JAPAN FIRM TO DEVELOP SATELLITE TO REMOVE SPACE DEBRIS - Japan's SKY Perfect JSAT Corp. said Thursday it will develop a satellite to remove space debris with lasers, aiming to launch a related service in 2026. The satellite communications service provider will make the satellite mainly with government-affiliated research institute Riken and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, it said.   More
(Source: Nippon.com - Jun 13)

ESAIL MARITIME SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH - The ESAIL microsatellite for tracking ships worldwide—developed under an ESA Partnership Project—has completed its accommodation on Vega's new dispenser for small satellites and is ready for launch. The Vega launch campaign at Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, resumed three weeks ago, following an interruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.   More
(Source: Phys.Org - Jun 13)

UNIVERSITY-BUILT CUBESAT LAUNCHED WITH SWARM OF AURORAL SCIENCE NODES - Rocket Lab successfully launched five small satellites from New Zealand Saturday for customers in the United States and Australia, including a CubeSat with a novel swarm of tiny magnetometers to measure the plasma currents that shape colorful auroras. The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) rocket took off at 0512:12 GMT (1:12:12 a.m. EDT) from Rocket Lab’s privately-operated spaceport on Mahia Peninsula, located on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 13)

SPACEX PLANS ITS THIRD LAUNCH IN THE SPACE OF TWO WEEKS - If all goes as planned, a SpaceX Falcon 9 will blast off from Florida this Saturday, just two weeks after another of the company's workhorse rockets sent NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station. The company followed up its historic first launch of humans just a few days later, with a launch of Starlink satellites, and now it will perform its first Starlink ride-share, carrying 58 of its own broadband satellites along with three Earth observing spacecraft for Planet Labs.    More
(Source: CNET - Jun 12)

WATCH ROCKET LAB’S 12TH LAUNCH ‘DON’T STOP ME NOW’ TAKE OFF TONIGHT - Rocket Lab’s delayed 12th launch is scheduled to take place tonight late night Pacific time, mid-afternoon on the 11th at the company’s New Zealand launch facility. The Electron rocket will be taking payloads to orbit from NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the University of New South Wales. “Don’t Stop Me Now,” named after the favorite Queen song of board member Scott Smith, who passed away in February, was originally scheduled for takeoff in late March.   More
(Source: TechCrunch - Jun 11)

ROCKET LAB SCRUBS LATEST SATELLITE LAUNCH WITH JUST MINUTES TO GO - Strong winds forced Rocket Lab to scrub its latest small-satellite mission just minutes before liftoff from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula on Thursday evening local time. The team paused the countdown clock several times during the launch window, but it eventually ran out of time. California-based Rocket Lab said there should be another launch opportunity in the coming days.   More
(Source: Yahoo Tech - Jun 11)

CREW DRAGON LIKELY TO SUPPORT EXTENDED SPACE STATION STAY - SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is performing well enough on orbit to give NASA confidence that the mission can last until August, an agency official said June 9. Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, told an online meeting of two National Academies committees that NASA had been monitoring the health of the Crew Dragon spacecraft since its launch May 30 on the Demo-2 mission, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 11)

ROCKET LAB TO LAUNCH SATELLITES FOR US SPYSAT AGENCY AND NASA TONIGHT. HERE'S HOW TO WATCH. - The small-satellite launch company Rocket Lab will loft a mini-fleet of payloads for NASA, a U.S. spy satellite agency and universities in the wee hours of the morning this Thursday (June 11) and you can watch it live online. An Electron rocket will launch the mission, called "Don't Stop Me Know" after a song by the rock band Queen, at 12:43 a.m. EDT (0443 GMT) from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 11)

CHINA LAUNCHES OCEAN MONITORING SATELLITE - A civilian-operated Chinese oceanography satellite deployed in orbit after lifting off on a Long March 2C rocket Wednesday, joining a predecessor launched in 2018 to monitor ocean color and water temperatures.Chinese engineers also debuted modifications to the Long March 2C’s payload fairing to help the structure keep its shape during the fall to Earth, the latest in a series of experiments that could help lead to the recovery and reuse of future Chinese rockets.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 11)

Previous Next