SPACEX READIES ROCKET FOR FINAL FALCON 9 LAUNCH BEFORE CREW FLIGHT - SpaceX fired up a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Wednesday in a pre-flight test for a Starlink satellite launch Sunday, moving closer to the company’s final mission before sending two NASA astronauts into orbit for the first time May 27. The test-firing occurred at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Wednesday on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 14)

VIDEO FROM SPACE: COMPANIES SIGN DEAL TO LAUNCH 1ST 'EARTHTV' SATELLITE IN 2021 - We now know how Sen's first Earth-casting satellite will get to its orbital perch. Sen, a British company that plans to provide ultra-high definition (UHD) video of Earth to the masses, has signed a deal with California-based Momentus to get its first "EarthTV" satellite aloft in the summer of 2021. Under the contract, the little satellite will launch with Momentus' Vigoride space tug atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.    More
(Source: Space.com - May 14)

SPACE FORCE TROOPS PREPARING FOR POSSIBILITY OF HAVING TO RESCUE NASA ASTRONAUTS - As NASA and SpaceX prepare for a May 27 mission to fly astronauts to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center, a unit of the U.S. Space Force will be on alert should anything go wrong. The unit known as 45th Operations Group Detachment 3, based at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, is responsible to rescue astronauts on land or at sea if they have to abort the mission.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 13)

NASA INKS DEAL WITH ROSCOSMOS TO ENSURE CONTINUOUS U.S. PRESENCE ON SPACE STATION - With lingering uncertainty about when new U.S. commercial vehicles can regularly carry crews to the space station, NASA said Tuesday it will pay the Russian space agency more than $90 million for a round-trip ticket to the International Space Station on a Soyuz spacecraft later this year. According to NASA, the deal with Roscosmos — Russia’s space agency — will ensure continuous U.S. presence on the $100 billion lab complex in case of additional delays in getting new U.S. crew capsules ready for operational missions.   More
(Source: SpacedFlight Now - May 13)

TRY TO DOCK WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WITH THIS SPACEX CREW DRAGON SIMULATOR - Later this month, SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon spacecraft will take its first human passengers to the International Space Station — and now you can get a firsthand view of what they’ll be seeing when they approach the orbiting lab. Today, SpaceX released a new online simulator that allows users to try their hand at manually docking with the ISS using the Crew Dragon’s controls. Spoiler alert: it’s actually pretty hard!    More
(Source: The Verge - May 13)

JOURNALISTS USE SATELLITE DATA TO TRACK POLLUTION, KIM JONG-UN AND MORE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC - Journalists are using satellite imagery to discover and share visual indicators of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing timely information that can help people make better decisions about global issues. “The first folks that were asking for Planet data were the news media, who were just trying to understand [what’s happening on the ground], especially since they can’t send journalists [out on location] anymore,” said Planet CEO Will Marshall in a video interview with Bloomberg Businessweek’s Hello World.   More
(Source: planet.com - May 13)

DARPA SET TO LAUNCH FIRST BLACKJACK SATELLITE LATER THIS YEAR - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will launch its first Blackjack satellite into orbit later this year, with more to follow in 2021. With Blackjack, DARPA seeks to demonstrate the value of low earth orbit satellites for the Department of Defense. The small satellites will carry advanced technologies that will demonstrate space-based mesh networks and constellation autonomy.   More
(Source: C4ISRNet - May 13)

MASSIVE PIECE OF CHINESE SPACE JUNK SLAMS UNCONTROLLED INTO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - A 19.6-ton (17,800 kilograms) Chinese rocket slammed into our planet today (May 11). The bulky Long March 5B became the heaviest orbiting thing to fall uncontrolled to Earth in nearly three decades, according to Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astrophysicist and orbital object tracker. The last time a heavier object had an uncontrolled entry was 1991, when the 43-ton (39,000 kg) Salyut-7 Soviet space station reentered the atmosphere over Argentina, McDowell wrote on Twitter.    More
(Source: Livescience.com - May 12)

KUHAIZHOU-1A LAUNCHES TWO SATELLITES, ONE NAMED IN TRIBUTE TO WUHAN - A Chinese Kuhaizhou-1A (Y6) rocket has launched the first two operational satellites for the Xingyun narrowband constellation. The launch took place at 01:16 UTC on Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The two satellites Xingyun-2 (01) ‘Wuhan’ and Xingyun-2 (02) were developed by the Xingyun Satellite Co., a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), Sanjiang Group, in Wuhan.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 12)

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