CHINA LAUNCHES SHENZHOU 14 MISSION TO SUPPORT MODULE INSTALLATION - China scuessfully launched the Shenzhou 14 mission to their Tiangong space station on Sunday morning, June 5, at 02:44 UTC, which was 10:44 pm EDT on Saturday the 4th. The crewed launch of three taikonauts took place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, with the Shenzhou spacecraft being taken to orbit by a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) rocket from a pad known as Space Launch Site 1. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 5)
RUSSIA'S SUPPLY SHIP ARRIVES AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian cargo spacecraft docked Friday at the International Space Station, delivering nearly three tons of supplies to its crew. A Soyuz rocket carrying the uncrewed Progress MS-20 ship blasted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft smoothly docked at the space outpost about 3 1/2 hours after the launch. It has delivered food, fuel and other supplies for the station's international crew. More (Source: Phys.org - Jun 4)
RUSSIAN SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES WITH SPACE STATION CARGO FREIGHTER - Russia’s Progress MS-20 cargo freighter lifted off Friday on a fast-track, three-and-a-half hour rendezvous with the International Space Station to deliver around three tons of fuel, food, and supplies for the lab’s seven-person crew. The Progress supply ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT) aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket. Russian ground crews rolled the Soyuz booster to the launch pad at Site 31 early Tuesday, then raised it vertical into liftoff position over the pad’s cavernous flame trench. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 4)
CHANG ZHENG 2C LAUNCHES GEESAT AUTONOMOUS DRIVING NAVIGATION SATELLITES - China’s Chang Zheng 2C rocket has launched nine GeeSAT-1 navigation satellites Thursday as part of the Geely-01 constellation. After lifting off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 04:00 UTC (12:00 Beijing Time), the rocket successfully deployed its payload into Low Earth orbit. The GeeSAT-1 satellites were developed by Chinese commercial company Geespace, which describes them as the “first modular, high-resilience, high-performance, mass-produced low-orbit satellites in China”. The satellites are designed to provide centimeter-accurate positioning and connectivity for autonomous road vehicles. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 3)
RUSSIA WILL LAUNCH A CARGO MISSION TO THE SPACE STATION EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. WATCH IT LIVE - Russia will launch a robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station early Friday morning (June 3), and you can watch the action live. The uncrewed Progress 81 freighter is scheduled to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency; coverage will begin at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Jun 3)
NASA JUST BOUGHT THE REST OF THE SPACE STATION CREW FLIGHTS FROM SPACEX - NASA said this week that it plans to purchase five additional Crew Dragon missions from SpaceX to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Although the space agency's news release does not specifically say so, these may be the final flights NASA needs to keep the space station fully occupied into the year 2030. As of now, there is no signed international agreement to keep the station flying until then, but this new procurement sends a strong signal that the space agency expects the orbital outpost to keep flying that long. More (Source: Ars Technica - Jun 3)
SPACE ROCKET WITH SEPARATIST PRO-RUSSIAN FLAGS HEADING TO ISS - A rocket bearing flags of the separatist Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics will lift off from Russia's famous Baikonur launchpad, headed for the International Space Station. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement: "The final pre-launch operations with the Donbass launch vehicle, the launch of which is scheduled for June 3, 2022 at 12:32 Moscow time, are underway at the Baikonur Cosmodrome." More (Source: Newsweek - Jun 2)
STATION PREPS FOR PROGRESS AND DRAGON CARGO MISSIONS - There are now four spacecraft parked at the International Space Station today after a Russian cargo craft undocked Wednesday morning. A fifth spaceship will arrive on Friday to replace it and replenish the Expedition 67 crew with food, fuel, and supplies. The ISS Progress 79 resupply ship undocked from the rear port of the Zvezda service module at 4:03 a.m. EDT today completing a 214-day cargo mission at the station. The trash-filled space freighter reentered Earth’s atmosphere just over three hours later for a fiery, but safe demise over the Pacific Ocean. More (Source: NASA - Jun 2)
NEW AND IMPROVED SATELLITES WILL HELP TRACK STORMS THIS HURRICANE SEASON - Atlantic hurricane season begins today (June 1), and several new weather satellites will collect valuable data to improve hurricane forecasting this year. Hurricanes, also called tropical cyclones, are large, rotating storms that form when water from the surface of the ocean in the tropics evaporates and condenses to form clouds and rain. Satellites provide vital data on current weather conditions, allowing meteorologists to predict the path and severity of these storms more accurately. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 2)
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