SPACEX LIKELY TO MOVE NEXT ROCKET LANDING TO DRONE SHIP - SpaceX is likely to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket set for launch April 30 on a drone ship just off the coast of Cape Canaveral, not at the company’s onshore recovery site as originally planned, after a ground test of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule at the landing pad ended in an explosion Saturday. Workers were examining wreckage from the Crew Dragon spacecraft at Landing Zone 1, the site where Falcon 9 boosters return to Cape Canaveral, prompting the company to apply for authority from the Federal Communications Commission to land the first stage on next week’s mission on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 24)
TESTING COMPLETE ON CORE MODULE OF NEW SPACE STATION - China's manned space program has taken another step forward after authorities revealed on Tuesday that the Tianhe, the core module of the country's upcoming space station, has completed testing, including a vacuum heat test and will soon advance to the flight modeling stage, a day before the country's fourth aerospace day. China's new space station, codenamed Tiangong, is designed to be in service for 10 years, which could be extended through repair and renovation works according to specific needs. More (Source: Global Times - Apr 24)
EARTH DAY 2019: THESE AMAZING NASA IMAGES SHOW EARTH FROM ABOVE - NASA is celebrating Earth Day today (April 22) by sharing some really incredible photos of Earth from satellites, aircraft and deep-space missions. Space.com has picked 10 of our favorite views from NASA's Earth Day gallery and featured them here. For even more amazing NASA photos of Earth, you can find NASA's entire collection of Earth Day photos here. You can also share your own Earth Day Photos with NASA for a chance to have them featured in NASA videos and social media posts. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 23)
NASA AND INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION MEMBERS ANNOUNCE FIRST FLIGHT, RECORD-SETTING MISSION - NASA and its International Space Station partners have set a new schedule and new crew assignments that will include the first flight of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, an extended stay for NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, and a record-setting flight for NASA astronaut Christina Koch. Koch, who arrived at the space station March 14, and now is scheduled to remain in orbit until February 2020, will set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. More (Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Apr 23)
SPACEX CREW DRAGON ACCIDENT CLOUDS OUTLOOK FOR DOMESTIC ASTRONAUT LAUNCHES - SpaceX had appeared to be cruising to victory over Boeing in the race to be the first to launch astronauts to orbit from U.S. soil since NASA’s final shuttle mission in 2011. Officials including Vice President Mike Pence hailed last month's successful first test flight of the company's Crew Dragon capsule as the dawn of a new era of commercial spaceflight. A pair of astronaut test pilots were on track to fly a Crew Dragon to the International Space Station as soon as July. Not so fast. More (Source: Florida Today - Apr 22)
BEIDOU-3 NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED ON LONG MARCH 3B - China successfully launched a new navigation satellite on Saturday. The launch – later noted to be Beidou-3I1Q (IGSO-1) – took place from the LC3 Launch Complex of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan province, using a Long March-3B/G2 (Chang Zheng-3B/G2) launch vehicle. Launch time was 14:41 UTC. Also designated Beidou-44, the satellite is part of the GEO component of the 3rd phase of the Chinese Beidou (Compass) satellite navigation system, using both geostationary satellites and satellites in intermediate orbits. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 21)
SPACEX CONFIRMS ANOMALY DURING CREW DRAGON ABORT ENGINE TEST - An accident Saturday during an abort engine test on a Crew Dragon test vehicle at Cape Canaveral sent a reddish-orange plume into the sky visible for miles around, a setback for SpaceX and NASA as teams prepare the capsule for its first mission with astronauts. SpaceX is testing the Crew Dragon ahead of the capsule’s first test flight with astronauts later this year, following a successful Crew Dragon demonstration mission to the International Space Station in early March. SpaceX confirmed the accident, first reported by Florida Today, in a statement Saturday evening. No injuries were reported. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 21)
CYGNUS SUPPLY SHIP DELIVERS 3.8-TON CARGO LOAD TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA flight engineer Anne McClain grappled Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship with the International Space Station’s robotic arm Friday, marking the automated cargo freighter’s arrival after an abbreviated day-and-a-half-long journey from a launch pad in Virginia with nearly 7,600 pounds of experiments, food and provisions. Commanding the Canadian-built robot arm from a control station in the cupola module, McClain guided the arm’s end effector over a grapple pin on the rear end of the Cygnus spaceship as the cargo craft held steady roughly 30 feet (10 meters) below the complex. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 21)
U.S. MILITARY ELECTRON LAUNCH FIRST TEST FOR YORK SATELLITE - Rocket Lab is preparing to launch in May three U.S. military satellites including the Army Harbinger mission as part of the Defense Department’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative. Harbinger is designed to test whether an inexpensive commercial satellite equipped with a synthetic aperture radar can quickly deliver Earth imagery to soldiers. Through Harbinger, the Army plans to evaluate the benefit of rapid deployment of a low-cost, state-of-the art satellite with enhanced data collection and downlink capabilities, according to Harbinger fact sheet published by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command’s Technical Center. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 20)
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