CHINA LAUNCHES ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SATELLITE - China launched a Long March 2D rocket Wednesday carrying a Yunhai environmental monitoring satellite into an orbit some 470 miles (760 kilometers) above Earth. The Long March 2D booster took off from the Jiuquan launch base in the Inner Mongolia region of northwest China at 0054 GMT Wednesday (8:54 p.m. EDT Tuesday), according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Liftoff of the two-stage, liquid-fueled Long March 2D rocket occurred at 8:54 a.m. Beijing time.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 25)

DO SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS REALLY HAVE TO BE SO BIG? - “There are no rules in space,” Greg Wyler said at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference last Thursday. His company, OneWeb, wants to launch 2,000 satellites into space—practically doubling the number of satellites currently orbiting Earth—in order to deliver internet connectivity to unconnected places. As long as he has permission to access the radio frequency spectrum he’s requested, there’s no one to really stop him. Nor is there anyone to stop SpaceX from launching a whopping 12,000 satellites over the next several years in order to operate its Starlink internet service.   More
(Source: MIT Technology Review - Sep 25)

FRESH BATTERIES, EXPERIMENTS ON THE WAY TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Japanese H-2B rocket fired into orbit Tuesday from the Tanegashima Space Center with an automated cargo freighter loaded with more than 4.1 tons of batteries, experiments, spacewalk equipment, water and provisions for the International Space Station. The unpiloted cargo ship lifted off at 1605:05 GMT (12:05:05 p.m. EDT) Tuesday from Launch Pad No. 2 at Tanegashima, an oceanfront spaceport on an island in southern Japan.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 25)

KEEPING SATELLITES FROM GOING BUMP IN THE NIGHT - On September 2, the European Space Agency’s operations account announced that ESA’s Aeolus spacecraft, an Earth science mission launched a year earlier, had performed a collision avoidance maneuver earlier that day to avoid a SpaceX Starlink satellite. This was, ESA said, the first such maneuver to avoid a “megaconstellation” satellite. The maneuver was a success—Aeolus raised its orbit slightly to avoid the Starlink satellite—but the discussion was only starting.   More
(Source: The Space Review - Sep 24)

SOYUZ ROCKET IN POSITION FOR LAUNCH OF NEXT STATION CREW - The Russian Soyuz rocket that will carry a three-person crew to the International Space Station Wednesday has arrived on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Riding a specially-equipped railcar, a Soyuz-FG rocket rolled out of its assembly building, or MIK, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome just after sunrise Monday. After a winding route across the sprawling spaceport, leased by the Russian government from Kazakhstan, the Soyuz booster arrived at Launch Pad No. 1 and was raised vertical in preparation for Wednesday’s liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 24)

JAPANESE CARGO SPACECRAFT SET TO BLAST OFF FROM TANEGASHIMA SPACE CENTER BOUND FOR ISS - A Japanese cargo spacecraft loaded with more than four tons of supplies, spare parts and experiment hardware is scheduled to launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan to the International Space Station at 12:05 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Live coverage of the launch and capture will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website.   More
(Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Sep 23)

LONG MARCH 3B LAUNCHES LATEST BEIDOU-3M SATELLITES - China successfully launched a new pair of navigation satellites on Sunday. The launch of Beidou-3M19 (Beidou-47) and Beidou-3M20 (Beidou-48) took place from the LC2 Launch Complex of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan province, using the Long March-3B/YZ-1 (Y65) – Chang Zheng-3B/YZ-1 – launch vehicle. Launch time was 21:10 UTC and it took four hours to complete the mission.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 23)

RUSSIA SAYS IT WILL KEEP SOURCE OF HOLE (AND AIR LEAK) ON SOYUZ SECRET— BUT NASA WANTS TO KNOW: REPORT - Amid reports that the Russians will keep the cause of an air leak discovered at the International Space Station in 2018 secret, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has promised to speak personally with the head of the Russian space agency. "They have not told me anything," Bridenstine said during a Houston energy conference question session Thursday (Sept. 19), according to the Houston Chronicle. But he emphasized that he wants to keep good relations with the Russians, one of the two chief partners on the orbiting complex.    More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 22)

JAPANESE CARGO LAUNCH RESET FOR MONDAY AFTER FIRE - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the prime contractor for Japan’s H-2B rocket, said Friday that engineers concluded a fire on the launch pad during a countdown earlier this month was most likely sparked by static electricity and stimulated by oxygen. The H-2B rocket launch has been rescheduled for Monday at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT), MHI said in a statement Friday. Launch time is set for 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in Japan. The 186-foot-tall (56.6-meter) rocket will carry Japan’s eighth HTV cargo ship into orbit on a mission to resupply the International Space Station.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 21)

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