NASA’S NEXT STOP: A SPACE STATION ORBITING THE MOON - The International Space Station is entering its twilight years. As such, NASA is making plans for the space station of the future — one that would orbit the moon. This new lunar outpost will be smaller and more remote than the ISS — orbing beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field. And the station’s goal would be to serve as a transit hub for deep space missions and exploration past low-Earth orbit, while continuing all the science that can be done in zero gravity. It would also be within easy reach of the lunar surface.   More
(Source: Discover Magazine - Mar 14)

SPACEX’S MOST RECENT LAUNCH CARRIED A SECRET MILITARY-FUNDED EXPERIMENT - A previously-undisclosed payload funded by a U.S. military research agency rode into orbit with a Spanish communications satellite on SpaceX’s most recent Falcon 9 rocket launch March 6, officials said Friday. The small spacecraft was fastened inside the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite, then ejected soon after the Falcon 9’s primary payload deployed in orbit following liftoff from Cape Canaveral.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 14)

SATELLITE STARTUP PROMISES COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK THAT CAN’T BE HACKED - LeoSat has not even built a single satellite but has already booked $500 million worth of orders, its executives claim. In a crowded market for low-earth-orbit satellite communications, the company believes it has found its niche selling premium services to secrecy-obsessed clients, including the U.S. military. “We’ve had a lot of interaction with DoD and combatant commands,” Michael Abad-Santos, senior vice president of LeoSat, told SpaceNews at the Satellite 2018 exposition.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 14)

NEW NOAA WEATHER SATELLITE REACHES GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT - Less than two weeks after its launch from Cape Canaveral, a new NOAA weather observatory has boosted itself into a circular orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator, and officials have renamed it GOES-17 ahead of a test series before it enters service later this year. NOAA traditionally switches from a letter to a number designation for its weather satellites after they reach their operational geostationary orbit. This time, the GOES-S satellite became GOES-17.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 14)

THE OWNER’S GUIDE TO YOUR NEW SPACE STATION - The White House made headlines recently by pushing the idea of privatizing the International Space Station after federal funding runs out in 2024. But anyone who'd consider owning and operating their own outpost in orbit should know this: It's not as easy as opening a Motel 6. For deep, detailed proof of this fact, look no further than the Deep Space Exploration Standards. Drafted in secret by representatives from Canada, Japan, Russia, the European Union, and United States, and released publicly just two weeks ago, these rules amount to an owner's manual for a space station, outlining how to build so that all the parts connect and all the systems talk to each other.    More
(Source: Popular Mechanics - Mar 13)

SATELLITE DESIGNED BY STUDENTS IN PRESCOTT CHOSEN BY NASA FOR LAUNCH - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has invited a team of students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus to launch a cube satellite designed at the school. According to a release, EagleSat-2 was one of 11 proposals selected by NASA to be apart of its CubeSat Launch Initiative, which provides opportunities for cube satellites to be launched in planned spaceflight missions.   More
(Source: KTAR.com - Mar 13)

EFFECTIVE SPACE RESERVES ILS PROTON RIDESHARE FOR TWO SATELLITE SERVICERS - Effective Space Solutions, a company developing spacecraft that can extend the lives of telecommunications satellites, has arranged to launch its first two spacecraft on a Russian Proton rocket in 2020. International Launch Services (ILS), the U.S.-based commercial arm of Proton’s manufacturer Khrunichev, is facilitating the launch, ILS announced March 12. U.K.-based Effective Space is building life-extension spacecraft called Space Drones that have a mass of 400 kilograms each. The two Space Drones launching on Proton will reach orbit via rideshare, piggybacking on a mission with a larger customer, ILS spokesperson Karen Soriano told SpaceNews. She declined to name the primary payload for that mission.    More
(Source: SapceNews - Mar 13)

WHY PEOPLE STILL WORRY ABOUT THE FALLING CHINESE SPACE STATION — DESPITE THE LOW ODDS - In 2016, China announced that its first human station, Tiangong-1, would make an uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, and given the module’s large size and density, some big pieces might survive all the way to the ground. It’s predictably garnered a lot of attention, and the panic just won’t go away. Of course, there have been the standard frantic articles about the “doomed” station “spiraling out of control.” Some stories have insinuated that the station will fall in New Zealand’s backyard — though it’s far too early to know where it’s going to reenter. Others have hyped up the idea that toxic debris will rain down on Earth. It’s all hogwash.    More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 12)

THE FCC SAYS A SPACE STARTUP LAUNCHED FOUR TINY SATELLITES INTO ORBIT WITHOUT PERMISSION - Earlier this year, a space startup from Silicon Valley launched four of its first prototype communications satellites on top of an Indian rocket. Except the FCC says that the company didn’t have authorization to send up those spacecraft from the US government, IEEE Spectrum reports. It would seemingly mark the first time a US private company launched un-licensed satellites into orbit — and these rogue spacecraft could pose a danger to other objects in space. The four satellites reportedly belong to a fledgling company called Swarm Technologies, which was started by former Google and NASA JPL engineer Sara Spangelo in 2016.    More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 11)

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