RUSSIA WANTS TO ZAP SPACE JUNK WITH A HUGE FRICKIN’ LASER - Space junk is a big problem. The amount of trash floating around in Earth orbit has gradually piled up over the decades and we’ve now reached a point where NASA and other space agencies around the world are forced to plan for the likelihood that anything they shoot into space might end up crashing into some random piece of litter. NASA even went so far as to install a special sensor on the International Space Station to track the number of times it is hit by tiny bits of space junk.    More
(Source: BGR - Jun 14)

JAPANESE INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED - An all-weather spy satellite for the Japanese government launched Tuesday on top of an H-2A rocket, extending the country’s surveillance reach with coverage of North Korea and other strategic locations worldwide. The radar-equipped reconnaissance craft lifted off at 0420 GMT (12:20 a.m. EDT) Tuesday from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan’s primary launch base, located on an island in the southern part of the country. Liftoff occurred at 1:20 p.m. Japan Standard Time, marking the 39th launch of an H-2A rocket, and the second H-2A launch of the year.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 14)

VACATION ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, FOR THE PERSON WHO HAS EVERYTHING - Are you tired of Lake Como? Bored by your round-the-world cruise on the Queen Elizabeth? Well cheer up, because there's finally a way to really get away from it all. Axiom Space, which bills itself as the first commercial space station, said Wednesday it'll offer seven- to 10-day vacations on the International Space Station as early as 2020, according to The New York Times. At $55 million a person, the cost is equally out of this world. The company plans to launch its habitation pods connected to the ISS in 2022.    More
(Source: CNET - Jun 14)

THE 2018 WORLD CUP BALL IS NAMED AFTER A 1960S SATELLITE - Over the course of the month-long World Cup, fans will cheer for every “golazo” and groan over every near miss, or defensive miscue. One thing most people outside of the pitch won’t lose sleep over, however, is the sport’s most important object: the ball. This year’s ball, the Telstar 18, is named as a tribute to Adidas’ first official World Cup ball from Mexico 1970, but the name has an even richer history than that—one that goes back more than 50 years to a tiny satellite that changed the world.   More
(Source: History - Jun 14)

PHOTOS: RUSSIA’S WORLD CUP STADIUMS, AS SEEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - After spending roughly $11 billion to host the World Cup, Russia will kick off the competition on Thursday (June 14) with matches being played at 12 stadiums around the country. Along with much-needed transportation and security infrastructure, a massive chunk of Russia’s spending was on the stadiums themselves. Russia commissioned several new ones, while expanding and updating a clutch of existing venues, with sometimes terrifying outcomes. Overall, around $4 billon was spent on stadium construction and renovations over the past several years.   More
(Source: Quartz - Jun 12)

SPACEFLIGHT STRIKES DEAL WITH ROCKET LAB FOR THREE SATELLITE LAUNCH EXTRAVAGANZAS - Seattle-based Spaceflight has partnered with Rocket Lab for three launches over the next year, including one of the first launches for BlackSky’s Earth observation constellation. All three launches will send an assortment of small satellites into low Earth orbit from Rocket Lab’s facility on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.   More
(Source: GeekWire - Jun 12)

POOR WEATHER FORECAST DELAYS H-2A ROCKET LAUNCH - Projected weather impacts from Tropical Storm Maliksi passing over the Pacific Ocean south of Japan have prompted officials to push back the launch of an H-2A rocket and an Earth-imaging reconnaissance by one day to Tuesday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced Saturday. JAXA said deteriorating weather conditions predicted Sunday, when the H-2A rocket was supposed to roll out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to its launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center, forced officials to postpone the launch.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 12)

CARRIER JET WITH PEGASUS ROCKET RETURNING TO CALIFORNIA, POSTPONING NASA SATELLITE LAUNCH - NASA and Northrop Grumman officials decided Friday to return a Pegasus rocket and its carrier aircraft from Hawaii to California, aborting a trip to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean for next week’s scheduled launch of a NASA research satellite to conduct additional testing. The return trip to California will postpone the launch of NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, known as ICON, indefinitely. Launch was scheduled for next Thursday, June 14, U.S. time.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 9)

SPACE STATION CREW DOUBLES WITH FRESH ARRIVAL - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three crewmembers successfully joined with the International Space Station today (June 8), doubling the population of the orbiting complex to six people. The Russian-built Soyuz MS-09 docked with the space station a few minutes ahead of schedule, at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT, 3:01 p.m. local Moscow time). The new arrivals were NASA's Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 9)

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