AIRBUS BUILDING ‘SPACE HARPOON’ TO CAPTURE ROGUE SATELLITES ORBITING EARTH - Humans have totally messed up Earth and are already getting started on ruining the heavens. Now the European firm Airbus has unveiled a ‘harpoon’ designed to tackle the growing problem of space junk. The projectile is designed to be attached to a ‘chase spacecraft’ and used to capture runaway satellites and other objects orbiting Earth. More (Source: Metro - Mar 17)
STAR WARS? PRESIDENT TRUMP PROPOSES MILITARY SPACE FORCE - America should create its own separate military space force, President Donald Trump mentioned in an offhand remark Tuesday that would change the course of U.S. space policy. But don’t expect Captain Kirk ordering phasers set on stun, “Battlestar Galactica” or ray guns blazing in orbit in the near future, space experts said. And some said a military space force may make it harder to keep Earth’s orbit a place of peace. Saying his national security strategy “recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea,” Trump said at a San Diego Marine Corps base that he’s considering “a space force” that would be the equivalent of the Air Force, Army and Navy. More (Source: Military Times - Mar 16)
SHOEBOX-SIZED CUBE SATELLITE TO STUDY EARTH'S INNER RADIATION BELT - A NASA-funded cube satellite built and operated by CU Boulder researchers will study the inner radiation belt of Earth's magnetosphere, providing new insight into the energetic particles that can disrupt satellites and threaten spacewalking astronauts. The $4 million Cubesat: Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) mission, tentatively slated for a 2021 launch, will provide some of the first advanced resolution of one of Earth's two Van Allen belts, a zone that traps energetic particles in the planet's magnetic field. More (Source: Phys.org - Mar 16)
ORBITAL ATK UNVEILS NEW VERSION OF SATELLITE SERVICING VEHICLE - Orbital ATK announced March 13 it is developing a new version of a satellite life extension vehicle intended to provide more flexibility to customers while also moving the company closer to more advanced in-space servicing. During a presentation at the Satellite 2018 conference here, company executives announced plans to develop the Mission Robotic Vehicle and Mission Extension Pods, which would handle stationkeeping for geostationary satellites that are running out of fuel. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 16)
ISS ORBIT RAISED BY 400 METERS BEFORE MANNED SPACEFLIGHT LAUNCH - The Russian Mission Control Center has raised the International Space Station’s flight orbit before manned spaceflight takeoffs from Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. "At 00:25, Moscow time, the ISS orbit was adjusted as scheduled to create ballistic conditions before the flight of manned transport spacecraft under the program of the Russian segment of the ISS," the Mission Control Center in the Moscow suburbs said. More (Source: TASS - Mar 15)
CHINA’S LONG MARCH 5 HEAVY-LIFT ROCKET TO FLY AGAIN AROUND NOVEMBER IN CRUCIAL TEST - The return-to-flight mission will carry an experimental, 300 Gbps telecommunications satellite based on a new, large DFH-5 satellite platform. Future DFH-5's will deliver 1 terabit per second, up from the current 20 Gbps with DFH-4. China’s most powerful rocket will fly for the third time late this year, with success of the launch to be crucial to upcoming projects including a lunar sample return, space station module launch and a 2020 mission to Mars. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 15)
ON-ORBIT SERVICING OF AGING SATELLITES POSSIBLE BY END OF YEAR - Orbital ATK is moving out aggressively to introduce on-orbit satellite servicing to the space industry, which its says will be a first step toward more advanced concepts such as on-orbit repairs and the assembly of satellites while in space. The company’s Mission Extension Vehicle 1 recently passed a critical design review and is scheduled for launch by the end of 2018. It will dock with a commercial communications satellite owned by Intelsat. The satellite communications giant — with some 50 spacecraft in orbit — is the system’s first customer. Intelsat also recently signed up to lease MEV 2, which is expected to be completed by mid-2020. The company ultimately would like to build five such space vehicles. More (Source: National Defense Magazine - Mar 15)
STEPHEN HAWKING, RENOWNED SCIENTIST, DIES AT 76 - Stephen Hawking, the brilliant British theoretical physicist who overcame a debilitating disease to publish wildly popular books probing the mysteries of the universe, has died, according to a family spokesman. He was 76. Considered by many to be the world's greatest living scientist, Hawking was also a cosmologist, astronomer, mathematician and author of numerous books including the landmark "A Brief History of Time," which has sold more than 10 million copies. More (Source: CNN - Mar 14)
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)
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