A RUSSIAN SATELLITE WEAPON SHOWS THE DANGER OF HAZY RULES IN SPACE - KOSMOS 2542, a Russian satellite lofted into space atop a Soyuz rocket on November 25th last year, was “like Russian nesting dolls”, remarked General John Raymond, commander of America’s space force, in February. Eleven days after its launch it disgorged another satellite, labelled Kosmos 2543. General Raymond’s analogy was more apt than he imagined. On July 15th, as it swung high over northern Europe, Kosmos 2543 itself spat out another object, which sped away at over 140 metres per second. More (Source: The Economist - Aug 10)
SPACEX STARLINK SATELLITE TRAIN SNAPPED FLYING OVER NEW ZEALAND - A new batch of SpaceX's Starlink satellites has been spotted travelling in the skies over New Zealand. Fifty-seven of the satellites, intended to provide a satellite-based internet system, were released into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket on Friday. There are now 597 of them - SpaceX hoping to eventually have more than 40,000. When a batch is first released, the satellites are close together and can be seen moving across the sky in a train. More (Source: Newshub - Aug 10)
EXPERIMENTAL DRAGRACER SATELLITES WILL TEST 'TERMINATOR TAPE' FOR SPACE JUNK CLEANUP THIS FALL - An experimental mission to test tether-based orbital debris cleanup method with "Terminator Tape" is slated to launch this fall to test the deorbit performance of two satellites. The Millennium Space Systems mission, called DragRacer, involves two small satellites that are set to launch simultaneously to low Earth orbit (LEO) to measure how fast satellites fall out of space. The goal, the company said, is to study technologies for removing space debris from orbit. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 9)
SPACEX CLOSES OUT BUSY WEEK WITH LAUNCH OF MORE STARLINK SATELLITES - With a Falcon 9 rocket launch Friday, SpaceX added 57 more satellites to the Starlink broadband fleet and deployed a pair of piggyback commercial Earth-imaging reconnaissance satellites for BlackSky, wrapping up a busy week that began with SpaceX’s return of two NASA astronauts to Earth and the first low-altitude test flight of the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 8)
WATCH SPACEX LAUNCH ITS TENTH STARLINK MISSION TO BUILD OUT ITS SATELLITE INTERNET CONSTELLATION - SpaceX is getting ready for a third try at launching its tenth Starlink mission, after two prior attempts were scrubbed, first in June and then again in July. Meanwhile, SpaceX has accomplished a lot — including another launch of a GPS satellite, and returning astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to Earth from the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon. More (Source: TechCrunch - Aug 7)
CHINA LAUNCHES 2 SATELLITES FROM DESERT LAUNCH SITE - China is continuing its rapid rate of space launches with its 22nd mission of 2020. China launched a new Earth observation satellite on Thursday (Aug. 6), with a small companion satellite from Tsinghua University joining the ride. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert at 12:01 p.m. local time Aug. 6 (12:01 a.m. EDT, 0401 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Aug 7)
TRUMP SAYS 'NASA WAS CLOSED & DEAD' BEFORE HE TOOK CHARGE. THAT'S NOT TRUE. - President Donald Trump took to Twitter today (Aug. 5) to announce that he brought NASA back from being "Closed & Dead." In a tweet posted today, Trump said that he had resurrected the space agency. But the claim doesn't hold up under scrutiny: NASA has never closed since it was founded in 1958, and it has certainly never been "dead." More (Source: Space.com - Aug 6)
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW AFTERMATH OF BEIRUT BLAST - New satellite photos show the aftermath of Tuesday's massive, deadly explosion at the port of Beirut. An image taken by the satellite company BlackSky shows extensive damage at the port following the blast. Several warehouses appear to be flattened and a cruise ship called the Orient Queen can be seen listing to one side, according to Allison Puccioni, an analyst and founder of Armillary Services, an independent firm partnered with BlackSky. More (Source: NPR - Aug 6)
HACKERS ARE BUILDING AN ARMY OF CHEAP SATELLITE TRACKERS - Even though the Defcon security conference has moved entirely online the year, the US Air Force is going forward with Hack-a-Sat, a months-long competition that culminates with hacking a real orbiting satellite starting on Friday. But another project at Defcon's Aerospace Village this week should have at least as much impact and a potentially much broader reach: an open source satellite communication tool made from about a hundred bucks worth of hardware. More (Source: WIRED - Aug 5)
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