THE PLAN TO TURN SCRAPPED ROCKETS INTO SPACE STATIONS - In early October, a dead Soviet satellite and the abandoned upper stage of a Chinese rocket narrowly avoided a collision in low Earth orbit. If the objects had crashed, the impact would have blown them to bits and created thousands of new pieces of dangerous space debris. Only a few days prior, the European Space Agency had published its annual space environment report, which highlighted abandoned rocket bodies as one of the biggest threats to spacecraft.    More
(Source: WIRED - Nov 12)

NASA CHIEF WARNS OF GAP AFTER RETIREMENT OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The International Space Station is likely to continue operating for another decade, but without more government support, a privately-owned outpost may not be ready in time to replace it, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. Bridenstine told Spaceflight Now he is concerned that a commercial space station may not be ready by the time the International Space Station reaches the end of its life.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)

OMNISPACE SELECTS EXOLAUNCH TO DELIVER TWO NEXT-GENERATION SATELLITES - Omnispace, the company that is reinventing mobile communications by building a global hybrid network, has signed a launch agreement with Exolaunch, the rideshare launch and deployment services provider. Exolaunch will deliver two Thales Alenia Space-built satellites into orbit aboard SpaceX’s rideshare missions. Exolaunch will provide launch, mission management, integration and deployment services for the two Omnispace satellites, targetted for launch in 2022.   More
(Source: SatelliteProME.com - Nov 12)

NASA FORMALLY CERTIFIES SPACEX’S CREW DRAGON FOR “OPERATIONAL” ASTRONAUT FLIGHTS - NASA officials gave approval Tuesday for SpaceX to begin regular crew rotation flights to the International Space Station with the launch of four astronauts set for Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, signaling a transition from development to operations for the human-rated Dragon spacecraft.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 11)

EXPLAINED: EOS-01, INDIA’S LATEST EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE THAT WAS LAUNCHED TODAY - India sent its first space mission in almost a year with a launch of EOS-01, an earth observation satellite, this afternoon. EOS-01, along with nine satellites from foreign countries, was launched by a PSLV rocket twelve minutes past three. This is ISRO’s first mission since the launch of RISAT-2BR1, another earth observation satellite similar to EOS-01, on December 11 last year.   More
(Source: The Indian Express - Nov 10)

CHINA SENDS SATELLITE IN SPACE TO TEST 6G SPECTRUM - China has launched what it claims is the world’s first 6G satellite into space in order to test new spectrum bands that will be used to power future networks. The development of 6G is still at a very early stage and it is still unclear what network technologies will form a commercial standard and what use cases will emerge. This means the satellite will contain very little ‘6G technology’.   More
(Source: TechRadar - Nov 10)

SPACEX GETS $29 MILLION SPACE FORCE CONTRACT FOR SURVEILLANCE OF NON-MILITARY LAUNCHES - SpaceX was awarded a $29.6 million contract under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract that allows the U.S. Space Force to monitor and study data from the company’s commercial and civil space missions. The one-year contract “provides early integration studies and fleet surveillance for non-national security space missions,” said the Space Force contract announcement Nov. 9.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 10)

SPACEX'S CREW-1 ASTRONAUT LAUNCH FOR NASA: LIVE UPDATES - SpaceX plans to launch the first operational flight of its Crew Dragon astronaut taxi to the International Space Station on Nov. 14, 2020. Called Crew-1, this will be the second Crew Dragon mission to carry astronauts, following the successful Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight in 2019. Riding on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will lift off from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:49 p.m. EST (0049 GMT), if all goes according to plan.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 9)

NEW CHINESE ROCKET SUCCESSFUL IN DEBUT LAUNCH - A new four-stage rocket operated by the Chinese launch company Galactic Energy succeeded on its inaugural flight Saturday, delivering a data relay microsatellite to an orbit 300 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth. The Ceres 1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base in in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 0712 GMT (2:12 a.m. EST) Saturday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 9)

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