FALCON 9 ROCKET DEPLOYS SPACEX’S 3,000TH STARLINK INTERNET SATELLITE - Fifty-two satellites are on the way to join SpaceX’s Starlink internet network after a sky-lighting blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday night, a mission that included the 3,000th spacecraft to launch for the Starlink constellation. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:14:40 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0214:40 GMT Wednesday). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 11)
NASA CUBESAT BUMPED FROM RIDESHARE LAUNCH BECAUSE OF ORBITAL DEBRIS MITIGATION CONCERNS - A NASA cubesat was removed from a recent rideshare launch opportunity on a U.S. Space Force mission because the spacecraft could not meet guidelines for deorbiting at the end of its life. The GTOSat mission, developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was manifested to fly as a secondary payload on the Atlas 5 launch of the SBIRS GEO-6 missile-warning satellite. The SBIRS satellite was successfully launched Aug. 4. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 11)
US OFFICIALS CONCERNED AS RUSSIA LAUNCHES IRANIAN SATELLITE - Russia has successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit amid US concerns over its planned purpose. The satellite, called Khayyam, was launched from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. Iran has said it will be used for environmental monitoring and will remain under Tehran's control. But last week, US officials told the Washington Post that they feared the satellite could be used by Moscow to spy on troop movements in Ukraine. More (Source: BBC News - Aug 10)
RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES IRANIAN SATELLITE - A Russian rocket on Tuesday successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit. The Soyuz rocket lifted off as scheduled at 8:52 a.m. Moscow time (0552 GMT) Tuesday from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. About nine minutes after the launch, it placed the Iranian satellite called Khayyam into orbit. It’s named after Omar Khayyam, a Persian scientist who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries. More (Source: AP News - Aug 10)
BENCHMARK UNVEILS SMALL SATELLITE COLLISION-AVOIDANCE KIT - At the Small Satellite Conference, Benchmark Space Systems unveiled a collision-avoidance kit designed to help small satellites dodge debris and steer clear of other spacecraft. Benchmark is taking orders its “Cola Kit,” which the company plans to begin shipping to customers in early 2023. The Cola Kit is the size of a two-unit (2U) cubesat. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 9)
INDIA’S NEW SMALL SATELLITE LAUNCHER FAILS TO PUT SATELLITES INTO CORRECT ORBIT - India’s space agency said Sunday the inaugural demonstration flight of the country’s new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle — the fourth rocket in India’s fleet of launchers — failed to place two satellites into their targeted low Earth orbit. The 111-foot-tall (34-meter), three-stage launcher took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast at 11:48 p.m. EDT Saturday (0348 GMT Sunday) on a demonstration flight to validate the performance of the new rocket. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 8)
ISRO TO LAUNCH INDIA'S NEWEST ROCKET SSLV TOMORROW - The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch India's newest rocket Small Satellite Launch Vehicle - Developmental Flight 1 (SSLV-D1) on Sunday. The countdown down for the SSLV-D1 launch will start about six-and-half-hours before the lift off which is scheduled at 9.18 a.m. on Sunday. More (Source: The Economic Times - Aug 7)
ITALIAN SATELLITE MAY FLY NASA EARTH SCIENCE PAYLOAD - NASA is in talks with the Italian Space Agency to fly an Earth science instrument originally planned to go on a commercial smallsat. At a meeting of the Earth Science Advisory Committee Aug. 2, Greg Stover, program manager for NASA’s Earth System Pathfinder Program, said NASA was in talks with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to fly the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument on a future Italian satellite. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 7)
LOCKHEED MARTIN TO LAUNCH 3 SATELLITES IN 2023 TO ADVANCE JOINT ALL-DOMAIN OPERATIONS - Lockheed Martin said that it plans to launch three company developed satellites next year to help demonstrate Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO). The effort is part of the company’s Space-Augmented JADO Environment (SAJE) test bed. “In 2023, Lockheed Martin will launch its own constellation of small satellites to demonstrate how space can provide global battlefield awareness, sensing and connectivity in even the most austere, denied or contested areas,” per Lockheed Martin. More (Source: Via Satellite - Aug 7)
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