PRIVATE ASTRONAUT JUST BACK FROM SPACE STATION DESCRIBES INTERACTIONS WITH RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS - It didn’t take long for the crew of the first all-private mission to the International Space Station to experience the unique dependency that US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts share in orbit. “We had one day when the toilet was down for a couple hours,” Larry Connor, the pilot of Axiom Space’s AX-1 mission, told CNN. “The Russians were very cordial, very accommodating. We operate as one team up there and they said, ‘Hey, come on over and use ours.” More (Source: CNN - Apr 30)
RUSSIAN SPACEWALKERS ‘FLEX’ SPACE STATION’S ROBOTIC ARM - Two Russian cosmonauts gave the International Space Station’s new robotic arm a bit of a workout on Thursday. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev exited the space station at 10:58 a.m. ET to begin their spacewalk, which lasted for seven hours and 42 minutes. It ended at 6:40 p.m. ET. Artemyev was identifiable in the Russian Orlan spacesuit bearing red stripes, while Matveev wore a spacesuit with blue stripes. This was the second spacewalk for Matveev and the fifth for veteran spacewalker Artemyev. More (Source: CNN - Apr 29)
FOUR ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT SPACE STATION FOR LONG-TERM STAY - Three Americans and one Italian astronaut floated into the International Space Station late Wednesday after a nearly 16-hour commute aboard a SpaceX crew capsule from a launch pad in Florida, ready for multi-month expedition performing experiments, maintenance, and upgrades. SpaceX’s fourth operational crew flight for NASA, known as Crew-4, continues the regular rotation of astronauts to and from the space station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 28)
UK'S INMARSAT CHIEF WARNS OF POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SATELLITE BOOM - British satellite company Inmarsat warned on Tuesday of dangerous levels of space debris from satellite constellations planned by Elon Musk's Starlink, Amazon, Chinese operators and others. Inmarsat Chief Executive Rajeev Suri welcomed innovation in satellite constellations in low orbit but added that there should be better industry and regulatory co-ordination as they are launched. More (Source: India Today - Apr 28)
ONEWEB FOUNDER GREG WYLER’S NEW STARTUP WANTS TO LAUNCH A ‘SUSTAINABLE’ SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATION – - The proliferation of space junk in low Earth orbit is a problem that isn’t going away. Instead, it’s getting worse — a fact that grabbed headlines last November when a Russian direct-ascent anti-satellite test produced enough new pieces of debris that astronauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to conduct immediate safety procedures in case of a collision. (The U.S. recently said it would no longer perform such tests.) More (Source: TechCrunch - Apr 28)
SPACEX IS 'GO' TO LAUNCH CREW-4 ASTRONAUTS FOR NASA WEDNESDAY AND YOU CAN WATCH IT LIVE - SpaceX will launch the Crew-4 astronaut mission for NASA early Wednesday morning (April 27), and you can watch the action live. A Dragon capsule carrying the four Crew-4 astronauts is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT). You can watch it here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency; coverage begins at midnight EDT (0400 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Apr 27)
INMARSAT CHIEF WARNS OF POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SATELLITE BOOM - British satellite company Inmarsat warned on Tuesday of dangerous levels of space debris from satellite constellations planned by Elon Musk's Starlink, Amazon (AMZN.O), Chinese operators and others. Inmarsat Chief Executive Rajeev Suri welcomed innovation in satellite constellations in low orbit but added that there should be better industry and regulatory co-ordination as they are launched. More (Source: Reuters - Apr 27)
A BOOM IN EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES CREATING NEW DEMANDS FOR INTELLIGENCE - Elon Musk earlier this month opened a new Tesla assembly plant in Austin, Texas, and predicted it will produce as many as 500,000 vehicles annually by next year. To keep a closer eye on activities at the plant, investors and financial firms are turning to Earth observation companies like BlackSky that use satellites to monitor locations for customers. “We have a lot of interest in monitoring the Tesla facility that just launched,” said Amy Minnick, chief commercial officer at BlackSky. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 26)
CREW DRAGON SPLASHES DOWN TO END AX-1 PRIVATE ASTRONAUT MISSION - A Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth April 25, ending a 17-day mission that ferried four private astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast from Jacksonville, Florida, at 1:06 p.m. Eastern after a normal reentry. The spacecraft had undocked from the station 16 hours earlier. Unlike two previous Dragon splashdowns, where one of four main parachutes opened later than the other three, all four parachutes on this spacecraft opened at the same time. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 25)
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