STATION CREW EXPANDS TO TEN, BEGINS WORKING TOGETHER - Astronaut Matthew Dominick receives a haircut from astronaut Loral O'Hara. Astronaut Matthew Dominick receives a haircut from astronaut Loral O’Hara. Ten crewmates now reside aboard the International Space Station after the arrival of the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship on Monday. They will live and work together the next several days before returning to a seven-member crew again and beginning the Expedition 71 mission in early April. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson arrived at the orbital lab on Monday with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya. Dyson will stay in space for about six months as a member of the station crew. More (Source: NASA - Mar 28)
SOYUZ HATCHES OPEN, EXPEDITION 70 WELCOMES CREW ABOARD STATION - The hatches between the International Space Station and the newly arrived Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft officially opened at 1:26 p.m. EDT. The arrival of three new crew members to the existing seven people already aboard for Expedition 70 temporarily increases the station’s population to 10. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus joined NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, already living and working aboard the space station. More (Source: NASA - Mar 27)
NASA, SPACEX TARGET NEW LAUNCH DATE FOR NOAA WEATHER SATELLITE - NASA and SpaceX now are targeting Tuesday, June 25, for the launch of GOES-U, the fourth and final satellite in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series. The new launch date allows time for teams to fully repair and test the Falcon Heavy core booster after a liquid oxygen leak was identified during routine new booster testing in February. NASA and SpaceX teams have resumed preparation of the GOES-U launch. GOES-U will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. More (Source: NOAA - Mar 27)
OPEN COSMOS ‘HAMMER’ SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED VIA THE SPACEX TRANSPORTER-10 MISSION - Open Cosmos recently launched HAMMER, the company’s latest Earth Observation (EO) satellite — after a successful lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter 10 mission. The company received confirmation of the deployment of HAMMER from the Exolaunch deployer and, on first pass over the ground station, satellite operators at the Open Cosmos Control center received a strong signal from the satellite and initiated telemetry downloads. More (Source: SatNews - Mar 27)
SOUTH KOREA PLANS SECOND SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH FROM US NEXT MONTH - Seoul is close to launching its second military reconnaissance satellite from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to South Korea’s military Tuesday. The upcoming launch may come as soon as early April, pending favorable weather conditions, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Jeon Ha Gyu said at a news briefing. The launch will be South Korea’s second after it successfully placed a satellite into orbit Dec. 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. More (Source: Stars and Stripes - Mar 27)
SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY MAY HIRE COMPANIES TO TOW DEFUNCT SATELLITES - The Space Development Agency is interested in hiring commercial space firms to move inactive satellites out of low Earth orbit at the end of their service life. The agency issued a notice to industry March 25 asking for analysis and studies on the feasibility and availability of in-space disposal services. “SDA believes there are several industry partners with concepts and business models to support commercial on-orbit servicing, to include assisted disposal operations,” the agency said. “As such, SDA is interested in studying the feasibility of using these services as a ‘belt and suspenders‘ approach.” More (Source: C4ISRNet - Mar 27)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA - SpaceX launched another batch of its broadband satellites to orbit this evening (March 25). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida today at 7:42 p.m. EDT (2342 GMT). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, acing its vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 26)
SPACEX'S DRAGON CAPSULE DOCKS AT ISS ON 30TH CARGO MISSION FOR NASA - After an orbital chase lasting a day and a half, SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft rendezvoused and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Saturday morning (March 23). The uncrewed spacecraft launched on Thursday afternoon (March 21) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Rendezvous occurred Saturday morning. Monitored by NASA astronauts Laurel O'Hara and Mike Barratt from inside the ISS Cupola module, the spacecraft autonomously docked to the zenith port of the station's Harmony module at 7:19 a.m. EDT (1119 GMT), soaring 262 miles (421 kilometers) above the south Atlantic Ocean, just west of Africa. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 25)
NASA ASTRONAUT TRACY DYSON, CREWMATES SAFELY EN ROUTE TO SPACE STATION - Three crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson successfully launched at 8:36 a.m. EDT Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Dyson, along with her crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, will dock to the space station’s Prichal module about 11:09 a.m. on Monday, March 25, on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. More (Source: NASA - Mar 25)
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