TENSIONS MOUNT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND EUROPE OVER JOINT SPEKTR-RG TELESCOPE - The Russian scientific community is speaking out unanimously against the unauthorized activation of the German eROSITA telescope aboard the Russian Spektr-RG space observatory, as suggested by Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin. Spektr-RG, which stands for Spectrum + Röntgen + Gamma, the Russian-German high-energy astrophysics space observatory, was launched on 13 July 2019. It has two telescopes on board: the primary one, eROSITA, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany...   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 16)

D-ORBIT CHARTS AMBITIOUS COURSE FOR SPACE LOGISTICS BUSINESS - Space logistics company D-Orbit announced a $2 million contract June 9 with the European Space Agency to upgrade production of its ION Satellite Carrier. It was the latest win for the Italian firm with ambitious plans to offer a wide range of satellite services from active debris removal to space-based cloud computing.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 16)

CARGO DRAGON LAUNCH RESCHEDULED FOR JULY AFTER IDENTIFYING HYDRAZINE LEAK - A SpaceX cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station will now launch no earlier than July 11, a delay of more than a month after engineers identified the source of elevated hydrazine readings in the spacecraft. In a statement late June 13, NASA said that agency officials met with SpaceX to discuss the status of the investigation into elevated vapor readings of monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) detected earlier this month after the spacecraft was fueled ahead of a launch then planned for June 10.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 15)

MOMENTUS ORBITAL TRANSFER VEHICLE SUFFERS POWER PROBLEM AFTER LAUNCH - The first test flight of a commercial orbital transfer vehicle from Momentus is suffering from a problem with its solar panels after launching last month on a SpaceX rocket, and the company said Monday that its confidence in completing the spacecraft’s demonstrations has “substantially declined.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 15)

DOD SPACE AGENCY TO ACQUIRE 10 SATELLITES FOR EXPERIMENTS IN LOW EARTH ORBIT - The Space Development Agency is looking to acquire as many as 10 satellites to host military payloads for experiments in low Earth orbit. This new procurement of satellites – known as the NExT experimental testbed – replaces a previous SDA program called T1DES announced last fall. The T1DES procurement was for 18 satellites hosting industry-developed experimental payloads. The plan was to integrate them with the agency’s 126-satellite broadband constellation known as the Transport Layer Tranche 1 projected to launch in 2024.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 14)

TWO HURRICANE RESEARCH SATELLITES LOST IN ASTRA LAUNCH FAILURE - Two small NASA hurricane research satellites were destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday when their commercial rocket, provided by Astra, prematurely shut down its upper stage engine before reaching the mission’s target orbit. The twin nanosatellites — each about the size of a shoebox — were the vanguard of a planned fleet of six cyclone monitoring spacecraft to measure temperature, moisture, and other parameters inside hurricanes and tropical storms.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 13)

ASTRA LAUNCH FAILS ON FIRST TROPICS FLIGHT FOR NASA - The first of three flights to launch the TROPICS satellites for NASA lifted off on Sunday during at 1:43 PM EDT (17:43 UTC). Astra’s LV0010 vehicle launched from SLC-46 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, making the company’s seventh orbital launch attempt. After a nominal first stage burn, the upper stage engine shut down early. As a result, the vehicle and payloads were lost.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 13)

SHENZHOU-14 ASTRONAUTS BEGIN THEIR MISSION OF 6 MONTHS IN SPACE - The Shenzhou-14 mission, carrying three Chinese astronauts, docked successfully earlier this week with the Tiangong-3 space station. During their six-month mission on board the station, the new crew hopes to continue work on construction of the orbital Chinese outpost, which will be about one-fifth the size of the International Space Station. China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) hopes to finish construction of Tiangong by the end of 2022. Later this year, they will launch two new modules – one in July and the second scheduled for October – which they say will expand their research capabilities in microgravity and life sciences.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Jun 11)

THESE LITTLE SATELLITES COULD BRING BIG ADVANCES TO TROPICAL STORM FORECASTS - NASA is gearing up to launch tiny satellites into space that will help forecasters keep a closer eye on tropical storms as they develop in a mission called TROPICS. Crucially, if the launches are successful, the satellites will mark a big advancement in our ability to watch rapidly intensifying storms. At the moment, NASA’s weather satellites can only check in on a storm every four to six hours. “So we’re missing a lot of what’s happening in the storm,” Bill Blackwell, principal investigator for the TROPICS mission and a researcher at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, said in NASA’s announcement yesterday.   More
(Source: The Verge - Jun 11)

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