SUBORBITAL TEST FLIGHT MOVES BLUE ORIGIN CLOSER TO LAUNCHING PEOPLE - The privately-developed New Shepard booster, designed and built by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, took off from a launch pad in West Texas, briefly flew into space with an instrumented capsule, and returned to a rocket-assisted landing Sunday in another test before humans climb aboard the suborbital spaceship. The hydrogen-fueled rocket lifted off from Blue Origin’s test site near Van Horn, Texas, at 12:06 p.m. CDT (1:06 p.m. EDT; 1706 GMT), a few seconds after igniting its BE-3 main engine for a pre-launch health check.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 30)

TWIN MARCO CUBESATS LAUNCHING ALONGSIDE NASA’S INSIGHT MARS MISSION - When the InSight Mars mission launches atop an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, two mini-satellites will be riding on the same rocket. The twin spacecraft, called Mars Cube One (MarCO), are the first NASA CubeSats designed to operate in deep space. The MarCOs were built at the U.S. space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Apr 29)

BLUE ORIGIN PREPS FOR SUBORBITAL TEST FLIGHT SUNDAY - Blue Origin plans its next suborbital test launch Sunday from the company’s sprawling development complex in West Texas, the company’s owner Jeff Bezos announced Friday. The single-stage New Shepard rocket is scheduled for launch at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT; 8:45 a.m. CDT). “Launch preparations are underway for New Shepard’s 8th test flight, as we continue our progress toward human spaceflight,” Bezos tweeted.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 29)

CHINA SAYS ITS SPACE STATION WILL TRULY BE OUT OF THIS WORLD - China has boasted that its much-anticipated space station will have “out-of-this-world” technological capabilities that can match it with the International Space Station operated by the US and Russia. The Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) is scheduled to be launched into a low orbit 400 kilometers above sea level by 2022 and will be the third phase of the country’s 921-2 space station program.   More
(Source: Asia Times - Apr 28)

CONCERNS WITH INDIAN SATELLITE POSTPONE NEXT ARIANE 5 LAUNCH - India’s most powerful communications satellite will soon be flown back to its manufacturing plant in Bangalore for additional checks, officials said this week, forcing Arianespace to scrap plans for an Ariane 5 launch in late May that was to be co-manifested with a U.S.-built television broadcast satellite for Intelsat and the government of Azerbaijan.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 28)

SPACEX DRAGON CARGO SPACECRAFT SET FOR DEPARTURE FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION MAY 2 - After delivering more than 5,800 pounds of science investigations and cargo for NASA, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to depart the International Space Station on Wednesday, May 2. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of Dragon’s departure beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.   More
(Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Apr 27)

NASA TO PAY MORE FOR LESS CARGO DELIVERY TO THE SPACE STATION - A new analysis finds that NASA will pay significantly more for commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station in the 2020s rather than enjoying cost savings from maturing systems. According to a report by the space agency’s inspector general, Paul Martin, NASA will likely pay $400 million more for its second round of delivery contracts from 2020 to 2024 even though the agency will be moving six fewer tons of cargo. On a cost per kilogram basis, this represents a 14-percent increase.   More
(Source: Ars Technica - Apr 27)

LONG MARCH 11 LAUNCHES MULTIPLE SATELLITES - China launched its fourth Long March-11 rocket on Thursday, carrying a multiple small satellites into orbit. The launch took place from a mobile launch platform from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 04:42 UTC. Onboard the LM-11 rocket was the OVS-2 upgraded version of Zhuhai-1 video satellite and four hyperspectral satellites from the OHS-2s series. Developed by the Zhuhai Obit Space Science and Technology Co., Ltd., the Zhuhai-1 earth observation satellites are the video component of the Chinese Orbital earth observation system.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 27)

NEXT SPACE STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH SCHEDULED MAY 20 AT WALLOPS ISLAND - The next mission to resupply the International Space Station is scheduled to launch early on May 20 from a state-owned spaceport at Wallops Island on the Virginia Eastern Shore. The pre-dawn launch would be the sixth from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport by Orbital ATK, the Dulles-based aerospace company that is resupplying the space station under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. “You should be able to see it from the Richmond area,” said Keith Koehler, spokesman for the NASA Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague.   More
(Source: Richmond.com - Apr 26)

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