SPACEX IS ABOUT TO TAKE THE LEAD IN THE SATELLITE INTERNET RACE - Elon Musk’s space company is planning to launch 60 of its own satellites in a single launch this week, the first of more than 4,000 spacecraft planned for the Starlink network. If successful, the flight will make SpaceX the frontrunner in a tight race to be the first operator of an internet satellite network. Why? SpaceX is the only competitor with its own rockets. More (Source: Quartz - May 15)
LAUNCH OF FOURTH BLAGOVEST SATELLITE PLANNED FOR JULY 16 — SOURCE - The space system of military communications Blagovest will be completed in mid-July when the fourth satellite is launched, a source in the space rocket industry told TASS on Tuesday. Read also Glonass satellites will be launched with Angara rocket for the first time in 2024 "The Blagovest satellite will be launched on July 16 even though the launch was initially planned for the end of May. After the satellite is delivered to the orbit, the orbital group of military communications satellites Blagovest will be completed," the source said. More (Source: TASS - May 14)
DOZENS OF SATELLITES COULD FEED NOAA’S FUTURE WEATHER MODELS - The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s future satellite constellations are likely to look far different from the current ones, particularly in low Earth orbit where small satellites of various sizes could gather targeted observations. That is one of the conclusions leaders of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service have reached since releasing the NOAA Satellite Observing System Architecture study in early 2018. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 14)
SPACEX'S STARLINK COULD CAUSE CASCADES OF SPACE JUNK - This Wednesday SpaceX will launch its first batch of Starlink satellites—a “mega constellation” of thousands of spacecraft to provide high-speed Internet access to billions of people at any location on the planet. Starlink is only the first of many such projects; there are at least eight more mega constellations in the works from other companies. Although they promise to revolutionize global telecommunications, these efforts are not free of peril: as the number of satellites inexorably grows, so, too, does the risk of creating dangerous debris that could threaten the continued safe use of Earth orbit. “This is something we need to pay attention to,” says Glenn Peterson, a senior engineering specialist at the Aerospace Corporation, headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. “We have to be proactive.” More (Source: Scientific American - May 14)
NASA, ULA FIND LAUNCH OPPORTUNITY FOR INFLATABLE HEAT SHIELD DEMONSTRATOR - A flight demonstration of an inflatable heat shield that could be used to retrieve reusable engines from United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket, and for the delivery of heavier cargo to the surface of Mars, is planned for launch in late 2021 or early 2022 as a piggyback payload on an Atlas 5 rocket with a NOAA weather satellite. The inflatable re-entry decelerator will launch as a joint project between NASA and ULA, which foresee different uses for the technology. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 14)
SMALL SATELLITES: BREAKING THE MONOPOLY OF POWERFUL NATIONS IN SPACE INDUSTRY – ANALYSIS - In 2017, India launched a record 104 satellites into space. Barring one, the rest of the satellites that were launched were small satellites. Small satellites are miniaturised satellites that weigh under 500 kilograms. Evolution of the technology for building small satellites is making it accessible to a wide range of users, from university students to engineers and scientists all over the world. Small satellites have several advantages over large satellites namely cost effective ways to test newer technologies, opportunities for local industry, bigger basket of potential users and thus a large variety of mission possibilities. More (Source: Eurasia Review - May 13)
ELON MUSK SHOWS SPACEX’S FIRST 60 STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITES PACKED FOR LAUNCH - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a first look on Saturday of his company’s internet satellites packed and ready for launch in a few days. These satellites represent SpaceX’s ambitious plan to build an internet satellite network, known as Starlink. The company is one of several, including Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, which are building these so called “constellations” of interconnected satellites to deliver high speed internet from space. “These are production design, unlike our earlier TinTin demo sats,” Musk said in a thread of tweets, adding that it’s a “tight fit” to get all 60 on top of a single SpaceX rocket. More (Source: CNBC - May 13)
BEANIE BABIES, THE INVENTION OF CUBESAT AND STUDENT-DESIGNED AND BUILT SATELLITES - The democratization of space began 20 years ago with Beanie Babies – or, more accurately, the clear acrylic box that brought them home. These 4-inch (10-cm) cubes inspired space engineer Bob Twiggs to create CubeSat, the first satellite with a standard design. From 1957 when the first human-made satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched until 1999 when Twiggs proposed CubeSat, satellites came in all shapes and sizes. And almost all satellites were designed from scratch. CubeSat provided the first universally accepted satellite standard – a cube with 4-inch sides and weighing about 3 pounds (1.3 kilograms). More (Source: Space.com - May 12)
RUSSIA, US EXTEND AGREEMENT ON ASTRONAUTS’ TRAVELS TO SPACE STATION ON BOARD OF SOYUZ - Russia and the United States have agreed on two additional places on board of Soyuz carrier rockets for journeys of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Programs Sergei Krikalyov told TASS. "The documents have been approved," Krikalyov said adding that it the procedure to sign the papers took place before a recently reported incident with Crew Dragon spacecraft. More (Source: TASS - May 11)
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