NOAA’S NEWEST GOES SATELLITE LAUNCHING DURING BUSY SEVERE WEATHER SEASON, SPACE WEATHER - NOAA's next forecasting tool is ready to liftoff amid an already active season for severe weather and a busy time for space weather producing Northern Lights as far south as the Florida launch site where the GOES-U satellite will blast off. The fourth and final spacecraft that is part of NOAA's G... More (Source: FOX Weather - May 30)
THE SATELLITES USING RADAR TO PEER AT EARTH IN MINUTE DETAIL - Clouds cover around two-thirds of the world at any one time, preventing conventional satellites from seeing much of the planet. But now a declassified technology known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be installed on satellites to "see" the Earth's surface in the dark, through the clouds (o... More (Source: BBC - May 30)
CHINESE ASTRONAUTS PERFORM RECORD-BREAKING SPACEWALK OUTSIDE TIANGONG SPACE STATION - Two Chinese astronauts just set a new spacewalking record for the country. Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu, two members of China's three-person Shenzhou 18 mission, spent about 8.5 hours working outside the Tiangong space station today (May 28). That's longer than any previous Chinese spacewalk, or... More (Source: Space.com - May 30)
NASA TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF PROGRESS 88 LAUNCH, SPACE STATION DOCKING - NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Progress 88 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 5:43 a.m. EDT (2:43 p.m. Baiko... More (Source: NASA - May 30)
SPACEX HAS LAUNCHED THE EARTHCARE CLIMATE RESEARCH SATELLITE FOR ESA AND JAXA - The joint European-Japanese EarthCARE satellite has begun its mission to improve our understanding of Earth’s climate Tuesday, with a launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 3:20 PM Pacific Time (2... More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 29)
UPDATE: SHENZHOU-18 CREW TO CONDUCT EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITIES - The Shenzhou-18 crew members, who are currently on board China's space station, will conduct their first extravehicular activities (EVAs) within the next few days, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Monday. The astronauts, stationed in the orbital complex for the last 32 days, have... More (Source: Xinhua - May 28)
NORTH KOREA SAYS ITS LATEST SATELLITE LAUNCH EXPLODED IN FLIGHT - North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure on Monday when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight. The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would try to launch a satellite by June 4, in what would have bee... More (Source: CNBC - May 28)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA ON TUESDAY MORNING - SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Tuesday morning (May 28). A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to loft 23 Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday during a four-hour window beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT).... More (Source: Space.com - May 28)
NASA LAUNCHES SMALL CLIMATE SATELLITE TO STUDY EARTH’S POLES - The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 p.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday. The agency’s PREFI... More (Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - May 27)
NASA SAYS BOEING’S STARLINER CREW CAPSULE CAN SAFELY FLY ‘AS IS’ WITH PROPULSION SYSTEM HELIUM LEAK - After nearly three weeks of exhaustive tests and data analysis, NASA managers said Friday they are confident Boeing’s oft-delayed Starliner crew capsule can safely launch “as is” June 1, saying a small helium leak in the ship’s propulsion system does not pose a flight safety concern. Stev... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 27)
JAPAN SAYS NORTH KOREA WILL LAUNCH A MILITARY SPY SATELLITE BY JUNE 3 - Japan said Monday that North Korea has informed it of a plan to launch a satellite by June 3, an apparent effort to put its second military spy satellite into orbit. The launch notification came as leaders of South Korea, Japan and China gathered in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting later ... More (Source: New York Post - May 27)
SPACE FORCE FOUND A SATELLITE LOST IN SPACE FOR 25 YEARS - he short NBC News documentary Battlefield Space took viewers inside Space Force, the newest branch of the United States military, for a look at its efforts to safeguard the final frontier. The organization’s stated mission is both broad and vague: to secure the interests of the U.S. and deter aggr... More (Source: Syfy - May 24)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FIRST SATELLITES FOR NEW US SPY CONSTELLATION - SpaceX on Wednesday launched an inaugural batch of operational spy satellites it built as part of a new U.S. intelligence network designed to significantly upgrade the country's space-based surveillance powers, the first deployment of several more planned this year. The spy network was revealed in ... More (Source: Reuters - May 24)
AIRBUS TO BUILD ESA SPACE SCIENCE SATELLITE - The European Space Agency has awarded Airbus Defence and Space a contract to build a spacecraft that will provide a unique view of the sun. ESA held a signing ceremony May 22 in Brussels for a contract valued at 340 million euros ($369 million) for the Vigil spacecraft. Airbus will build Vigil at... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 24)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES ON 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FIRST DEDICATED STARLINK FLIGHT - SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than 48 hours with a mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As with its launch Wednesday night, SpaceX sent another 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Either serendipitously or intentionally, the Starlink 6-63 mission fell on the fif... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 24)
NASA, BOEING AND ULA ANNOUNCE JUNE 1 AS NEW TARGET DATE FOR STARLINER’S CREW FLIGHT TEST - NASA is looking at the start of June for its next attempt to launch its astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on board Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The announcement came last Wednesday night in a blog post, stating that June 1 will be the earliest that the Crew Flight Test of Starliner ca... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 23)
U.S. CLAIMS RECENTLY LAUNCHED RUSSIAN SATELLITE IS AN ASAT - The U.S. government claims that a recently launched Russian satellite is a counterspace weapon placed in nearly the same orbit as an American reconnaissance satellite. Amb. Robert Wood, U.S. alternate representative for special political affairs in the United Nations, made the allegation during a... More (Source: SpaceNews - May 22)
MAINE’S FIRST RESEARCH SATELLITE TO LAUNCH THIS YEAR - Maine’s first small research satellite, designed to engage middle and high school students in STEM, is expected to launch into orbit within the next couple of months. Firefly Aerospace, a company based in Cedar Rapids, Texas, integrated the nearly one-foot-tall satellite, known as MESAT1, into ... More (Source: Sun Journal - May 21)
SATELLITE MISSION TO UNRAVEL HOW CLOUDS IMPACT FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE - A brand new satellite that will revolutionize our understanding of the role clouds and aerosol particles play in climate change is set to launch after more than 30 years of planning. The EarthCARE satellite is the brainchild of the University of Reading's Professor Anthony Illingworth. Conceived ... More (Source: Phys.org - May 21)
