REPORT: U.S. SHOULD PUSH FOR GLOBAL RULES ON SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT - Commercial and government activities in outer space are increasingly endangered by rapidly growing congestion in the space environment. And it’s unclear how much longer industries and governments can continue to operate safely in space without globally coordinated space traffic management, says a new report from the Atlantic Council. The report by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security urges the U.S. government and allies to push for an international framework for space traffic management. Maxar Technologies provided funding for the report. More (Source: SpaceNews - Aug 3)
ULA’S ATLAS 5 ROCKET MOVED TO LAUNCH PAD WITH U.S. MILITARY MISSILE WARNING SATELLITE - United Launch Alliance’s next Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad Tuesday at Cape Canaveral for a fiery blastoff at dawn Thursday with a U.S. military missile warning satellite. The 194-foot-tall (59-meter) Atlas 5 rocket completed the 1,800-foot (550-meter) rollout in a little more than an hour. The rollout began at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Tuesday with first motion out of the Vertical Integration Facility, a 30-story-tall assembly hangar where the Atlas 5 rocket was stacked over the last month. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
NEW RUSSIAN SPACE CHIEF CLARIFIES COMMENTS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION DEPARTURE - Yuri Borisov, the new head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, expanded on comments he made last week indicating the country's intent to disassociate from the International Space Station "after 2024." It appears some of that message may have been lost in translation. In an interview with Russia 24, a state-run Russian news channel, Borisov clarified, "We announced that we intend to do this not in 2024, but after 2024. In Russian, these are two big differences." More (Source: Space.com - Aug 3)
ROCKET LAB’S ELECTRON SCRUBS NROL-199 MISSION - Rocket Lab scrubbed the launch the 29th Electron mission on August 2 due to unacceptable ground winds. NROL-199 will launch later this week from Launch Complex-1B (LC-1B) at Rocket Lab’s launch facility on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. In addition to the NROL-199 designation, the mission has been nicknamed “Antipodean Adventure” by Rocket Lab. It has been a tradition for the company to give each of its missions a unique nickname. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 2)
NASA INVITES MEDIA TO NEXT SPACEX COMMERCIAL CREW SPACE STATION LAUNCH - Media accreditation is now open for the launch of the fifth SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition mission as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The earliest targeted launch date for the mission is Thursday, Sept. 29, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. More (Source: NASA - Aug 2)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES POTENTIAL INSPECTOR SATELLITE ON SOYUZ-2.1V - Russia launched a Soyuz-2.1v rocket today at 20:25 UTC from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The payload was the Kosmos-2558 satellite deployed into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The payload is a satellite by the Russian Defense Ministry, with an unknown purpose. Kosmos is a generic filler name that is used for space assets of the former Soviet Union and now Russia. Kosmos-2558 in this case is a name for the payload that was assigned in order to not give the spacecraft’s true name and purpose. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 2)
WATCH ROCKET LAB LAUNCH A US SPY SATELLITE EARLY TUESDAY - Rocket Lab will launch a U.S. spy satellite in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (Aug. 2), and you can watch the action live. An Electron booster is scheduled to launch a payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Tuesday during a two-hour window that opens at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT; 5 p.m. local time in New Zealand). More (Source: Space.com - Aug 2)
RUSSIA HAS NOT YET FORMALLY NOTIFIED U.S. OF DECISION TO QUIT ISS, WHITE HOUSE SAYS - The United States said on July 26 that Russia has not formally notified NASA of its intention to quit the International Space Station (ISS) but that it is already "exploring options" for dealing with a withdrawal. The newly appointed head of Roskosmos, Yuri Borisov, said Russia will quit the ISS after 2024 to focus on building its own project in outer space. More (Source: Radio Free Europe - Aug 1)
STARLINK: WHY IS ELON MUSK LAUNCHING THOUSANDS OF SATELLITES? - Elon Musk's SpaceX company has been launching thousands of satellites into orbit. Many people say they've seen them in the skies. They're part of the Starlink project, which aims to provide high speed internet services from space, to remote areas on Earth. Starlink provides internet services via a huge network of satellites. It is aimed at people who live in remote areas who cannot get high-speed internet. More (Source: BBC News - Aug 1)
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