IODINE THRUSTER USED TO CHANGE THE ORBIT OF A SATELLITE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER - For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth. The small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.   More
(Source: SciTechDaily - Jan 26)

VIRGIN ORBIT WILL LAUNCH FIRST DUTCH DEFENSE SATELLITE IN MISSION THAT WILL DEMO RAPID RESPONSE CAPABILITIES - Virgin Orbit isn’t slowing down after joining the exclusive club of small launch companies that have made it to orbit — the company just announced that it’s flying a payload on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNAF). This is the first-ever satellite being put up by the Dutch Ministry of Defense, and it’s a small satellite that will act as a test platform for a number of different communications experiments.    More
(Source: TechCrunch - Jan 26)

HAM RADIO’S SUITSAT RETURNS IN SHORT HORROR FILM - SuitSat loses its innocence in a new video short sci-fi thriller Decommissioned. “Inspired by true events,” the video short resurrects the 2006 spacesuit/satellite that transmitted messages on 2 meters as it circled Earth. The original SuitSat-1 project, conceived by an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team, repurposed a decommissioned Russian Orlan spacesuit to function as a free-floating amateur radio transmit-only satellite.   More
(Source: ARRL - Jan 26)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 134 SATELLITES INTO ORBIT, MOST EVER - At the opening of its launch window, a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Florida on Sunday morning and made a flawless ascent into space. After dropping off the second stage in a parking orbit, the first stage returned to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 73rd time a Falcon 9 rocket first stage has been recovered. Meanwhile, the second stage began to circularize its orbit before it was scheduled to begin a satellite deployment sequence at 59 minutes into flight.    More
(Source: Ars Technica - Jan 24)

SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET WITH 143 SATELLITES GROUNDED BY WEATHER - Bad weather forced SpaceX to call off plans for launching a record 143 small satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday. The team was told to recycle for another attempt Sunday at 10 a.m. EST when forecasters predicted a 70% chance of acceptable conditions. The scores of satellites atop the Falcon 9 are the most ever scheduled for launch by a single rocket, eclipsing the previous 104-satellite mark set by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in February 2017.   More
(Source: CBS News - Jan 23)

SPACEX SURPASSES 1,000-SATELLITE MARK IN LATEST STARLINK LAUNCH - SpaceX launched its latest set of Starlink satellites Jan. 20, bringing the total number of spacecraft launched so far for that broadband constellation to more than 1,000. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:02 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket’s upper stage deployed the payload of 60 Starlink satellites 65 minutes after liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 23)

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SPACEWALKS WILL COMPLETE LONG-TERM BATTERY UPGRADE - Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to venture outside the International Space Station Wednesday, Jan. 27, and Monday, Feb. 1, for a pair of spacewalks to finish installing a European science platform and complete long-term battery upgrade work. The spacewalks will begin about 7 a.m. and will last about six and a half hours.   More
(Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Jan 23)

CHINA’S FIRST LAUNCH OF 2021 ORBITS COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - A Chinese Long March 3B rocket deployed the Tiantong 1-03 satellite to provide mobile communications services after a successful launch Tuesday, the first of more than 40 Chinese space missions set for liftoff in 2021. The 184-foot-tall (56-meter) Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang launch base at 11:25 a.m. EST (1625 GMT) Tuesday with the third satellite in the Tiantong 1 communications network, joining two others launched in 2016 and 2020...   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 22)

ANOTHER ONE LEAVES THE CRUST BEGINS BUSY YEAR FOR ROCKET LAB - Rocket Lab started its busiest year with the dedicated launch of a micro-satellite aboard their Electron rocket for OHB Group on Wednesday. Named “Another One Leaves The Crust,” the mission launch at 02:26 EST (06:26 UTC) on Wednesday, January 20 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1A on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula. This was the 18th launch of the Electron rocket overall, the first of at least nine announced missions for this year, and the first mission for the company demonstrating a rapid contract to launch period.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 21)

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