RUSSIA’S SOYUZ-2-1B LAUNCHES MISSILE DETECTION SATELLITE - Russia’s Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2-1b rocket Friday, carrying a satellite designed to give the Kremlin advance warning of missile attacks. Soyuz lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 10:31 Moscow Time (07:31 UTC), beginning a multi-hour mission to deliver the Tundra No.4 satellite into an elliptical Molniya orbit. A successful mission was declared at around 13:00 UTC.    More
(Source: NASASpaceflight.com - May 23)

THE US IS PLANNING TO BUILD A SATELLITE NETWORK TO TRACK HYPERSONIC WEAPONS FROM RUSSIA AND CHINA - The United States plans to launch 150 satellites that can track hypersonic weapons in orbit in 2024, a move observers say is aimed at helping the Pentagon control assets in space and keep a close watch on Chinese activities. According to a draft request for proposals released by the Space Development Agency (SDA) last week, it is seeking a contractor to design and build eight satellites with infrared sensors to track hypersonic weapons, US online military tech publication C4ISRNET reported.   More
(Source: Business Insider - May 23)

SATELLITE MANUFACTURING FACES CHANGES, UNCERTAINTY IN COMING YEARS - Commercial satellite operators are experiencing significant changes that are part of a shift from a legacy Geostationary (GEO) communications satellite broadcasting business to more data-centric use cases. The commercial GEO communications satellite industry declined sharply in 2017 with a record low of only seven satellite orders. The previous industry low was seven units 15 years ago when the industry was in crisis in the early 2000s. With ten commercial orders, 2019 showed early signs of recovery but also a growing diversity of GEO comsat.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - May 22)

ONCE LAUNCHED, KLEOS SPACE WILL PROVIDE DATA TO MICRO-SATELLITE MILITARY UTILITY PROJECT - Luxembourg-based data-as-a-service company Kleos Space has been contracted to provide Radio Frequency (RF) geolocation intelligence data to the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory‘s (SDL) Micro-Satellite Military Utility (MSMU) project in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). “Our satellites and our data will enhance defense capabilities when fused with other data sets in the Government environment, as well as providing timely monitoring of illegal fishing, oil embargoes and other illicit action that both damages our environment and hurts our economies,” Kleos Space Project Director Karyn Hayes-Ryan said in a statement issued May 19.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - May 22)

ASTRONAUTS LAND IN FLORIDA AHEAD OF HISTORIC LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday to prepare for the historic return of crewed launches from U.S. soil. Their space agency jet from Houston arrived shortly before 4 p.m. EDT. Behnken and Hurley, who both flew two previous space shuttle missions, are scheduled for a May 27 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station.   More
(Source: UPI - May 22)

NEW MILITARY WEATHER SATELLITE PASSES KEY MILESTONES - A satellite designed to rapidly provide space-based environmental monitoring for the war fighter has achieved two major milestones, passing a critical design review and receiving Milestone B certification, the U.S. Space Force announced May 19. The next-generation Weather System Follow-on—Microwave (WSF-M) program will provide essential weather data to the U.S. military and its allies.    More
(Source: C4ISRNet - May 21)

JAPAN LAUNCHES ITS LAST ‘WHITE STORK’ TO THE ISS - Lifting off from its seaside launchpad, Japan’s final H-2B rocket sent the final Kounotori cargo ship into orbit to service the International Space Station. Kounotori 9, also called HTV-9, was launched at 1:31 p.m. EDT (17:31 UTC) May 20, 2020, from Tanegashima Space Center, which is located on the Japanese island of Tanegashima, about 40 kilometers south of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of the main islands of the Japanese archipelago.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - May 20)

JAPAN’S HTV READY FOR LAUNCH WITH LAST SET OF NEW SPACE STATION SOLAR BATTERIES - A Japanese HTV cargo freighter is ready for launch Wednesday with the last set of six lithium-ion batteries to upgrade the International Space Station’s solar power truss. Japan’s ninth automated H-2 Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, is scheduled for liftoff from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 1731 GMT (1:31 p.m. EDT) Wednesday aboard an H-2B rocket. Launch is scheduled for 2:31 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Thursday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 20)

NAVY’S SOLAR POWER SATELLITE HARDWARE TO BE TESTED IN ORBIT - A U.S. Naval Research Laboratory experiment to capture solar power in space for use on Earth is now in orbit and ready to be tested. The experiment flew to orbit on May 17 aboard the U.S. Air Force X-37B spaceplane. The technology aboard the plane is a “photovoltaic radio-frequency antenna module” to be tested as part of a comprehensive investigation into terrestrial use of solar energy captured in space, program manager Chris Depuma said May 18 in a news release.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 20)

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