EUROPE’S FIRST SATELLITE LAUNCH COMPLEX TO BE INAUGURATED IN NORTHERN SWEDEN - After years of preparation and construction, European mainland’s first orbital launch complex, Spaceport Esrange, will be inaugurated. The event will take place in the city of Kiruna in conjunction with Sweden taking over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. For Europe, the new orbital launch facility at Esrange is a long-awaited critical asset. Today, ten countries in the world have the capability to launch satellites. Spaceport Esrange will offer an independent European gateway to Space, supplementing and strengthening current European capabilities in French Guiana. More (Source: Satnews - Dec 24)
CHINA'S SPACE STATION RELEASES SMALL TEST SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - China has released a small test satellite into orbit from its recently completed Tiangong space station. The satellite was released from a deployer on the Tianzhou 5 cargo ship, which is currently docked at Tiangong. Tianzhou 5 launched on Nov. 12 with the primary mission of delivering supplies to the space station to support the three Shenzhou 15 mission astronauts but also carried a number of cubesats. The 26.5-pound (12 kilograms) satellite designated XW-4 (CAS-10) was released at 9:30 p.m. EST on Dec. 17 (0130 GMT on Dec. 18). The satellite's radio and camera can be used by amateur radio operators on the ground. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 24)
ASTRONAUTS UNFURL FOURTH ROLL-OUT SOLAR ARRAY OUTSIDE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Another roll-out solar array was installed and deployed by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada outside the International Space Station on on a spacewalk Thursday, a day later than previously planned after the space station needed to dodge a piece of space junk. Rubio and Cassada continued a multi-year upgrade to the space station’s electrical system, adding the fourth of six planned roll-out solar arrays to the station’s power truss. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 24)
NASA, RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY EVALUATE NEED FOR SPACE STATION RESCUE MISSION - NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos are evaluating if they will need to mount a rescue mission to the International Space Station after discovering a coolant leak from the Russian Soyuz spacecraft currently docked at the station. The leaking spacecraft, designated Soyuz MS-22, carried U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio, along with cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev to the International Space Station on Sept. 21. More (Source: UPI - Dec 23)
RUSSIA MULLS EARLY RETURN OF SPACE STATION CREW AFTER SOYUZ CAPSULE LEAK - Russia's space agency said it is considering a "rescue" plan to send an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring home three crew members ahead of schedule, after their Soyuz capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbiting outpost. Roscosmos and NASA officials said at a news conference on Thursday they continue to investigate how the coolant line of the capsule's external radiator sustained a tiny puncture last week, just as two cosmonauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk. More (Source: Reuters - Dec 23)
NASA ASTRONAUTS UNFURL 4TH ROLL-OUT SOLAR ARRAY ON SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - The International Space Station (ISS) has a fourth new solar array thanks to the work of two NASA astronauts on a seven-hour spacewalk. Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada, both flight engineers on the space station's Expedition 68 crew, again ventured outside of the orbiting complex on Thursday (Dec. 22) to install a new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) to augment the station's power supply. The spacewalk was a near repeat of the extravehicular activity (EVA) that Rubio and Cassada performed almost three weeks ago, but this time focused solely on a power channel located on the station's port-side truss. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 23)
RUSSIAN SPACE DEBRIS FORCES SPACE STATION TO DODGE, DELAYS US SPACEWALK - NASA delayed a planned spacewalk to venture outside the International Space Station at the last moment on Wednesday after a large piece of Russian space debris came dangerously close to the orbital outpost. NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada were getting ready to step out from the U.S.-built Quest airlock on the International Space Station early Wednesday (Dec. 21) to install new solar arrays when their Mission Control team commanded them to halt the work. Instead, the space station will perform an emergency maneuver to get out of the way of a large piece of space debris that is on track to get dangerously close to the lab later in the day. The spacewalk was ultimately rescheduled for Thursday, Dec. 22. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 22)
TWO PLéIADES NEO EARTH-IMAGING SATELLITES LOST IN FAILURE OF EUROPE’S VEGA C ROCKET - The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch from French Guiana Tuesday night, falling victim to a failure of a European Vega C rocket. The Vega C rocket’s launch operator, Arianespace, confirmed the mission failed to place the two Pléiades Neo optical imaging satellites into orbit. The preliminary focus of the failure investigation centered on the Vega C rocket’s second stage. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 22)
VEGA C FAILS ON SECOND LAUNCH - The second flight of Arianespace’s Vega C failed to reach orbit Dec. 20 after its second stage malfunctioned, destroying two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites. The Vega C rocket lifted off at 8:47 p.m. Eastern from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 imaging satellites for Airbus. The liftoff took place on schedule and the initial phases of flight appeared to go as planned. However, on-screen telemetry showed that the rocket was deviating the from its planned trajectory within four minutes of liftoff, during the burn of the rocket’s Zefiro-40 second stage. More (Source: SpaceNews - Dec 21)
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