SUCCESSFUL LONG MARCH 5 LAUNCH PAVES WAY FOR NEW CHINESE SPACE MISSIONS - The third launch of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket successfully delivered its satellite payload to orbit Friday, validating engine design changes after a failure on the Long March 5’s second flight, and clearing the way for the launch of a Chinese Mars rover and lunar sample return mission in 2020. The 187-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket, the most powerful in China’s fleet, lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island in southern China at 1245 GMT (7:45 a.m. EST; 8:45 p.m. Beijing time) Friday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 29)

BOEING TO DELIVER WGS-11 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE TO U.S. AIR FORCE BY 2024 - Boeing will deliver the 11th satellite of the Wideband Global Satellite Communication (WGS) constellation to the U.S. Air Force by 2024, the company said Dec. 26. The announcement comes eight months after Boeing received a $605 million contract for the production of the WGS-11 satellite that Congress funded in 2018. The WGS constellation provides broadband communications to the U.S. military and allies.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 27)

HOW TO WATCH THE DECADE’S FINAL ROCKET LAUNCH, CHINA’S GAME-CHANGING ‘LONG MARCH 5’ - China is about to launch a massive new rocket that, if successful, will pave the way for a new Chinese space station and daring missions to the moon and even Mars—and all in 2020. Due to take place on December 27, the stakes are high for the Long March 5 and the China National Space Administration (CNSA), not least because the rocket has been meticulously worked on by engineers since it failed to get to orbit during its first outing in July 2017.    More
(Source: Forbes - Dec 27)

JAXA SET GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR LOWEST ORBITING SATELLITE - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has set the Guinness World Record for the “lowest altitude by an Earth observation satellite in orbit”. Launched aboard a home-grown H-IIA rocket on December 21, 2017, the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS) first maintained an orbital altitude of 271.5 kilometers. Ground crews then gradually lowered its orbit finally reaching the Guinness-World-Record-setting 167.4-kilometer altitude.    More
(Source: Rocket Rundown - Dec 26)

PROTON LAUNCHES RUSSIAN WEATHER SATELLITE - The final Proton launch of the year lifted off Dec. 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending a Russian weather satellite into orbit. Proton lifted off at 7:03 a.m. Eastern with the Electro-L No. 3 satellite, according to Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos. The satellite separated from the four-stage rocket six hours and 37 minutes later. Five Proton rockets launched this year — four for the Russian government and one for International Launch Services, which sells commercial missions.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 25)

THE GREATEST SPACEFLIGHT MOMENTS OF 2019 - Three lunar missions, commercial spaceflight milestones, the first all-woman spacewalk — 2019 was a busy year in space for public and private entities alike. NASA looked forward to new moon landings while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. SpaceX launched its first commercial crew spacecraft and lofted a miniature prototype of its massive Starship vehicle. Planetary missions began and ended, sometimes much sooner than planned.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 25)

CHINA PREPPING FOR COMEBACK LAUNCH OF HEAVY-LIFT LONG MARCH 5 ROCKET FRIDAY - China's heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket is being readied for its comeback flight at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province. The carrier rocket, coded as Long March 5 Y3, is planned to be launched around the end of December, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). A LaunchStuff Twitter post pegs the liftoff as slated for Dec. 27.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 24)

CHRISTMAS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The crew of the International Space Station is having an out-of-this-world celebration for Christmas. Dressed in Santa caps and reindeer antlers, astronauts Andrew Morgan, Christina Koch, Luca Parmitano, and Jessica Meir shared their plans for the holiday from orbit. The crew likes to dim the lights and watch Christmas movies, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”   More
(Source: WHSV - Dec 24)

BOEING'S STARLINER LANDS SAFELY BACK TO EARTH AFTER ABORTED SPACE STATION MISSION - Boeing's Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday, landing safely in the New Mexico desert. The journey is being hailed as a major achievement despite failing to complete a core objective: docking at the international space station. Engineers and scientists are now analyzing data from the trip ahead of a plan to send U.S. astronauts to space in 2020. It would mark the first American-launched space travel since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011.   More
(Source: NPR - Dec 23)

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