SPACEX LAUNCHES A FLIGHT-PROVEN FALCON BOOSTER FOR 600TH TIME - SpaceX flew a flight-proven Falcon rocket booster for a 600th time when it launched the Starlink 10-45 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday morning. This was the 28th flight for the booster with the tail number 1080. The predawn flight added another 29 broadband internet satellites to SpaceX’s low Earth orbit constellation. The company has more than 10,800 spacecraft in low Earth orbit. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 16)
EXPEDITION 74 STAYS BUSY AND AWAITS TUESDAY’S NEW CREW ARRIVAL - Expedition 74 is poised to welcome three new crew members to the International Space Station who are counting down to their launch aboard a Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft. The trio, comprised of NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina will launch at 10:47 a.m. EDT on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock to the Prichal module at 1:56 p.m. the same day. About two hours later, the hatches will open and the new crew will enter the orbital outpost officially beginning an eight-and-a-half-month research mission. More (Source: NASA - Jul 14)
SPACE JUNK DEBRIS CLOUD DISCOVERED IN HIGH-TRAFFIC ORBIT 'IS A POTENTIAL MINEFIELD' FOR THE COSTLIEST SATELLITES - Tiny pieces of space junk only 2 inches (5 centimeters) in size are cluttering a valuable orbital region where some of the costliest satellites reside, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of Warwick in the U.K. found that the geostationary orbit — a region of space at the altitude of 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) — is full of dangerous, previously unseen bits of space junk that could destroy satellites. More (Source: - Jul 14)
THE FCC JUST GAVE REFLECT ORBITAL PERMISSION TO LAUNCH ITS 1ST SPACE MIRROR TO ORBIT. TENS OF THOUSANDS MORE COULD FOLLOW - The first of perhaps tens of thousands of sunlight-directing space mirrors just got cleared for liftoff. California-based startup Reflect Orbital just got a license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch and operate its first demonstration satellite, a spacecraft that will unfurl a reflective surface that measures about 60 feet (18 meters) on a side. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 14)
VANTABLACK: WORLD'S BLACKEST PAINT COULD SOLVE A MAJOR PROBLEM FOR ASTRONOMY - Low Earth orbit is becoming increasingly crowded with satellites, and they're quietly erasing our view of the Universe. There are currently over 14,000 of them in orbit, a number that's rising quickly. That's a real issue for astronomers. So-called satellite-induced light pollution is already interfering with a significant number of images captured by observatories on Earth, and with thousands more low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites planned, the problem is only going to get worse. More (Source: Science Alert - Jul 13)
FCC APPROVES FIRST REFLECT ORBITAL SATELLITE - The Federal Communications Commission has given its approval for a satellite that will test the ability to reflect sunlight into nighttime regions, a project sharply criticized by astronomers and environmentalists. The FCC on July 9 formally authorized the launch of Eärendil-1, a satellite developed by Reflect Orbital that will deploy a thin-film reflector 18 meters on a side in low Earth orbit, reflecting sunlight to the ground. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 11)
NASA SETS COVERAGE FOR ASTRONAUT ANIL MENON LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - NASA astronaut Anil Menon will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Tuesday, July 14, accompanied by cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, where they will join the Expedition 74 crew advancing scientific research. Menon, Dubrov, and Kikina will lift off at 10:47 a.m. EDT (7:47 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live launch and docking coverage is available on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media. More (Source: NASA - Jul 11)
NASA SMALL SATELLITE COULD MAKE GLOBAL POSITIONING MORE PRECISE - A NASA satellite the size of a suitcase, which aims to merge different observing systems and lead to more accurate mapping of Earth, launched July 7 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX’s Transport-17 mission. This novel CubeSat, known as the Geodetic Reference Instrument Transponder for Small Satellites, or GRITSS, will demonstrate the feasibility of a new technique for connecting three independent observing systems: the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) stations, which use radio telescopes; GPS receivers, which use navigation satellites; and Satellite Laser Ranging, which relies on lasers to measure a distance from the ground to a retroreflector in space. More (Source: NASA - Jul 10)
SPACEX WANTS TO LAUNCH 100,000 STARLINK SATELLITES TO ORBIT - Elon Musk's company just filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a 100,000-member constellation of "Gen3" satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). This will presumably be an updated version of SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, according to astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who reported the news via X today (July 9). More (Source: Space.com - Jul 10)
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