CHINA'S HOPES HIGH AS SPACE STATION NEARS COMPLETION - Chinese astronauts, known as taikonauts, and a ground crew are working to finish their country's first permanent orbiting space station and the world's second by year's end, official media outlets say. That milestone will boost China's national pride and provide it with new channels for economic development and a possible new tool for military use on the ground, analysts say.   More
(Source: voanews.com - Jul 17)

DRAGON DOCKS DELIVERING SCIENCE BENEFITTING HUMANS - While the International Space Station was traveling more than 267 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 11:21 a.m. EDT today, with NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins monitoring operations from the station. The Dragon launched on SpaceX’s 25th contracted commercial resupply mission for NASA at 8:44 p.m., Thursday, July 14, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After Dragon spends about one month attached to the space station, the spacecraft will return to Earth with cargo and research.   More
(Source: NASA - Jul 17)

NASA AND ROSCOSMOS REACH SWAP DEAL FOR ISS TRANSPORTATION - NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have reached an agreement to resume integrated crews on U.S. crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The news broke Friday, the same day that Russia removed Roscomos Director General Dmitry Rogozin from his post, installing Yury Borisov, former deputy prime minister.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jul 17)

VIASAT COMPLETES A MAJOR MILESTONE WITH THE 2ND VIASAT-3 SATELLITE PAYLOAD - Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) has delivered their second ViaSat-3 payload module to Boeing‘s El Segundo, California, facility, where it will be integrated with Boeing’s 702 spacecraft bus platform and undergo rigorous spacecraft environmental testing in preparation for launch. Viasat’s satellite payload, designed and built in-house, provides state-of-the-art electronics for receiving, transmitting and processing broadband internet data to and from the satellite at expected rates greater than 1 terabit a second...   More
(Source: SatNews - Jul 17)

WATCH SPACEX'S DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE DOCK WITH THE SPACE STATION SATURDAY MORNING - A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule will meet up with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday (July 16), and you can watch the orbital action live. The robotic Dragon launched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday night (July 14) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 delivered Dragon to low Earth orbit, and the rocket's first stage came back down for a successful landing on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 16)

RUSSIAN COSMONAUT WILL FLY TO SPACE STATION WITH SPACEX THIS FALL - It's official: SpaceX will soon start flying Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA announced today (July 15) that it has signed a deal with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos to exchange seats on craft traveling to and from the orbiting lab. NASA astronauts will fly aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, as they have done many times, and cosmonauts will climb aboard private American vehicles such as SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which has never happened before.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 16)

A CONSTELLATION OF ‘SWARM’ SATELLITES JUST DODGED A COLLISION OVER OUR HEADS - The European Space Agency’s Swarm mission is made up of three spacecraft circling Earth to study our planet’s magnetic field. And recently the small constellation had to make an emergency maneuver on short notice to avoid a potential collision with space debris. This kind of move is far from unprecedented. ESA says each of its satellites has to make a collision avoidance maneuver two times a year, on average. What is unusual is that this dodge came with very little notice, and as Swarm was already climbing to safety from another threat.   More
(Source: Forbes - Jul 16)

SATELLITE DEVELOPED AT SOUTH ALABAMA HEADS TO SPACE ON SPACEX ROCKET - A mission years in the making is truly out of this world. And it is from the University of South Alabama. Dr. Sam Russ, a professor at the University of South Alabama and scientist for the JagSat-1 Mission, spoke with WKRG News 5 about the road to get to launch and what the team hopes to gain from this endeavor. “We have been working on the satellite since 2015. Back in 2015 we were able to launch a probe into space on a sub-orbital flight. Based on that, we started the design of our satellite, “said Russ.   More
(Source: WKRG - Jul 16)

SPACEX AND NASA LAUNCH CRS-25 MISSION TO THE ISS - SpaceX launched its 25th commercial resupply services (CRS) mission for the International Space Station (ISS) on a flight-proven Falcon 9 while also utilizing a flight-proven Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft. Falcon 9 B1067-5 lifted Dragon 2 Capsule 208-3 (C208-3) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) on July 14 at 8:44 PM EDT (00:44 UTC on July 15). CRS-25 was the third Dragon mission, SpaceX’s second CRS mission, and the overall 30th launch of the year.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jul 15)

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