SPACEX DELAYS DRAGON CARGO SHIP DEPARTURE FROM SPACE STATION DUE TO SPLASHDOWN WEATHER. HOW TO WATCH IT SUNDAY. - SpaceX postponed the departure of its latest Dragon cargo ship from the International Space Station on Saturday (Jan. 22) by at least a day due to bad weather at its landing site. You can watch the next undocking attempt live on Sunday, NASA said. The Dragon CRS-24 cargo ship was scheduled to undock from the space station at 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT) on Saturday and return to Earth early Monday morning. But bad weather at potential splashdown locations in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast prevented the departure, according to SpaceX. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 23)
SPACEX WINS $102 MILLION AIR FORCE CONTRACT TO DEMONSTRATE TECHNOLOGIES FOR POINT-TO-POINT SPACE TRANSPORTATION - The U.S. Air Force awarded SpaceX a $102 million five-year contract to demonstrate technologies and capabilities to transport military cargo and humanitarian aid around the world on a heavy rocket. The contract is for the rocket cargo program, a new project led by the Air Force Research Laboratory to investigate the utility of using large commercial rockets for Department of Defense global logistics. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 22)
ULA’S ATLAS V LAUNCH SATELLITE-INSPECTION MISSION FOR SPACE FORCE - United Launch Alliance carried out an Atlas V launch Friday with the third pair of GSSAP satellites for the US Space Force. Flying in its never-before-used 511 configuration, Atlas lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:00 PM EST (19:00 UTC) for a lengthy mission that will inject the satellites into a near-geostationary orbit. The GSSAP (Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program) is a US Space Force project using small satellites to inspect other spacecraft operating in geostationary orbit. Friday’s launch, which is designated USSF-8 (US Space Force 8), is carrying the fifth and sixth satellites in this series. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 21)
BAD WEATHER DELAYS SPACEX DRAGON'S DEPARTURE FROM SPACE STATION TO SATURDAY - A SpaceX resupply ship will have to wait at least one more day before returning to Earth. Yesterday (Jan. 19), cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov ventured outside the safe confines of the International Space Station to conduct a seven-hour, 11-minute spacewalk. While the pair cleaned up following the spacewalk, SpaceX was preparing its robotic Dragon cargo ship to come back to Earth. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 21)
CHINESE SATELLITE IN NEAR MISS WITH RUSSIAN ASAT TEST DEBRIS - A Chinese satellite experienced a near miss Tuesday with a piece of debris created by Russia’s destructive anti-satellite test conducted in November. The Space Debris Monitoring and Application Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) issued a warning Tuesday of an extremely dangerous encounter between the Tsinghua Science satellite (NORAD ID: 46026) and one (49863) of more than a thousand trackable pieces of debris from the Nov. 15 ASAT test. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 21)
WATCH TWO RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS TAKE A SPACEWALK OUTSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TODAY - Two Russian cosmonauts are planning to take a spacewalk today (Jan. 19) to ready a new International Space Station module for visiting spacecraft, and you can watch it live. Expedition 66 Cmdr. Anton Shkaplerov and flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov, both of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will spend the day working together outside the International Space Station. Coverage will start at 6 a.m EST (1130 GMT) and will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, NASA social media and here at Space.com. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 20)
SPACEX PASSES 2,000 STARLINK SATELLITES LAUNCHED - SpaceX passed the threshold of more than 2,000 Starlink satellites launched after a Falcon 9 placed another set of broadband internet spacecraft into orbit Jan. 18. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A the Kennedy Space Center at 9:02 p.m. Eastern. The launch was originally scheduled for 7:04 p.m. Eastern, but SpaceX postponed the launch to the second of two opportunities that evening. The company did not disclose the reason for the delay. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 20)
FIRST CHINESE SPACE MISSION OF 2022 ROCKETS INTO ORBIT - China launched a Long March 2D rocket Monday with another classified satellite, deploying the spacecraft into a polar orbit on the first of more than 40 Chinese Long March rocket missions planned in 2022. The Long March 2D rocket took off from the Taiyuan launch base in Shanxi province of northern China at 0435 GMT Sunday (11:35 p.m. EST Sunday), according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. or CASC. Liftoff occurred at 10:35 a.m. Beijing time Monday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 19)
CREW GETS READY FOR SPACEWALK AND DRAGON DEPARTURE THIS WEEK - The Expedition 66 crew is getting ready for a spacewalk on Wednesday while packing a U.S. resupply ship for its departure on Friday. Meanwhile, the International Space Station also hosted a pair of space biology studies exploring exercise and vision. Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov finalized their preparations today for the first spacewalk of 2022 set to begin at 7 a.m. EST on Wednesday. More (Source: NASA - Jan 19)
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