SPACEX'S CREW-8 ASTRONAUTS TO DEPART ISS FOR TRIP HOME SOON AMID WEATHER DELAYS - SpaceX's Crew-8 astronauts will have to wait a bit longer to begin their trip home to Earth after plans to depart the International Space Station Sunday morning (Oct. 13) were postponed by bad weather at their splashdown site. Crew-8's Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, was scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT) on Sunday and splash down off the coast of Florida no earlier than 3:38 p.m. EDT (1938 GMT) on Monday (Oct. 14). That plan was thwarted by poor weather conditions at their splashdown zone. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 14)
'STUNNING WAS THE WORD': ASTRONAUTS SNAP AMAZING AURORA PHOTO FROM ISS DURING SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM - The auroras were pretty special on Thursday night (Oct. 10) — especially if you got to see them from orbit. NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Matthew Dominick are in that very exclusive club, getting a bird's-eye view of the amazing auroral displays — which were supercharged by a recent solar storm — from the International Space Station (ISS). And the sight took the spaceflyers aback. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 14)
IRAN SENDS SATELLITES TO RUSSIA FOR ROCKET LAUNCH, TASNIM REPORTS - Iran has sent two locally made satellites to Russia to be put into orbit by a Russian space vehicle, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported Saturday, in the latest space cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries. The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is the first substantial effort by Iran's private space sector, the report said. More (Source: VOA News - Oct 13)
SPACEX PULLS OFF MID-AIR LAUNCH PAD CAPTURE OF DESCENDING SUPER HEAVY BOOSTER - In one of the most dramatic, high-risk space flights to date, SpaceX launched a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship rocket on an unpiloted test flight Sunday and then used giant “mechazilla” robot arms on the pad gantry to pluck the returning first stage out of the sky in an unprecedented feat of engineering. The Starship upper stage, meanwhile, looped around the planet and re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean as planned, enduring temperatures nearing 3,000 degrees as it descended to a controlled, on-target splashdown. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 13)
CHINA LAUNCHES THIRD HIGH ORBIT INTERNET SATELLITE - China launched a new communications satellite towards geostationary orbit Thursday, although its precise role remains undisclosed. A Long March 3B lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China, at 9:50 a.m. Eastern, Oct. 10 (1350 UTC). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) declared the launch was a complete success over an hour after liftoff. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 12)
SHIJIAN-19 REUSABLE SATELLITE LANDS AFTER 2 WEEKS IN SPACE - China’s first retrievable and reusable satellite returned to Earth late Thursday following two weeks of experiments in low Earth orbit. The Shijian-19 satellite touched down at 10:39 p.m. Eastern Oct. 10 (0239 UTC, Oct. 11) at the Dongfeng landing site near Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Recovery personnel opened the spacecraft to retrieve its payloads. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 11)
OCEAN EXPERTS RAISE CONCERNS OVER DEORBITING THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA is faced with the challenge of safely deorbiting, in one fell swoop, over 400 tons of space hardware in a few years. As of now, the agency plans on deorbiting the International Space Station in early 2031 by dragging it back toward Earth and dumping it into an isolated patch of the Pacific Ocean — an idea that has scientists and environmental watchdogs ringing alarm bells. As recently reported by the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG), the orbital outpost is plagued by ongoing wear-and-tear issues, such as cracks and air leaks, after decades of use. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 11)
X-37B BEGINS NOVEL SPACE MANEUVER - The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7) will begin executing a series of novel maneuvers, called aerobraking, to change its orbit around Earth and safely dispose of its service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation. Since December 28, 2023, the United States Space Force, supported by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, has conducted radiation effect experiments and has been testing Space Domain Awareness technologies in a Highly Elliptical Orbit. More (Source: United States Space Force - Oct 10)
NASA “REALLY LOOKING FORWARD” TO NEXT STARSHIP TEST FLIGHT - As SpaceX prepares for the test flight of its Starship vehicle, NASA is closely watching as it waits for the company to achieve the next milestones on development of the lunar lander version of the vehicle. SpaceX announced late Oct. 7 that it was preparing to launch Starship on its fifth integrated test flight as soon as Oct. 13, pending regulatory approval. The mission will be similar to the fourth mission in June, with the Starship upper stage flying a suborbital trajectory targeting a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 10)
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