ITALY’S DEFENSE CHIEF OF STAFF URGES BETTER PROTECTION OF SATELLITES - Italy must do more to defend its satellites as space becomes a recognized realm for military operations, Italy’s defense chief of staff has said. “It will be essential to render the protection of satellites more robust,” said Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who warned of an “increase in threats” and “a risk for security” in space. Cavo Dragone was speaking at a Feb. 23 seminar in Rome marking the launch of a new report by an Italian think tank, which urged the Italian government to beef up space defense and keep orbital paths clear of debris. More (Source: Defense News - Mar 6)
HIGH ABOVE UKRAINE, SATELLITES GET EMBROILED IN THE WAR - The traffic jam stretched from the Russian city of Belgorod to the Ukrainian border. Google Maps marked the congestion with red and orange, just as it does in all countries where the app is used to track traffic. But the GPS satellites sending these vehicles’ positions to Google were not picking up an ordinary traffic jam. This was 40 kilometers of traffic caused by Russian troops. That convoy turned out to be an early warning that the Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s borders were on the move. It was first noticed at 3:15 am on Thursday of last week by Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS... More (Source: WIRED - Mar 6)
ROSCOSMOS HEAD AGAIN QUESTIONS FUTURE OF ISS WHILE NASA EMPHASIZES COOPERATION - The head of Roscosmos has renewed threats to terminate Russian participation in the International Space Station even as NASA says operations on the station remain normal. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, posted a link on his Twitter account March 2 to a video by Russian state-controlled broadcaster Russia Today. In the video, Rogozin suggested he would reconsider cooperation on the ISS if the United States maintains sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 4)
RUSSIA CUTS OFF ROCKET ENGINE SUPPLY AND THREATENS SPACE STATION PARTNERSHIP - Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said Thursday it would no longer service the RD-180 rocket engines that are used by the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to launch national security missions for the Pentagon. It also said it would cut off the supply of the RD-181 engines used in Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, which is used to fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station. “In a situation like this, we can’t supply the United States with our world’s best rocket engines,” Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said on Russian state television, according to Reuters. “Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don’t know what.” More (Source: The Washington Post - Mar 4)
GERMANY SWITCHES OFF BLACK HOLE TELESCOPE ON RUSSIAN SATELLITE, HALTS SPACE COOPERATION - A German-built space telescope making the largest ever map of black holes in the universe has been switched off after Germany halted all science cooperation with Russia to protest that country's invasion of Ukraine. The black hole-hunting telescope, called eROSITA, launched in 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Russian-built Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma satellite. The mission was jointly funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Russia's space agency Roscosmos. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 4)
UK SATELLITE COMPANY ONEWEB SUSPENDS BAIKONUR LAUNCHES - British satellite company OneWeb said on Thursday it was suspending all launches from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after Moscow's space agency demanded guarantees that its technology would not be used for military purposes. The British government, which owns a stake in OneWeb, said it supported the decision. "In light of Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we are reviewing our participation in all further projects involving Russian collaboration," the government said. More (Source: Reuters - Mar 4)
AFTER ANOTHER STARLINK MISSION, SPACEX ON PACE FOR ONE LAUNCH PER WEEK THIS YEAR - Another batch of 47 internet satellites launched Thursday on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, heading into the sky to join SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network on the company’s ninth mission in nine weeks, keeping pace with a goal of around 50 Falcon flights this year. Under a clear sky with calm winds, the Falcon 9 rocket lit its nine Merlin 1D main engines and climbed away from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 9:25 a.m. EST (1425 GMT) Thursday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 4)
RUSSIA SPACE AGENCY HEAD SAYS SATELLITE HACKING WOULD JUSTIFY WAR -REPORT - Russia will treat any hacking of its satellites as a justification for war, the head of the country's space agency was quoted as saying in a news report on Wednesday. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin denied media reports that Russian satellite control centres have already been hacked amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, while warning against any attempts to do so, Interfax news agency reported. More (Source: Reuters - Mar 3)
RUSSIA REFUSES TO LAUNCH UK'S ONEWEB SATELLITES UNLESS DEMANDS ARE MET - Roscosmos will not launch three dozen OneWeb internet satellites as planned on Friday (March 4) unless the company meets new demands, the Russian space agency announced today (March 2). This morning, Roscosmos rolled a Soyuz rocket out to the launch pad at the Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying 36 satellites for the London-based company OneWeb. Shortly after the rollout, Roscosmos Director-General Dmitry Rogozin made an online statement that the agency will not launch the satellites as planned if the company does not guarantee that the craft will not be used for military purposes. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 3)
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