BLAMING INFLATION, SPACEX RAISES STARLINK AND LAUNCH PRICES - SpaceX has raised prices for both its Starlink broadband service and for dedicated and rideshare launches, in some cases by up to 20%, citing inflation. The company advised customers of its Starlink service March 22 of a price increase for both the service itself as well as the terminal. The cost of the service, which had been $99 in the United States, increased 11% to $110. The terminal, which cost $499 in the U.S., increased to $549 for those who had already paid a deposit and $599 for new customers, the latter a 20% increase. Starlink customers in other countries have reported getting similar notices of price increases.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 28)

SPACEX’S NEW DRAGON SPACESHIP NAMED ‘FREEDOM’ - SpaceX’s fourth human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft has been named “Freedom” by the first team of astronauts who will ride it into orbit next month. “FREEDOM!! Crew-4 will fly to the International Space Station in a new Dragon capsule named “Freedom,” tweeted NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, commander of the Crew-4 mission set for launch to the International Space Station on April 19.” The name celebrates a fundamental human right, and the industry and innovation that emanate from the unencumbered human spirit.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 27)

AX-1 PRIVATE MISSION TO SPACE STATION: LIVE UPDATES - On April 3, 2022, SpaceX and the private spaceflight company Axiom Space will make history with the launch of Ax-1, the first all-private mission to the International Space Station. Ax-1 will send four private space travelers on a 10-day trip to the station to conduct science and push commercial spaceflight forward. They will fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. Its crew includes former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría and paying passengers Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. See our full coverage of the Ax-1 mission below.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 26)

RUSSIAN MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LAUNCHED ON SOYUZ ROCKET - A Russian Soyuz rocket delivered a military communications satellite to orbit Tuesday in the first space launch for Russia’s military since forces invaded Ukraine last month. The Soyuz launcher lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 8:48 a.m. EDT (1248 GMT) Tuesday. The rocket headed southeast from the military-run spaceport, located about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, and dropped its four kerosene-fueled first stage boosters two minutes into the mission.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)

CHINA LAUNCHES MILITARY SPY SATELLITE - China launched a classified military remote sensing satellite March 17 on a Long March 4C rocket. The three-stage rocket placed the Yaogan 34-02 satellite into an orbit at an altitude of 680 miles (1,100 kilometers). The Long March 4C lifted off from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 0709 GMT (3:09 a.m. EDT) on March 17. The launch occurred at 3:09 p.m. Beijing time, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the country’s largest state-owned space industry contractor.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)

CHINA PLANS TO OPEN ITS TIANGONG SPACE STATION FOR TOURISM WITHIN A DECADE - China is looking to spark interest in space tourism by opening its soon-to-be-completed space station to everyday citizens. Yang Liwei, who made history in 2003 by becoming China's first astronaut in space, told Chinese media earlier this month that people without formal astronaut training could soon visit the Tiangong space station. "It is not a matter of technology but of demand," Yang said when asked if the general public would be able to tour Tiangong. "And it can be realized within a decade as long as there is such demand."   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 25)

NASA, ESA ASSIGN ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION MISSION ON CREW DRAGON - NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have selected two astronauts to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. Two mission specialists will be announced later, following review by NASA and its international partners. The mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Moghbeli, Mogensen, and the additional mission specialists will join an expedition crew aboard the space station.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 25)

ASTRONAUTS COMPLETE SPACEWALK FOR SPACE STATION MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES - Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and installed refurbished ammonia jumpers in the lab’s cooling system to bring it back up to full efficiency, replaced a high-definition camera and made power and data connections on a European experiment platform. When the six-hour 54-minute excursion ended, astronaut Kayla Barron, helping German astronaut Matthias Maurer out of his spacesuit, reported water inside his helmet, bringing to mind a life-threatening malfunction during a 2013 spacewalk that flooded Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES MERIDIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE TO MOLNIYA ORBIT - Russia has launched the Meridian-M n°20L satellite onboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The launch lifted off at 12:48:22 UTC bound for a very highly elliptical Molniya orbit of 900 x 39,000 km, with an inclination of 65°. This kind of orbit allows the satellite to remain over a certain region for about eight hours at a time, which helps to provide communications to regions that are very north or very south of the equator, as these can be difficult to serve using geostationary satellites. The orbit is named after the Molniya satellite constellation, launched starting in 1964, that is replaced by these Meridian satellites.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 23)

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