VANGUARD 1 IS THE OLDEST SATELLITE ORBITING EARTH. SCIENTISTS WANT TO BRING IT HOME AFTER 67 YEARS - Decades ago during the heady space race rivalry between the former Soviet Union and the United States, the entire world experienced the Sputnik moment when the first artificial satellite orbited the Earth. Sputnik 1's liftoff on Oct. 4, 1957 sparked worries in the U.S., made all the more vexing b... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 6)
NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR TWO PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSIONS TO ISS - NASA’s latest call for proposals to conduct private astronaut missions to the International Space Station opens the door to having those missions commanded by someone other than a former NASA astronaut. NASA announced April 2 it issued a solicitation for the next two private astronaut missions,... More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 6)
WHAT WILL REPLACE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION? - NASA is planning to decommission the International Space Station by the end of 2030. The ISS, which began operations in 2000, is reaching the end of its lifespan and has become costly to maintain. NASA selected SpaceX to construct a vehicle that would “de-orbit” the football field-sized station,... More (Source: Science Friday - Apr 6)
FUEL-FREE TETHERS: THE BOLD NEW WEAPON AGAINST SPACE JUNK - PERSEI Space, a startup supported by the European Space Agency and UC3M, is developing a breakthrough solution to tackle space junk and extend satellite lifespans using innovative space tether technology. This fuel-free, scalable system uses electrodynamic tethers that harness Earth’s magnetic fie... More (Source: SciTechDaily - Apr 6)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES ON SATURDAY NIGHT FALCON 9 FLIGHT - SpaceX launched a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit on Saturday night. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-72 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 UTC).... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 6)
SPACEX'S PRIVATE FRAM2 ASTRONAUTS SPLASH DOWN ON EARTH, ENDING HISTORIC POLAR ORBIT EXPEDITION - The first four humans to orbit over Earth's north and south poles have safely returned to Earth. SpaceX's private Fram2 mission splashed down today (April 4) at 12:18 p.m. ET (1618 GMT), softly parachuting down into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Oceanside, California. Their return wraps up ... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 4)
CHINA’S THOUSAND SAILS SATELLITE PLAN AT PHASE 2 - While the planet now has global low Earth orbiting coverage from Elon Musk’s Starlink, China is quietly getting on with its own rival scheme, in the shape of its Qianfan (Thousand Sails) satellite constellation project.... More (Source: SatNews - Apr 3)
SPACE JUNK DAMAGING SATELLITES: HOW DO WE REMOVE IT? - Every year, at least one satellite is destroyed by a space junk collision. With more than 130 million pieces of debris now trapped in orbit around Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) expects that figure to rise. Combined with the increasing frequency of commercial space launches, which now acc... More (Source: DW - Apr 3)
HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PROJECT KUIPER’S FIRST FULL-SCALE SATELLITE LAUNCH - Project Kuiper is set to send its first full batch of satellites to space, marking an important step in its mission to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world. The mission, named “KA-01” for Kuiper Atlas 1, will launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas... More (Source: Amazon - Apr 3)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 28 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT ON 1ST HALF OF SPACEFLIGHT DOUBLEHEADER - SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast on Monday (March 31). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:52 p.m. EST (1952 GMT) on Monday. To plan, the Falcon 9's first stage cam... More (Source: Space.com - Apr 2)
SPACEX SCRUBS TUESDAY NIGHT FALCON 9 LAUNCH WITH 27 STARLINK SATELLITES - SpaceX stood down from a planned Falcon 9 rocket launch Tuesday night. The mission, dubbed Starlink 11-13, will deliver the latest 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit and will be the 25th Starlink flight of the year. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space For... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 2)
NASA SWITCHES STARLINER CREW TO SPACEX DRAGON AS TESTING CONTINUES ON TROUBLED BOEING CAPSULE - The makeup of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station was announced publicly Thursday evening and it includes three astronauts who were previously assigned to other missions. Leading the flight, scheduled for no earlier than July 2025, is NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. She wil... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 31)
SPACEX SCRUBS THE LAUNCH OF 28 STARLINK V2 MINI SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - An afternoon of poor weather kept SpaceX from closing out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday was quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.” Li... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 31)
AMSAT-OSCAR 7: THE HAM SATELLITE THAT REFUSED TO DIE - When the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7) amateur radio satellite was launched in 1974, its expected lifespan was about five years. The plucky little satellite made it to 1981 when a battery failure caused it to be written off as dead. Then, in 2002 it came back to life. The prevailing theory being that one of ... More (Source: Hackaday - Mar 30)
CHINA LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED TJS-16 SPACECRAFT, COMPANION OBJECT EMERGES ALONGSIDE EARLIER TJS-15 SATELLITE - China launched the new TJS-16 classified satellite on Saturday aboard a Long March 7A rocket, continuing the opaque series of experimental missions. A Long March 7A rocket lifted off at 12:05 p.m. Eastern (1605 UTC) March 29 from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island province of Hain... More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 30)
CHINA ROUNDUP: THIRD SUCCESSFUL EVA AND DEEP-SPACE AMBITIONS AS CHINA’S SPACE ECONOMY SURGES - The Shenzhou-19 crew recently conducted their third spacewalk this month as the China National Space Administration announced it is open to including international scientific payloads aboard a forthcoming Mars mission. Meanwhile, bold plans for planetary exploration have been revealed and a design h... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 30)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH 28 STARLINK V2 MINI SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX is hoping to close out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday, however, is quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.” Liftoff of the Starli... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 30)
CYGNUS DEPARTS STATION AFTER RELEASE FROM ROBOTIC ARM - At 6:55 a.m. EDT, the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which earlier detached Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying about 260 ... More (Source: NASA - Mar 29)
CYGNUS SET TO DEPART FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station Friday after having delivered more than 4 tons of supplies, scientific instruments used in experiments, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo. The undocking is scheduled to begin for 6:30 a.m. EDT ... More (Source: UPI - Mar 28)
