-17 PREPARES FOR ULTRAFAST, 3 HOUR JOURNEY TO ISS - The three space travelers of the Soyuz MS-17 mission are making their final preparations ahead of a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. The flight is scheduled to lift off on a Soyuz 2.1a booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site No. 31/6, in Kazakhstan at 05:45:04 UTC on 14 October (01:45:04 EDT), lofting its international crew to space for a very fast, two orbit, three hour rendezvous with Station.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Oct 14)

STARLINK ALREADY THREATENS OPTICAL ASTRONOMY. NOW, RADIO ASTRONOMERS ARE WORRIED - The 197 radio astronomy dishes of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa will sit within a radio-quiet zone the size of Pennsylvania where even a cellphone is forbidden, to preserve the array’s views of the heavens. Yet that precaution won’t save the telescope, due to be completed in the late 2020s, from what may soon be overhead: tens of thousands of communications satellites beaming down radio signals straight from the heavens. “The sky will be full of these things,” says SKA Director General Phil Diamond.   More
(Source: ScienceMag.org - Oct 14)

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