THIS SATELLITE WILL DELIVER TWICE THE CAPABILITY OF THE CURRENT CONSTELLATION - The next satellite in the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM family of satellites will be able to deliver twice the capability of the entire constellation to war fighters thanks to commercial technology. WGS 11, which is slated for delivery from prime contractor Boeing in 2023, will provide more coverage beams and more beam formed bandwidth than previous WGS satellites, the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center announced in a Jan. 2 press release.   More
(Source: C4ISRNet - Jan 8)

DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE BRINGS HOME SPACE STATION SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - SpaceX’s 19th Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station ended Tuesday with the capsule’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles with nearly 3,600 pounds of cargo and experiments. The reusable Dragon supply ship concluded a 30-day stay at the space station at 5:05 a.m. EST (1005 GMT) Tuesday, when the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm released the Dragon spacecraft.   More
(Source: SoaceFlight Now - Jan 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES MORE STARLINK SATELLITES, TESTS DESIGN CHANGE FOR ASTRONOMERS - Sixty more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink global Internet network streaked into orbit Monday night from Cape Canaveral, including one spacecraft to test an experimental dark coating to address scientists’ concerns that the thousands of the quarter-ton, flat-panel satellites will impede astronomical observations.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 8)

CHINA'S HEAVIEST SATELLITE POSITIONED IN GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT - China's heaviest and most advanced satellite, Shijian-20, reached its fixed position in geosynchronous orbit Sunday, marking the first successful flight of DFH-5 satellite platform, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The Shijian-20 satellite is the first verification satellite for DFH-5 satellite platform, China's new generation of large geosynchronous orbit satellite platform.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 7)

QUADRANTID METEOR SHOWER LOOKS LIKE PURE MAGIC IN ASTRONAUT'S VIEW FROM ISS - Us Earth-bound folks got to experience the annual Quadrantid meteor shower this month as a show of bright lights shooting across the dark night sky. The astronauts on board the International Space Station saw these same meteors, but with a very different backdrop. "Can you see shooting starts [sic] from space? Turns out, yes!" NASA astronaut Christina Koch tweeted on Monday along with a composite image showing what the Quadrantids look like from space.   More
(Source: CNET - Jan 7)

ARISS NEXT-GENERATION RADIO SYSTEM READY FOR LAUNCH - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) reports that its first Interoperable Radio System (IORS) flight unit — serial number 1001 — has been delivered to NASA’s Johnson Space Center for launch in early March. The IORS represents the first major upgrade in ARISS equipment on the International Space Station since Amateur Radio gained a permanent presence onboard the ISS in 2000. In December, ARISS received approval from NASA Safety to launch the IORS on SpaceX CRS-20 and stow the radio system on the ISS for future installation.   More
(Source: ARRL - Jan 7)

ASTRONAUTS SPOT AUSTRALIA'S DEADLY WILDFIRES FROM SPACE STATION AS SATELLITES KEEP WATCH - The horrific wildfires of southeastern Australia right are clearly visible to satellites in space, and now astronauts have begun tracking them from the International Space Station. A new photo, which NASA shared on Twitter Jan. 3, shows billowing smoke that surrounds Sydney and is blowing into the nearby Tasman Sea. At the time, the space station was roughly 269 miles (433 kilometers) above Australia at the time, NASA said in the tweet.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 7)

SPACEX KICK-STARTS GLOBAL 2020 LAUNCH YEAR WITH STARLINK MISSION - NASASpaceFlight.com Forums L2 Sign Up SLS/Orion SpaceX Commercial ISS International Other SpaceX kick-starts global 2020 launch year with Starlink mission written by Chris Gebhardt January 6, 2020 The first rocket flight of the 2020s was conducted by SpaceX, using its Falcon 9 to deliver the newest batch of 60 operational Starlink satellites into orbit. The mission not only represents the start of a busy year for SpaceX but also for the Eastern Range in Florida, which expects 48 launches this year from the Florida Spaceport. Falcon 9 launched midway through a 20-minute window that extended from 21:09 to 21:29 EST (02:09 – 02:29 UTC on 7 January), with the preferred in-plane liftoff targeted for 21:19 EST (02:19 UTC).   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 7)

S. KOREAN AIR, OCEAN MONITORING SATELLITE HEADS TO FRENCH GUIANA AHEAD OF LAUNCH - A South Korean geostationary environmental monitoring satellite that can closely check the movement of fine dust and ocean conditions is being moved to French Guiana ahead of its launch, the government said Sunday. The 3.4-ton Chollian-2B, scheduled to be sent into orbit on Feb. 19, has been placed in a specially built non-vibration shipping container in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul, where it was built by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the Ministry of Science and ICT said.   More
(Source: The Korea Herald - Jan 6)

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