KEPLER LAUNCHES FIRST INTERNALLY PRODUCED SATELLITES - Canadian startup Kepler Communications launched Sept. 28 the first two satellites built in its own facility as the company ramps up its plans to deploy a constellation for data and Internet of Things services. The two six-unit XL cubesats, known as Kepler-4 and Kepler-5 but nicknamed Antilles and Amidala, were among the 15 smallsat secondary payloads brokered by Exolaunch that launched on a Soyuz-2.1b from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 7:20 a.m. Eastern. The primary payload for the launch was a trio of Gonets satellites for the Russian government. More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 30)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES 3 GONETS COMMUNICATION SATELLITES, 18 INTERNATIONAL SMALLSATS - The Russian Aerospace Forces, itself a division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, have launched a batch of three Gonets civilian communication satellites as well as 18 international rideshare payloads. Liftoff of the Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket occurred at 11:20 UTC (07:20 EDT) on Monday, 28 September 2020, from Site No. 43 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome — located 800 km north of Moscow. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 30)
AIR LEAKING FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION BUT NO DANGER TO CREW - ROSCOSMOS AGENCY - The International Space Station is leaking air in above-normal volumes, but the leak presents no danger to the Russian-American crew, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday. The leak has been localised to one section of a service module and the crew, made up of U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, plan to eliminate it in the coming days, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Roscosmos executive director Sergei Krikalev as saying. More (Source: Reuters - Sep 30)
CHINESE AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE LAUNCHES DELAYED - CAMSAT says the CAS-7A launch has been postponed until next May, and CAS-5A until next June. “Because of COVID-19, many things have been delayed,” CAMSAT’s Alan Kung, BA1DU, told ARRL. He said an announcement would be made closer to the announced launches. CAMSAT said last spring that CAS-7A would launch in mid-September; the launch has been postponed multiple times since first announced. CAS-5A was predicted to launch in October. More (Source: ARRL - Sep 30)
FIRST OPERATIONAL CREW DRAGON LAUNCH SLIPS TO HALLOWEEN - NASA announced Monday that the launch of the first operational crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is set for the predawn hours of Halloween, eight days later than previously planned. The Crew Dragon spaceship is scheduled to blast off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at around 2:40 a.m. EDT (0640 GMT) on Oct. 31, the space agency said. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 29)
UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE POSTPONES SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH AGAIN - United Launch Alliance postponed launch of a spy satellite for the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday due to lightning and stormy weather in the area near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The company's powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket had been scheduled to carry the satellite aloft at 12:02 a.m. EDT Tuesday. More (Source: UPI.com - Sep 29)
SPACEX DELAYS NEXT STARLINK SATELLITE FLEET LAUNCH DUE TO BAD WEATHER - SpaceX postponed the launch of a new fleet of Starlink internet satellites today (Sept. 28) due to bad weather at the mission's Florida launch site. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch 60 Starlink satellites from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT), but thick clouds over the launch site prevented the flight. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 29)
UH SATELLITE TO COLLECT NEUTRONS IN SPACE - Neutron-1, a small satellite involving more than 100 University of Hawaiʻi students, faculty, staff and volunteers, will be launched on September 29 (delayed to October 1) on the ELaNa 31, NG-14 International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. During the mission, Neutron-1 will measure neutrons in space and radiation coming from the Sun. More (Source: UH System Current News - Sep 28)
CYGNUS NG-14 MISSION UPDATES - The launch of the Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus spacecraft is now scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1, at 9:38 p.m. from Wallops Island, Virginia. Tune in to NASA TV to watch the launch live. Northrop Grumman, along with NASA, has rescheduled the Antares and Cygnus launch for the NG-14 mission to NET Thursday, Oct. 1, at 9:38 p.m. EDT due to unfavorable weather conditions. More (Source: Northrop Grumman - Sep 28)
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