CHINA OUTLINES AMBITIOUS PLAN TO BUILD SPACE STATION IN ORBIT - China has an ambitious new plan to build a space station in orbit by 2023. Why it matters: The U.S. sees China as a rival in space, so any large undertaking like this one will be watched closely. The space station also represents the evolution of China's space program, which made use of two smaller test stations in orbit that hosted crew before moving on to this more complex design.   More
(Source: Axios - Jun 3)

TWO CHINESE LAUNCHES DEPLOY SATELLITES FOR EARTH-IMAGING, TECH DEMONSTRATIONS - Two launches of Chinese rockets Friday and Sunday successfully placed Earth-imaging and technology demonstration satellites into orbit. The two missions, which took off from different spaceports, flew board Long March 11 and Long March 2D rockets. A four-stage Long March 11 launcher fired out of a mobile canister at 2013 GMT (4:13 p.m. EDT) Friday and lit its solid-fueled first stage to soar into space from the Xichang launch base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 2)

SPACEX TARGETS WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR NEXT STARLINK LAUNCH - Days after launching astronauts for the first time, SpaceX is set to resume a speedy cadence of satellite launches Wednesday night with liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s next batch of Starlink broadband relay stations. A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for takeoff Wednesday, likely around 9:25 p.m. EDT (0125 GMT Thursday), from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 2)

MAKING HISTORY, ASTRONAUTS RIDE COMMERCIAL CAPSULE TO SPACE STATION - A Crew Dragon spaceship built and owned by SpaceX glided to an automated docking with the International Space Station Sunday, delivering NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the orbiting research complex after a trouble-free 19-hour flight from the Kennedy Space Center. The gumdrop-shaped capsule, named Endeavour by Hurley and Behnken in honor of NASA’s retired space shuttle, linked up with a docking adapter on the space station’s Harmony module at 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT) Sunday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 1)

LONG MARCH 2D LOFTS GAOFEN-9 - A Long March 2D launched the Gaofen-9 (02) remote sensing satellite on Sunday, as China begins to ramp up its 2020 launch schedule. The launch took place at 8:53 UTC from the LC43/94 launch complex at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Inner Mongolia. The HEAD-4 satellite rode to orbit as a co-passenger.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 1)

SPACEX'S 1ST CREW DRAGON WITH ASTRONAUTS DOCKS AT SPACE STATION IN HISTORIC RENDEZVOUS - SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spaceship to carry astronauts slid into a dock at the International Space Station Sunday (May 31), concluding a historic 19-hour voyage to for its veteran NASA crew. The arrival marked a major feat: the first docking of a crewed U.S. spacecraft at the station since NASA's shuttle fleet retired in 2011. It's also the first docking of a commercial spacecraft carrying humans, in this case astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 31)

LONG MARCH 11 LAUNCHES OUT OF XICHANG FOR THE FIRST TIME - China has conducted the first launch of its solid-fuelled quick-reaction Long March-11 launch vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday. Carrying two new technology test satellites, Xinjishu Shiyan-G and Xinjishu Shiyan-H, the launch took place at 20:13 UTC. The new technology test satellites were developed by the Shanghai Institute of Microsatellite Innovation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Xinjishu Shiyan-G), and the National University of Defence Technology (Xinjishu Shiyan-H).   More
(Source: NASASpaceflight.com - May 31)

SPACEX'S 1ST CREW DRAGON WITH ASTRONAUTS TO DOCK AT SPACE STATION TODAY. HERE'S HOW TO WATCH. - After a historic launch yesterday (May 30) from the coast of Florida, two NASA astronauts arrive today at the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Yesterday, veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first NASA astronauts to head to the International Space Station from Florida since 2011, when the space shuttles retired. Behnken and Hurley launched on a test mission dubbed Demo-2 of the Crew Dragon capsule built by SpaceX.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 31)

LIFTOFF! SPACEX LAUNCHES 1ST ASTRONAUTS FOR NASA ON HISTORIC TEST FLIGHT - SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time ever today, making history and opening a new age of commercial spaceflight. A shiny white Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center here today (May 30) at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), carrying SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule into orbit. The launch kicked off SpaceX's landmark Demo-2 mission, which is sending NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS).   More
(Source: Space.com - May 30)

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