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)
SPACEX’S DARKENED STARLINK SATELLITE MAY HAVE ACTUALLY WORKED - BUT IT IS ‘STILL WAY TOO BRIGHT’ - Initial observations suggest that SpaceX’s attempts to reduce the reflectivity of its Starlink satellites have been successful – although there is still a way to go to fully address the concerns of the astronomy community. Since May 2019, SpaceX has launched 360 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit, designed to beam high-speed internet to any location on Earth. The company plans to launch 1,500 satellites in 2020, with the final mega constellation designed to encompass up to 42,000 satellites. More (Source: Forbes - Mar 19)
FALCON 9 ROCKET OVERCOMES ENGINE FAILURE TO DEPLOY STARLINK SATELLITES - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket overcame a rare in-flight engine failure soon after launch from Florida’s Space Coast Wednesday to place 60 satellites in orbit for the company’s Starlink Internet network. One of the rocket’s nine first stage engines shut down prematurely around 2 minutes, 22 seconds, after liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an event visible in a view from a camera streaming live video from the Falcon 9 as it climbed into the upper atmosphere. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 19)
SOYUZ LAUNCH PREPS IN KAZAKHSTAN PROCEED DESPITE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS - While Arianespace missions from French Guiana have been suspended in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the company says a Soyuz rocket launch from Kazakhstan is set to go ahead Saturday with 34 more OneWeb broadband satellites. The next crew to launch to the International Space Station is also on track for liftoff April 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian-operated base on the Kazakh steppe, according to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency. More (Source: SapceFlight Now - Mar 18)
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