SPACEX CREW DRAGON MAKES 1ST NIGHTTIME SPLASHDOWN WITH US ASTRONAUTS SINCE APOLLO ERA - A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts returned to Earth early Sunday (May 2) with an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast, successfully completing the company's first full-fledged crewed mission to the International Space Station. The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-1 mission for NASA splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City at 2:56 a.m. EDT (0656 GMT), with a recovery ship swiftly retrieving their Crew Dragon capsule from the sea.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 2)

CHINESE LONG MARCH 6 ROCKET DELIVERS NINE SMALL SATELLITES TO SPACE - Nine small Chinese satellites, including a technology experiment to test out ways to capture space debris, rode a Long March 6 rocket into orbit April 27 on a rideshare mission managed by China Great Wall Industry Corp., the government-owned enterprise charged with selling Chinese launch services on the commercial market.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 1)

ARIANESPACE LAUNCHES AIRBUS PLéIADES NEO SATELLITE IN VEGA LAUNCH - Arianespace’s Vega rocket returned to flight on Wednesday evening, launching a next-generation Earth Observation (EO) Pléiades Neo satellite for Airbus, along with five rideshare small satellites. The launch from French Guiana was the second Arianespace launch in less than 72 hours, after Arianespace launched a batch of OneWeb satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on April 25. The light lift Vega vehicle took off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana at 10:50 p.m. local time on April 28. Airbus confirmed after the launch that the first telemetry signals were received from Pléiades Neo.    More
(Source: Aerospace Technology - May 1)

AIR FORCE NTS-3 NAVIGATION SATELLITE TO LAUNCH IN 2023 - The Air Force Research Laboratory is planning a 2023 launch of the NTS-3 experimental satellite the U.S. military will use for positioning, navigation and timing. AFRL previously announced the launch would be in 2022 but the mission will slip into 2023, AFRL Commander Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle told reporters April 28.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 30)

VEGA ROCKET RETURNS TO FLIGHT WITH EUROPE'S MOST ADVANCED EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE YET - Europe's Vega rocket returned to flight late Wednesday (April 28), delivering to orbit Europe's most advanced Earth observation satellite to date. The mission by the European launch provider Arianespace lifted off from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:50 p.m EDT (0150 April 29 GMT), carrying the Pléiades Neo 3 Earth observation satellite and five small "rideshare" payloads. It was the first Vega launch since November, when a failure of its Avum upper stage resulted in a loss of two Earth observation satellites.    More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 30)

RECORD-BREAKING PROGRESS MS-14 UNDOCKS FROM SPACE STATION - The autonomous Russian cargo ship Progress MS-14 undocked from the International Space Station after spending a record one year at the orbiting outpost. Launched April 25, 2020, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the automated cargo freighter docked with the aft port of the Zvezda module ISS just 3 hours, 20 minutes later — a little over two orbits after liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Apr 29)

GLONASS TO LAUNCH FIRST NEW-GENERATION K2 SATELLITE LATE THIS YEAR - The launch of the first next-generation GLONASS K2 satellite is set for late 2021, according to a statement by Nikolai Testoyedov, CEO of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Company, the satellites’ producer. The satellite will begin the next modernization phase of Russia’s GNSS. “We are launching our first GLONASS-K2 satellite this year,” Testoyedov stated to the Russian TASS news agency. “This launch is planned for the fourth quarter of the year.”   More
(Source: Inside GNSS - Apr 29)

LAUNCH OF EXPERIMENTAL MILITARY NAVIGATION SATELLITE PUSHED BACK TO 2023 - A rideshare delay has pushed back the launch of the U.S. military’s new experimental navigation satellite to 2023, but the Air Force Research Laboratory says it can use the extra time to reduce risks and conduct more ground testing. Navigation Technology Satellite 3, originally set for launch in 2022, will help guide future GPS satellites, a priority area for the military as the technology has become easier to spoof and jam.    More
(Source: C4ISRNet - Apr 29)

SPACEX AND ONEWEB SATELLITES DIDN'T HAVE A CLOSE CALL IN SPACE AFTER ALL: REPORT - It turns out that the recent "near miss" collision between two SpaceX and OneWeb internet satellites in orbit wasn't a "close call" at all, and the satellites weren't actually in danger of crashing, SpaceX has revealed. On March 30, OneWeb reported several "red alerts" from the 18th Space Control Squadron (18 SPCS) of the U.S. Space Force, indicating a 1.3%change that a OneWeb satellite might collide with one of SpaceX's Starlink satellites.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 29)

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