INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RESUPPLY MISSION TO CARRY NEW ARISS HAM RADIO GEAR - The scheduled March 7 SpaceX CRS-20 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will include the initial Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Interoperable Radio System (IORS) flight unit. The IORS is the foundation of the ARISS next-generation amateur radio system on the space station. The ARISS hardware team built four flight units, and the first will be installed in the ISS Columbus module.   More
(Source: ARRL - Feb 29)

FAA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT DETAILS SPACEX PLANS AT CAPE CANAVERAL - As SpaceX competes for the right to launch future US military satellites, an environmental assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration has revealed details of the company’s plans for national security missions and future operations of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX is one of four companies competing for two available contracts under Phase 2 of the Department of Defense’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 28)

SPACEX SWAPS UPPER STAGE FOR NEXT FALCON 9 LAUNCH - SpaceX is targeting launches March 6 and March 11 for its next two missions after swapping an upper stage for its next Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already being readied for liftoff at Cape Canaveral. The launch targeted for March 6 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will send a Dragon supply ship toward the International Space Station with nearly three tons of cargo, crew provisions and experiments, including a new mounting platform for external research payloads outside the station’s European Columbus lab module.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 27)

TWO COMMERCIAL SATELLITES JUST DOCKED IN SPACE FOR THE FIRST TIME - Two commercial satellites have docked in orbit as part of a pioneering satellite-servicing mission. If the rest of the mission is successful, it should give an ailing communications satellite a new lease on life, and it could kickstart an industry that keeps space junk from clogging the skies.   More
(Source: The Verge - Feb 27)

PARSONS ASSEMBLING SMALL SATELLITE TO FLY ON ATLAS 5 IN UPCOMING AEHF-6 MISSION - A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to fly a $1.4 billion Advanced Extremely High Frequency military satellite next month will also carry a small spacecraft as a secondary payload. This will be the second rideshare payload assembled by Parsons under a $100 million five-year contract from the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center. SMC last year selected the company to run a new program —called Launch Manifest Systems Integration — to allow small satellites to hitch rides as secondary payloads on national security or civil space missions.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 26)

LOCKHEED TO OBTAIN VECTOR SATELLITE ASSETS - Lockheed Martin will acquire the satellite technology assets of Vector by default after a bankruptcy court received no qualified bids by a deadline last week. In a Feb. 24 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Vector said that they received no qualifying bids for the company’s GalacticSky software-defined spacecraft technology by a Feb. 21 deadline.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 26)

FRESH OUT OF STEALTH MODE, ASTRA GEARING UP FOR ORBITAL LAUNCH FROM ALASKA - Some time in the next few days, a California-based company that has quietly toiled to develop a new light-class satellite launcher since 2016 will attempt to send three CubeSats into orbit from Kodiak Island, Alaska, on the first of two missions scheduled before the end of March to win up to $12 million in prize money from the U.S. military. Astra, which operated in stealth mode until earlier this month, is gearing up to launch its first orbital mission as soon as this week.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 25)

CHINA WANTS TO BUILD A NEW SPACE STATION. A PLANNED LAUNCH IN APRIL WILL SET THE STAGE - China's space program is planning a launch in April to prepare for building the country's next space station. A Long March 5B rocket will carry a "trial version" of China's new spaceship, which is designed to carry crews of up to six people, state media source Xinhua said. Previous Chinese spaceships carried up to three taikonauts, the term used to describe Chinese astronauts.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 23)

NASA SATELLITE CAPTURES ANTARCTICA MELTING DURING HEAT WAVE - Antarctica, home to the coldest place on Earth, experienced a worrying heat wave earlier in February, possibly even setting a record high temperature for the normally frigid continent. A NASA satellite has taken stock of what that heat meant to the local ice cap and glaciers. NASA's Earth Observatory released two images from the agency's Landsat 8 satellite. They highlight dramatic changes in the ice and snow along the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.    More
(Source: CNET - Feb 22)

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