CHINA JUST LAUNCHED A ROCKET WITH 5 SATELLITES TO ORBIT FROM A PLATFORM AT SEA - hina launched five satellites into orbit on a rocket that lifted from a platform at sea on Saturday (April 30), setting a new distance record for the country's offshore launches. A Long March 11 solid-fueled rocket successfully launched from ocean platform in the East China Sea to deliver its payloads into orbit. It was the second launch in as many days for the China National Space Administration, which launched two other satellites from a land-based spaceport on Friday. More (Source: Space.com - May 2)
SPACEX JUST FLEW ITS FASTEST DRAGON ASTRONAUT TRIP TO THE SPACE STATION EVER - SpaceX just set a new record for its fastest Dragon astronaut trip yet. Elon Musk's spaceflight company launched four Crew-4 astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in less than 16 hours on Wednesday (April 27), the shortest flight time since SpaceX began crewed flights in 2020. "This is the fastest launch to dock that we've done," Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters after the launch early Wednesday. "It's about the same time it takes to go from New York to Singapore, so it's kind of interesting." Sponsored Links More (Source: Space.com - May 1)
RUSSIA WILL QUIT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OVER SANCTIONS - The head of Russia’s space program said Moscow will pull out of the International Space Station, state media reported, a move it has blamed on sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly,” Tass and RIA Novosti reported Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin as saying in an interview with state TV on Saturday. “I can say this only -- in accordance with our obligations, we’ll inform our partners about the end of our work on the ISS with a year’s notice.” More (Source: Bloomberg - May 1)
ROCKET LAB WAITING FOR ‘IDEAL’ WEATHER BEFORE LAUNCH AND RECOVERY ATTEMPT - Rocket Lab called off the planned launch and recovery of an Electron booster Friday, preferring to wait for better wind and cloud cover conditions a few days from now. The next opportunity to launch the mission from New Zealand is Monday. “We don’t usually give mother nature quite so much power over launch timing, but for our first helicopter catch attempt we want to line up the best possible conditions to give us the highest chance of a successful catch,” Rocket Lab said Friday. “In time, we’ll narrow those bounds.” More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 1)
SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW MISSILES BEING LOADED ONTO RUSSIAN SUBMARINE. DOLPHIN PENS, TOO. - A sharp-eyed satellite spotted missiles being loaded onto a Russian submarine on Friday (April 29). A new photo captured by Maxar Technologies' WorldView-2 spacecraft shows what appear to be Kalibr missiles sitting next to a docked Kilo-class submarine in Sevastopol, an important Black Sea port in the Crimean Peninsula. "The imagery reveals the bow section of the Kilo submarine with extended trays to load the missiles, as well as two trucks positioned nearby that are used to transport the missiles to the quay for loading onto the submarine," Maxar representatives wrote in an emailed statement. More (Source: Space.com - May 1)
SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 BOOSTER FOR SECOND TIME IN THREE WEEKS - SpaceX continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days. The mission Friday — designed Starlink 4-16 — was be the 151st launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since SpaceX debuted its workhorse vehicle June 4, 2010, and the 43rd Falcon 9 flight primarily dedicated to hauling Starlink internet relay stations into orbit. The launch was SpaceX’s 17th mission of the year, and the sixth Falcon 9 launch in April, SpaceX’s most ever in a single month. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 1)
ARABSAT ORDERS FIRST FULLY SOFTWARE-DEFINED SATELLITE - Saudi Arabian fleet operator Arabsat has ordered its first fully software-defined geostationary satellite to provide flexible coverage across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. The company said April 29 it signed a contract for Arabsat 7A with Europe’s Thales Alenia Space, which will build the satellite based on its Space Inspire platform. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 30)
RUSSIA PUTS MILITARY SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - International Desk, Apr 30 (EFE).- Russia on Saturday successfully put into orbit a military satellite launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Archangelsk Region. The official Tass agency said the Russian Aerospace Forces launched the Angara-1.2 light rocket with a military satellite from the Plesetsk space center in the northwest of the country. More (Source: - Apr 30)
VYOMA IS THE LATEST PLAYER SEEKING TO PREVENT SATELLITE COLLISIONS WITH SPACE JUNK - As you might’ve heard, it’s getting a little crowded in space, between thousand-satellite constellations à la SpaceX’s Starlink and the millions of pieces of space junk accumulated from decades of launches. But it’s also getting a little crowded in the space-monitoring space, with a number of companies competing to create observation systems to help satellite and launch operators protect their assets from orbiting debris. One of the newest entrants to the field is Vyoma, a German company spun out of TUM, founded by Christoph Bamann, Luisa Buinhas and Stefan Frey. Vyoma’s goal is to track objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) using a constellation of observation satellites, then use machine learning to automate collision avoidance procedures for clients’ satellites. More (Source: TechCrunch - Apr 30)
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