BOEING AWARDED $21.2 MILLION MODIFICATION TO MAINTAIN SURVEILLANCE SATELLITE - Boeing has been awarded a $21.2 million contract modification for sustainment and development for the Air Force's space based surveillance system , the Department of Defense announced Tuesday. The modification funds systems engineering, operations, operations support and contractor logistics support for the Space Based Space Surveillance Block 10.    More
(Source: UPI - Dec 11)

SATELLITE SWARMS PUSH UPDATE OF SPACE JUNK GUIDELINES - As SpaceX prepares to launch its next tranche of Starlink satellites in late December, the rise of satellite constellations in general prompted the federal government to update its space junk guidelines. Simply put, space junk can be dangerous. There are numerous instances of satellite pieces colliding with operational satellites, and every so often the International Space Station needs to dodge debris for the safety of its astronauts.   More
(Source: Forbes - Dec 11)

RUSSIAN SUPPLY SHIP DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - An unmanned Russian ship carrying tons of supplies successfully docked Monday with the International Space Station. The Progress MS-13 cargo ship had lifted off on Friday atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russian space complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It successfully docked with the space outpost on Monday at 1035 GMT.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Dec 10)

MYRADAR LAUNCHES AIRCRAFT TRACKING SATELLITE - Acme AtronOmatic, the makers of the MyRadar Weather Radar app, have launched a non-commercial, experimental communications satellite aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket with launch provider Alba Orbital. The launch event, dubbed “Running out of Fingers,” lifted off on Dec. 6. The cubesat will monitor aircraft tracking signals from orbit and relay the data to the ground.    More
(Source: Via Satellite - Dec 10)

CHINA LAUNCHES TWO KUAIZHOU ROCKETS IN SIX HOURS - Two solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rockets fired into orbit from the same spaceport in northern China Saturday, demonstrating a further advance in China’s aim for a quick-response, on-call satellite launch capability. The back-to-back Kuaizhou 1A missions both lifted off from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province, using separate road-mobile transporters as launch pads.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 9)

SPACEX DRAGON SUCCESSFULLY DOCKS WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station on Sunday, dropping off super muscular “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot. The station commander, Italy’s Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the South Pacific at the time of capture.   More
(Source: CNBC - Dec 9)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE - China sent a new optical remote sensing satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province at 10:55 a.m. Saturday (Beijing Time). The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B satellite, which belongs to the Jilin-1 satellite family, was launched by Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) and entered the planned orbit successfully. The satellite was independently developed by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., featuring high resolution, wide width and high-speed data transmission.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Dec 8)

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)

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