NASA ASTRONAUT JOINS RUSSIAN SOYUZ CREW FOR APRIL FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION - NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, veteran of a 168-day stay in space in 2017-18, will join two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft April 9 for a flight back to the International Space Station in a deal brokered through Houston-based Axiom Space, NASA and the Russian space agency announced Tuesday. While NASA funded the development of SpaceX and Boeing commercial crew capsules to end the agency’s post-shuttle reliance on Russia for space transportation, continued launches aboard the Soyuz will ensure a U.S. presence on the lab even if an American spacecraft and crew are forced to make an unplanned departure. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 11)
BATA BLAST: SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW EQUATORIAL GUINEA DESTRUCTION - New satellite images reveal the extent of destruction in Equatorial Guinea's main city Bata following explosions at a munitions depot on Sunday. The official death toll has now reached 105, with at least 600 injured. Rights groups say the casualty figures could be significantly higher and have called for an independent investigation, with questions being asked about why stockpiles of explosives were being stored in a populated area. More (Source: BBC News - Mar 11)
STARTUP USING SOVIET-ERA TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD SATELLITE SERVICING VEHICLE - A Ukrainian startup is building an in-orbit servicing vehicle using space docking technology developed decades ago by the former Soviet Union. The startup, named Kurs Orbital, was co-founded by the former head of Ukraine’s space agency Volodymyr Usov. The company plans to launch a demonstration vehicle in 2023, Usov told SpaceNews. Investments are pouring into launch vehicles and satellites, and servicing could be the next segment of the industry to gain traction, he said. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 11)
TUNISIA TO LAUNCH FIRST SATELLITE ON MARCH 20 - Tunisia has announced that it will be launching its first satellite Challenge One on the 65th Independence day on March 20. The satellite will be launched by the Russian Soyuz-2 spacecraft from a base in Kazakhstan. The launch, scheduled for March 20, will also carry the SIMBA (System for Improving Monitoring of the Behavior of Wild Animals) satellite designed to track wild animals around the Kenyan National Parks. More (Source: SatelliteProME.com - Mar 11)
CHINA ROLLS OUT OUT NEW LONG MARCH 7A FOR SECOND LAUNCH ATTEMPT - China has quietly rolled a new-generation Long March 7A rocket at Wenchang ahead of a launch in the coming days. The 60-meter-long kerosene-liquid oxygen fueled Long March 7A was rolled out late March 7 Eastern. Launch could take place as soon as late March 10 Eastern from the coastal Wenchang launch center. The rocket will be the second Long March 7A launch attempt, aiming to place a large satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It follows a failed first mission in March 2020. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 10)
SPACEX SCRUBS STARLINK V1.0 L20 MISSION - As SpaceX continues its push towards a new record number of launches in a single year, the company is preparing to launch the Starlink v1.0 L20 mission — the 20th launch of operational Starlink satellites and the 21st Starlink launch overall. An attempt scheduled for March 9th at 9:58 PM EST (02:58 UTC on March 10th) from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was scrubbed to allow time for additional checkouts. The next opportunity is at 3:13 AM EST (08:13 UTC) on March 11th. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 10)
COSMONAUTS DRILL INTO ISS TO REPAIR AIR-LEAK CRACKS - A troublesome air leak on the International Space Station may finally get a permanent fix. The small but persistent leak led the ISS crew on quite a chase as they traced the culprit to the Russian-built Zvezda Service Module in 2020. Roscosmos cosmonauts pulled out a drill to help with the repairs. The minor leak appears to have been caused by two tiny cracks in the module's transfer chamber. The chamber includes a docking port for spacecraft. In a statement last week, Roscosmos said one of the cracks was less than an inch long. More (Source: CNET - Mar 9)
NASA-SPACEX LAUNCH OF NEXT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW PUSHED TO APRIL 22 - The next launch window for a NASA crew to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket has been pushed back by at least another two days, to no earlier than April 22, the space agency said. SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, had been scheduled to carry its second “operational” space station team into orbit for NASA in late March from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But NASA announced in January that the target date had slipped to April 20. More (Source: Reuters - Mar 9)
SATELLITE SET FOR MARCH 28 LAUNCH WILL HELP INDIA KEEP AN EYE ON BORDERS NEAR REAL-TIME - India plans to launch on March 28 an earth observation satellite that will provide it near real-time images of its borders and also enable quick monitoring of natural disasters. GISAT-1 is slated to be lofted into space by GSLV-F10 rocket from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100 kms north of Chennai. More (Source: The Hindu - Mar 8)
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