NASA ASTRONAUT STUCK IN SPACE VENTURES OUTSIDE - Nasa astronaut Suni Williams, one of two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station, ventured outside for a spacewalk on Thursday for the first time since arriving on board seven months ago. Ms Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore were due to return to Earth after a week-long mission in June 2024 but their return has been delayed because of a technical issue. More (Source: BBC News - Jan 17)
HISTORY MADE: BLUE ORIGIN BECOMES FIRST NEW SPACE COMPANY TO REACH ORBIT ON ITS FIRST LAUNCH - Blue Origin entered into the history books in the predawn hours of Thursday. The company, founded by Jeff Bezos, became the first to successfully reach orbit on their first launch with a new orbital-class rocket in the new era of commercial spaceflight that dawned in the last two decades. After dealing with an unplanned hold to chill its engines and a wayward boat entering the keep out zone, the New Glenn rocket, standing as tall as a 32-story building lumbered off the pad under the power of 3.9 million pounds of thrust. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 17)
IRIDE PATHFINDER SATELLITE HAS LAUNCHED - The first IRIDE satellite – the Pathfinder Hawk – is now in orbit around Earth after lifting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 14 January. As its ‘Pathfinder’ name suggests, this new microsatellite is a prototype for one of the six IRIDE constellations, which are tailored to provide information for a wide range of environmental, emergency and security services for Italy. More (Source: European Space Agency - Jan 16)
NASA’S LATEST CUBESAT LAUNCHES TO EARTH’S THERMOSPHERE - A NASA-developed CubeSat, Technology Education Satellite 22 (TES-22), launched at 11:09 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Jan. 14, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The small satellite will test a variety of technology, including a deployable drag sail to help deorbit the spacecraft, and provide valuable information about a region Earth’s atmosphere. More (Source: NASA - Jan 16)
PLANET LAUNCHES HIGH-RESOLUTION PELICAN-2 SATELLITE & 36 SUPERDOVES - We are thrilled to announce today that our high-resolution Pelican-2 satellite and 36 SuperDoves of Flock 4G were successfully launched to orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-12 Rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Our Planet team has successfully made contact with Pelican-2 and started its commissioning process. More (Source: Planet Labs - Jan 16)
CHINA PLANS TO BUILD ENORMOUS SOLAR ARRAY IN SPACE — AND IT COULD COLLECT MORE ENERGY IN A YEAR THAN 'ALL THE OIL ON EARTH' - Chinese scientists have announced a plan to build an enormous, 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide solar power station in space that will beam continuous energy back to Earth via microwaves. The project, which will see its components lofted to a geostationary orbit above Earth using super-heavy rockets, has been dubbed "another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth." More (Source: Live Science - Jan 15)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 131 SATELLITES ON TRANSPORTER 12 RIDESHARE MISSION - SpaceX launched a slew of satellites to orbit from California today (Jan. 14). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 131 different payloads lifted off on the company's Transporter 12 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 2:09 p.m. EST (1909 GMT; 11:09 a.m. local California time). That's a big number, but it's not a record for most payloads sent up on a single launch. That mark is 143, which SpaceX set in January 2021 on the Transporter 1 mission. More (Source: Space,cin - Jan 15)
CHINA'S SMART DRAGON-3 ROCKET LAUNCHES SATELLITES FROM SEA - A Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifted off on Monday in east China's Shandong Province, sending the satellite group CentiSpace 01 into the planned orbit. The rocket blasted off at 11 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the sea near the city of Haiyang. Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore launch mission. More (Source: Xinhua - Jan 14)
THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM? SPADEX SATELLITES 230 METRES APART, ISRO MAY ATTEMPT DOCKING TODAY - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is hoping to get third-time lucky as it is likely to make another attempt at docking the two satellites of the SpaDeX mission in space on Sunday. The two satellites, called Chaser and Target, were brought together, just 230 metres apart, on Saturday evening and locked in that configuration for further checks. Officials told The Indian Express that the final docking manoeuvre may be carried out on Sunday. More (Source: The Indian Express - Jan 13)
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