WATCH A CHUNK OF SATELLITE MELT LIKE A MARSHMALLOW ON FIRE - Space junk is a worrisome problem, especially when wayward bits of technology survive reentry and land back on Earth as angry hunks of debris. European Space Agency researchers wanted to learn more about how satellites burn up during reentry, so they fried a satellite chunk in a plasma wind tunnel to see what happens. The footage is impressive.   More
(Source: CNET - Jun 19)

FIREFLY OFFERING FREE LAUNCH FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PAYLOADS - Firefly Aerospace is asking academic institutions, startup companies and the public to submit ideas for payloads to launch, free of charge, on the inaugural orbital flight of the company’s Alpha rocket next year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Texas-based launch company said the initiative to host academic and educational payloads on the first Alpha launch will promote education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math disciplines.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 19)

SPACEX EXPLOSION A SET BACK FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA CHIEF - NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says the explosion that destroyed a SpaceX astronaut taxi in April will "no doubt" delay NASA's drive to return Americans to the International Space Station from U.S. soil later this year. Speaking at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget this Tuesday, Bridenstine stopped short of offering a clear flight timeline for its multibillion-dollar Commercial Crew Program, and said he would not prejudge the results of an investigation into the incident.   More
(Source: RFI - Jun 19)

PROTON ROCKET, RUSSIAN-GERMAN ASTRONOMY SATELLITE ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD - A rocket-transporting railroad car ferried a Proton booster to its launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final checkouts and testing before the vehicle’s scheduled June 21 liftoff with the Russian-German Spektr-RG X-ray telescope. The Proton rocket began the trip to the Complex 81 launch pad Friday at around 6:30 a.m. local time in Kazakhstan. After pulling up to the pad, a hydraulic lift raised the rocket vertical, and ground crews moved a mobile gantry around the launcher to provide access for workers to complete inspections, testing and closeouts before next week’s launch.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 17)

SPACE WEATHER SATELLITES SET TO LAUNCH - On June 24, the US and Taiwan are scheduled to launch a coterie of six small satellites that will orbit tropical latitudes. The satellites, a joint project of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Taiwan National Space Agency, will provide more frequent high-resolution data about temperature, pressure, and water vapor, improving tropical-storm forecasts. The project, called COSMIC-2 in the US and FORMOSAT-7 in Taiwan, will also provide an unprecedented level of detail about the planet’s ionosphere.    More
(Source: Chemical & Engineering News - Jun 16)

SATELLITES EQUIPPED WITH A TETHER WOULD BE ABLE TO DE-ORBIT THEMSELVES AT THE END OF THEIR LIFE - There’s no denying it, we are facing an orbital debris problem! As of January 2019, the ESA’s Space Debris Office estimates that there are at least 34,000 pieces of large debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – a combination of dead satellites, spent rocket stages, and other assorted bits of space junk. And with thousands of satellites scheduled to be launched in the next decade, that problem is only going to get worse. This is a situation that cries out for solutions, especially when you consider the plans to commercialize LEO and start sending crewed missions to deep space in the coming years.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Jun 16)

HAM RADIO SATELLITES TO DEPLOY FROM ISS - Three BIRDS-3 satellites with Amateur Radio payloads are scheduled to be deployed from the International Space Station on Monday, June 17. The BIRDS-3 constellation includes CubeSats from three countries: They are Nepal’s first satellite, NepaliSat-1; Uguisu from Japan, and Sri Lanka’s first satellite, Raavana-1.   More
(Source: ARRL - Jun 15)

SPACE IS POLLUTED BY JUNK…AND IT’S GETTING WORSE - The major shift from state to commercial space programs, as well as a sharp rise in the number of upcoming launches, raises concerns about our efforts to manage the problem. n 2016, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite experienced a sudden dip in power and a physical jolt while orbiting 700 kilometers above Earth.The culprit turned out to be a millimeter-sized speck of space debris that hit one of the solar panels. It left a 40-centimeter dent.   More
(Source: EOS - Jun 14)

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTS SELECTED TO FLY ON CHINESE SPACE STATION - Six experiments have been granted a place aboard to the future Chinese Space Station through a joint international cooperation initiative, with three more receiving conditional acceptance. The results of the selection process were announced jointly Wednesday by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 14)

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