SOYUZ ROCKET SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES 34 MORE ONEWEB SATELLITES - A Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage lifted off Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, delivering 34 more satellites to orbit for OneWeb’s space-based Internet network in the company’s second launch this year. The Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket fired its main engines and climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1706:58 GMT (1:06:58 p.m. EDT; 10:06:58 p.m. Baikonur time) carrying the 34 Florida-built satellites into orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 22)

ONEWEB PLANS SATURDAY SATELLITE LAUNCH FROM KAZAKHSTAN - OneWeb plans to launch 34 communications satellites from Kazakhstan at 1:06 p.m. EDT Saturday -- its third such launch of satellites made in Florida. The communications company based in London and Virginia has been mass-producing satellites near Kennedy Space Center since last year. The company previously launched 40 satellites from space centers in Kazakhstan and South America.    More
(Source: UPI.com - Mar 21)

WHAT'S THAT IN THE SKY? IT'S A SPACEX ROCKET, BUT IT SURE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT - Planetary nebula? Supernova remnant? No, this incredible image is actually a photo of a rocket launch. The rocket's exhaust combined with atmospheric effects emulates an image of a deep-space object. A photographer captured the shot during the launch of SpaceX's 20th cargo resupply mission on March 6 as the Falcon 9 blasted off toward the International Space Station. Before the first-stage booster touched down at the company's landing zone, a short distance away, it created quite the spectacle.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 21)

FACING PANDEMIC, NASA SHUTTERS ROCKET FACTORY, HALTS SLS AND ORION TESTING - NASA announced Thursday that work on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion crew capsule at facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi is being halted due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic, a stoppage that could force further delays on the already behind-schedule and over-budget programs. Meanwhile, NASA officials said Thursday they are making plans to try and keep the agency’s next Mars rover and the multibillion-dollar James Webb Space Telescope on schedule for launches in later this year and in 2021.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 20)

ELON MUSK INSISTS HIS SATELLITE SWARM WON’T INTERFERE WITH SCIENCE. THIS MODEL DISAGREES. - Summer star gazers in rural areas are used to seeing a handful of satellites streak across the sky. But in the coming years, eagle-eyed amateurs may be able to pick out hundreds. And for professional astronomers, research will never be the same again. The race to blanket the globe in satellite internet is on.   More
(Source: Popular Science - Mar 20)

ARGENTINE OPERATOR ARSAT REVIVES PLANS FOR THIRD SATELLITE - Argentina’s national satellite operator Arsat, undeterred by the growing coronavirus pandemic, expects to soon sign a contract with domestic manufacturer INVAP for a geostationary communications satellite. Arsat, which has two satellites in orbit, had signed a contract with Arianespace to launch a third satellite in 2019 on an Ariane 5, but that satellite was never built.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 20)

SATELLITE SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH IN JUNE - A satellite that American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) students are helping to develop, build and test is planned for launch on a Soyuz-2 rocket from Russia in June 2020, said Dr. Abdul-Halim Jallad, Director and Assistant Professor, Center of Information, Communication and Networking Education and Innovation (ICONET).   More
(Source: Yahoo Finance - Mar 20)

WHAT QUARANTINE IS LIKE FOR AN ASTRONAUT - People around the world are currently isolating themselves or in a formal quarantine to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. But for decades, astronauts have been quarantined to ensure that they were virus-free and ready to fly (or, in the case of Apollo, to make sure they didn't bring home any "moon bugs.")   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 20)

SPACE STARTUP LYNK USES SATELLITE TO SEND TEXT MESSAGE TO UNMODIFIED ANDROID PHONE - An aerospace startup that plans to launch thousands of satellite “cell towers” into space says it has successfully sent a text message to a common Android smartphone using one of its satellites in orbit. The company claims it’s the first time a text message has ever been sent to an unmodified mobile phone from space, and it demonstrates the technology needed to provide global cellphone connectivity from orbit.   More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 19)

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