SPACEX IS ABOUT TO LAUNCH A HISTORIC MISSION WITH ACTUAL PEOPLE ON BOARD CREW DRAGON - SpaceX is poised to launch its first astronauts into space this spring: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Their flight on the company's Crew Dragon spaceship will mark the first time an American spacecraft has carried NASA astronauts since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.   More
(Source: ScienceAlert - Jan 27)

SPACEX WINS CONTRACT TO LAUNCH EGYPTIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - SpaceX and the Egyptian satellite operator Nilesat have signed a contract to launch the Nilesat 301 communications craft on a Falcon 9 rocket in early 2022, SpaceX confirmed this week. The commercial agreement was signed in Cairo on Tuesday by SpaceX and Nilesat officials. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 26)

BOEING SAYS SPACEWAY-1 BATTERY FAILURE HAS LOW RISK OF REPEATING ON SIMILAR SATELLITES - The battery malfunction that put DirecTV’s Spaceway-1 satellite at risk of exploding has a “very low likelihood” of occuring on other satellites, according to the satellite’s manufacturer, Boeing. Spaceway-1 was the first of three virtually identical Spaceway satellites built by Boeing and launched between 2005 and 2007. AT&T subsidiary DirectTV owns Spaceway-1 and -2, which were launched to provide direct broadcast TV services over the Americas. Hughes Network Systems, which was spun off from DirecTV in 2005, owns Spaceway-3 and uses it to provide internet connectivity to customers in North America.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 26)

NORTHROP GRUMMAN TARGETING FEB. 9 FOR LAUNCH OF CYGNUS SPACECRAFT TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Northrop Grumman is targeting Sunday, Feb. 9, at 5:39 p.m., for the launch of its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. This will be Northrop Grumman’s 13th commercial resupply mission for the agency to the International Space Station.   More
(Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Jan 26)

ASTRONAUTS FINISH SPACEWALK FOR FINAL FIX OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION DEVICE - Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station conducted their fourth and final spacewalk Saturday to finish a series of repairs aimed at extending the functioning of a cosmic ray detector attached to the spacecraft. The six-hour, 16-minute foray outside the space capsule began shortly after 7:00 a.m. ET and ended at 1:20 p.m.   More
(Source: NPR - Jan 26)

SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCH OF NEXT 60 STARLINK SATELLITE DUE TO BAD WEATHER - Dismal rocket landing weather has prompted SpaceX to postpone the launch of its next Starlink satellite mission by another three days, with liftoff now set for Monday, Jan. 27. The private spaceflight company had hoped to launch its next 60 Starlink internet satellites earlier this week, but delayed the mission to no earlier than Friday (Jan. 24) due to bad weather at its rocket landing site. On Thursday, SpaceX pushed the launch back again, to no earlier than Monday.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 25)

SOUNDS LIKE DIRECTV'S BIG SATELLITE IS ABOUT TO BLOW - DirecTV has asked for special permission to move a satellite it says is likely to explode in about a month, The Verge reports. The SPACEWAY-1 is part of parent company AT&T’s satellite TV fleet, launched in 2005 as part of a major satellite TV boom. In an FCC filing, DirecTV says an “anomaly” (the company doesn’t elaborate) in December burned up some of the battery packs, leaving them structurally damaged. Satellites like SPACEWAY-1 have solar panels that power them for much of the year, and battery power for the brief time during each orbit when they’re in shadow.    More
(Source: Popular Mechanics - Jan 25)

FOUR NEW US SPACESHIPS MAY START LAUNCHING PEOPLE INTO SPACE THIS YEAR - It looks like the United States' long human spaceflight drought is about to end, in a big way. No astronauts have launched to orbit from American soil since July 2011, when NASA's space shuttle fleet was retired. Ever since, the nation has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to get crewmembers to and from the International Space Station (ISS).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 25)

PROTOTYPES FOR NEW CHINESE CREW CAPSULE AND SPACE STATION ARRIVE AT LAUNCH SITE - The next flight of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket will debut a new configuration designed to launch modules for a Chinese space station. But a demonstration launch of the Long March 5B booster scheduled as soon as April will instead carry a prototype of China’s next-generation deep space crew capsule into orbit on an unpiloted test flight.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 25)

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