NITROGEN DIOXIDE POLLUTION OVER CHINA PLUMMETS IN NEW SATELLITE IMAGES - The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has caused widespread alarm, travel bans, and the quarantine of multiple cities across the world. But there's also been an unexpected effect on the environment, in the form of a notable drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions levels across China. Data collected from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on ESA's Sentinel-5 satellite shows a significant drop of nitrogen dioxide – a gas mainly emitted by cars, trucks, power plants and some industrial plants - between January 1 and February 25. More (Source: ScienceAlert - Mar 2)
NASA WANTS YOU TO PHOTOGRAPH STARLINK SATELLITES WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE - SpaceX and others plan to launch thousands of new satellites into low-Earth orbit, creating streaks that cut through astronomers’ images. Now educators at NASA are asking citizen scientists to help document the problem. Over the coming years, Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, SpaceX, will launch thousands of small satellites as part of an effort to provide global, space-based internet. More (Source: Discover Magezine - Mar 1)
CHINA TO COMPLETE ITS ANSWER TO GPS WITH BEIDOU NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCHES IN MARCH, MAY - China will launch Beidou navigation satellites in March and May this year, completing a constellation designed for an array of civil and military applications. A Long March 3B rocket arrived at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center Feb. 14, according to China News Service. The Beidou satellite for the launch has also arrived at Xichang, the report states. Both missions will launch single satellites to geosynchronous transfer orbits using enhanced hypergolic Long March 3B rockets. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 29)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RESUPPLY MISSION TO CARRY NEW ARISS HAM RADIO GEAR - The scheduled March 7 SpaceX CRS-20 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will include the initial Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Interoperable Radio System (IORS) flight unit. The IORS is the foundation of the ARISS next-generation amateur radio system on the space station. The ARISS hardware team built four flight units, and the first will be installed in the ISS Columbus module. More (Source: ARRL - Feb 29)
FAA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT DETAILS SPACEX PLANS AT CAPE CANAVERAL - As SpaceX competes for the right to launch future US military satellites, an environmental assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration has revealed details of the company’s plans for national security missions and future operations of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX is one of four companies competing for two available contracts under Phase 2 of the Department of Defense’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 28)
SPACEX SWAPS UPPER STAGE FOR NEXT FALCON 9 LAUNCH - SpaceX is targeting launches March 6 and March 11 for its next two missions after swapping an upper stage for its next Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already being readied for liftoff at Cape Canaveral. The launch targeted for March 6 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will send a Dragon supply ship toward the International Space Station with nearly three tons of cargo, crew provisions and experiments, including a new mounting platform for external research payloads outside the station’s European Columbus lab module. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 27)
TWO COMMERCIAL SATELLITES JUST DOCKED IN SPACE FOR THE FIRST TIME - Two commercial satellites have docked in orbit as part of a pioneering satellite-servicing mission. If the rest of the mission is successful, it should give an ailing communications satellite a new lease on life, and it could kickstart an industry that keeps space junk from clogging the skies. More (Source: The Verge - Feb 27)
PARSONS ASSEMBLING SMALL SATELLITE TO FLY ON ATLAS 5 IN UPCOMING AEHF-6 MISSION - A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to fly a $1.4 billion Advanced Extremely High Frequency military satellite next month will also carry a small spacecraft as a secondary payload. This will be the second rideshare payload assembled by Parsons under a $100 million five-year contract from the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center. SMC last year selected the company to run a new program —called Launch Manifest Systems Integration — to allow small satellites to hitch rides as secondary payloads on national security or civil space missions. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 26)
LOCKHEED TO OBTAIN VECTOR SATELLITE ASSETS - Lockheed Martin will acquire the satellite technology assets of Vector by default after a bankruptcy court received no qualified bids by a deadline last week. In a Feb. 24 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Vector said that they received no qualifying bids for the company’s GalacticSky software-defined spacecraft technology by a Feb. 21 deadline. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 26)
Previous Next
