SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS STIR A DEBATE OVER AVOIDING CATASTROPHIC ORBITAL CRASHES - The retired commander of the U.S. Strategic Command says the tens of thousands of satellites that SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon are planning to put into orbit over the next few years will require a new automated system for space traffic management — and perhaps new satellite hardware requirements as well. Retired Gen. Kevin Chilton laid out his ideas for dealing with potentially catastrophic orbital traffic jams at the University of Washington on Friday, during the inaugural symposium presented by UW’s Space Policy and Research Center. More (Source: GeekWire - Dec 8)
RUSSIAN PROGRESS CARGO SHIP FOLLOWS SPACEX DRAGON TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Soyuz booster propelled a Russian Progress cargo ship into orbit early Friday, kicking off a three-day flight to deliver 2.7 tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. The flight came less than 24 hours after SpaceX launched a station-bound Dragon cargo ship from Cape Canaveral on Thursday. The Progress MS-13/74P spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:34 a.m. EST (12:34 p.m. local time), the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit — a requirement for spacecraft attempting to rendezvous with a target moving at nearly five miles per second. More (Source: CBS News - Dec 7)
ROCKET LAB’S 10TH LAUNCH TESTS BOOSTER RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY - Rocket Lab closed out its 2019 launch schedule Friday with the 10th flight of the company’s Electron small satellite launcher, successfully deploying seven payloads in orbit while demonstrating new re-entry guidance and control technology to move closer to recovering and reusing future boosters. The 10th launch of an Electron rocket — and the sixth this year — lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Rocket Lab’s privately-run space base on New Zealand’s North Island at 3:18 a.m. EST (0818 GMT) Friday. The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) launcher took off at 9:18 p.m. local time in New Zealand and soared into a clear evening sky against a fading twilight sky. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 7)
DRAGON SOARS ON RESEARCH AND RESUPPLY FLIGHT TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A commercial Dragon supply freighter built and owned by SpaceX rocketed into a clear blue sky over Florida’s Space Coast Thursday with a menagerie of research experiments and holiday surprises heading for the International Space Station. Scientists loaded 40 genetically-engineered into the Dragon capsule to help gauge the effectiveness of an experimental drug to combat muscle and bone atrophy. There’s also an experiment sponsored by Anheuser-Busch to study the malting of barley in microgravity, which could lead to the brewing of beer in space, the company says. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 6)
FALCON 9 SCRUBS LAUNCH OF CRS-19 DRAGON TO THE ISS - SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will have to watch until Thursday afternoon to launch the company’s Dragon spacecraft on a resupply flight to the International Space Station. Falcon was set to lift off from Cape Canaveral at 12:51:58 local time (17:51 UTC), deploying Dragon a little over nine and a half minutes later to begin its mission. However, unacceptable upper level winds – and wind strength for recovery of the booster – scrubbed the launch ahead of prop loading. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 5)
MEXICAN STUDENTS LAUNCH A SMALL SATELLITE TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The first satellite built by students in Mexico for launch from the International Space Station is smaller than a shoebox but represents a big step for its builders. The project is part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, which offers universities, high schools and non-profit organizations the opportunity to fly small satellites. Innovative technology partnerships keep down the cost, providing students a way to obtain hands-on experience developing flight hardware. More (Source: Space Daily - Dec 4)
NASA TELEVISION TO AIR SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP LAUNCH, DOCKING - NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station beginning at 4:15 a.m. EST Friday, Dec. 6. The Russian Progress 74 is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket at 4:34 a.m. (2:34 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. More (Source: WFMJ - Dec 4)
SPACEFLIGHT’S SEOPS-2 MISSION TO LAUNCH MULTIPLE SPACECRAFT FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Spaceflight, the leading provider of mission management and rideshare integration services, announced that together with Hypergiant SEOPS, it will be launching three CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS) and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft in early January. The payloads will travel to the ISS through a NASA Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 4. More (Source: Business Wire - Dec 4)
SCIENCE AROUND THE PLANET USES IMAGES OF EARTH FROM THE SPACE STATION - Artificial lighting at night affects the behavior of urban wildlife, according to a recent study published in Nature Scientific Reports, which examined animals in the laboratory and the field. The researchers mapped light levels in the city of Chicago using publicly available images of Earth taken by astronauts from the International Space Station. The study is only one example of the wide variety of scientific research based on images taken by crew members from space using the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) facility. More (Source: Phys.org - Dec 4)
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