SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS COULD HARM THE ENVIRONMENT, NEW WATCHDOG REPORT SAYS - Do people have a right to an unobstructed view of the heavens? For most of human history, such a question would have been considered nonsensical—but with the recent rise of satellite mega constellations, it’s now being asked again and again. Mega constellations are vast groups of spacecraft, numbering in the thousands, that could spark a multitrillion-dollar orbital industry and transform global connectivity and commerce. But the rise of mega constellations also threatens to clutter the night sky, cripple the work of some astronomers and create space debris that harms people on Earth and in space alike. More (Source: Scientific American - Nov 25)
THANKSGIVING SPACE FESTIVITIES COME FROM 'THE FUTURE,' ASTRONAUTS SAY - The NASA astronauts currently in space are living so far in the future that they celebrated U.S. Thanksgiving on Tuesday (Nov. 22), they joked in a video. Jokes aside, the space crew on the U.S. side of the International Space Station does plan to take some time on the holiday to watch some football (the pigskin kind) and to eat some special food, although the astronauts kept their meal secret on the video for now. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 25)
CREW GOES INTO THANKSGIVING WITH SPACEWALK AND DRAGON PREPS - Four Expedition 68 astronauts will relax on Thanksgiving day as three cosmonauts continue preparing for a spacewalk on Friday. The International Space Station residents are also expecting a space delivery this weekend bringing new roll-out solar arrays and science experiments. Three NASA astronauts and one astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spent Wednesday performing numerous research, cargo, and maintenance tasks. The quartet will also be off-duty the next day observing the U.S. holiday before going into a busy weekend. More (Source: NASA - Nov 24)
CHINA TO USE SPACE STATION TO TEST SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER - China intends to use its newly-completed Tiangong space station to test key technologies required for space-based polar power, according to a senior space official. Robotic arms already operating on the outside of Tiangong will be used to test on-orbit assembly of modules for a space-based solar power test system, Yang Hong, chief designer of the Tiangong space station said in a presentation at the ongoing China Space Conference. More (Source: SpaceNews - Nov 24)
JPSS-2 HAS A NEW NAME: NOAA-21 - NOAA’s JPSS-2 satellite successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 10 at 1:49 a.m. PST. This week, it was officially renamed NOAA-21. The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of satellites provides the latest advancement in observations gathered from a polar orbit. In the past, NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites were each assigned a letter (-A, -B, -C, etc.) as they were being designed, built, and launched. Then, once each satellite reached orbit, they were renamed and assigned a number. More (Source: NOAA - Nov 23)
CHINA ROLLS OUT ROCKET TO LAUNCH NEW CREW TO NEWLY-COMPLETED SPACE STATION - China is gearing up to send a new crew up to the newly-completed space station. A Long March 2F rocket tipped with the Shenzhou 15 crew spacecraft was rolled out to the pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Monday (Nov. 21), China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA, announced (opens in new tab). More (Source: Space.com - Nov 23)
SPACEX SCRUBS RESUPPLY LAUNCH TO THE SPACE STATION - SpaceX called off a launch attempt Tuesday due to bad weather at Kennedy Space Center, delaying until Saturday the start of a resupply mission to the International Space Station. The 26th SpaceX cargo mission to the space station, called CRS-26, will deliver about 7,700 pounds (3.5 metric tons) of supplies, experiments, and hardware to the complex. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 23)
SPACEX LAUNCHES EUTELSAT 10B COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - SpaceX launched a communications satellite to space Tuesday (Nov. 22) to serve air and sea traffic. SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket to launch the Eutelsat 10B satellite on behalf of Eutelsat Tuesday (Nov. 22) at 9:57 p.m. EST (0257 on Nov. 23 GMT). The Falcon 9's upper stage deployed Eutelsat 10B as planned (opens in new tab) about 35.5 minutes after liftoff. This was the 11th launch for this Falcon 9 first stage, according to SpaceX. More (Source: Space.com - Nov 23)
SPACEX DELAYS EUTELSAT-10B LAUNCH ON FINAL FLIGHT OF B1049 - SpaceX is set to launch the Eutelsat-10B communication satellite into a supersynchronous geostationary transfer orbit. A Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket carrying the satellite will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with liftoff now scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 9:57 PM EST (02:57 UTC on Nov. 23). For an initial attempt on Monday, citing the thick cloud layer, cumulus cloud, and disturbed weather rules, the Space Launch Delta 45 released a launch mission execution forecast putting the probability of violation of weather constraints at 70%. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 22)
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