SOYUZ WITH CREW OF THREE LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN - A Russian cosmonaut and his two NASA crewmates undocked from the International Space Station and landed in Kazakhstan early Friday, returning to an unfamiliar world in the grip of a pandemic that will force them to extend the social isolation they were hoping to end. “It’s a little bit surreal to think that we’re going back, especially given the situation that’s been unfolding on the ground,” flight engineer Jessica Meir told a reporter Wednesday. “It looks like we are going back to a completely different planet. So it will be certainly an interesting experience for us.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 18)

THREE SPACE TRAVELERS WILL RETURN TO EARTH TONIGHT! HERE'S HOW TO WATCH LIVE. - Three spaceflyers will return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) early Friday morning (April 17), and you can watch their homecoming live. The action starts this evening (April 16) at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), when NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka start saying goodbye to the three crewmembers who will remain aboard the orbiting lab. Watch the farewells live online here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 17)

SPACEX COMPETITOR TO LAUNCH JAPANESE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION IN 2020 - Rocket Lab, the startup space company that is aiming for reusable rockets to compete with SpaceX’s, will launch the first satellite of a planned Japanese constellation, the company announced. The U.S. rocket company will launch the StriX-α satellite for Synspective, marking the first member of a set of satellites that will scour the Earth in synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The satellites will thus be able to peer at the surface, even in rainy or cloudy or dark conditions — allowing for better monitoring.   More
(Source: Forbes - Apr 16)

RUSSIA TESTS DIRECT-ASCENT ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE - U.S. Space Command is aware and tracking Russia’s direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile test April 15. “Russia’s DA-ASAT test provides yet another example that the threats to U.S. and allied space systems are real, serious and growing,” said Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, USSPACECOM commander and U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations. “The United States is ready and committed to deterring aggression and defending the Nation, our allies and U.S. interests from hostile acts in space.”   More
(Source: Spacecom - Apr 16)

ROCKET LAB INKS DEAL TO CARRY JAPANESE STARTUP SYNSPECTIVE’S FIRST SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - The well-funded Japanese space startup Synspective has tapped launch provider Rocket Lab to take its first Earth observation satellite to orbit. Launch is planned for late 2020, and the company’s StriX–α craft will be the sole payload. Synspective was founded in 2018 and by mid-2019 had raised about $100 million, making it one of the most successful recent funding stories in the country. It’s going to need all that and more, though, to realize its ambition of a 25-satellite constellation regularly imaging the whole planet.   More
(Source: TechCrunch - Apr 15)

FLORIDA LAUNCH RANGE REMAINS OPEN; FALCON 9 MISSION POSTPONED - Range personnel at Cape Canaveral will employ physical distancing, face covers and other cautionary measures to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus during launch operations, the commander of the U.S. military’s 45th Space Wing said. But the next launch from Cape Canaveral has been postponed from Thursday until no earlier than next week, sources said. SpaceX is planning to fire off a Falcon 9 rocket with the next batch of Starlink Internet satellites.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 15)

RUSSIA'S SOYUZ ROCKET PRODUCTION ON HOLD DUE TO CORONAVIRUS - Spaceflight, like every sector, is feeling effects from the spreading coronavirus pandemic, and that holds true in Russia as well, where manufacturing of its workhorse Soyuz rocket has halted, officials said. One of those rockets, a Soyuz 2.1a booster, most recently flew on April 9 to carry three astronauts to the International Space Station in a launch that was essentially unaffected by the pandemic. The news of the pandemic's impact on its production comes from an English-language transcript released on April 10 by Russia's government of a call held by President Vladimir Putin and a group of space center leaders.   More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 14)

L3HARRIS TO BEGIN PRE-LAUNCH WORK ON ‘WIDE FIELD OF VIEW’ MISSILE DEFENSE SATELLITE - A U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite, six years in the works, is nearly completed. The company that developed the sensor, L3Harris, received a $9.3 million contract on April 6 to maintain and prepare the satellite for launch in 2021. The contract is for pre-launch and post-launch services for the Wide Field of View missile detection satellite. L3Harris developed a staring sensor that was mounted on a satellite bus supplied by Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 12)

ASTRONAUTS PREPARE TO RETURN FROM ISS TO WORLD TRANSFORMED BY CORONAVIRUS - Two Nasa astronauts expect a difficult return to a drastically changed world next week, after close to a year onboard the International Space Station. Andrew Morgan told reporters the ISS crew had tried to keep abreast of news regarding the coronavirus pandemic, but it was hard to comprehend what was really going on and what to expect when his nine-month mission ends next Friday.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Apr 12)

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