SPACEX LAUNCHES 21 STARLINK BROADBAND SATELLITES TO ORBIT FROM FLORIDA - SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Wednesday night (March 12). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday at 10:35 p.m. EDT (0235 GMT on March 13). More (Source: Space.com - Mar 14)
NASA’S PUNCH SATELLITES DEPLOYED - Deployment of the PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission’s four satellites has occurred. Following a 90-day commissioning period, the PUNCH mission is scheduled to conduct science for at least two years. NASA’s PUNCH will observe the Sun’s corona as it transitions into the solar wind, supporting NASA Science’s key goals by creating a broad awareness and understanding of how the Sun creates conditions that influence Earth and space, which is increasingly part of the human domain. More (Source: NASA - Mar 13)
HYDRAULICS ISSUE ON STRONGBACK CAUSES SCRUB OF CREW-10 LAUNCH - NASA and SpaceX were less than an hour away from the launch of a new four crew to the International Space Station on Wednesday evening when a hydraulics issue caused a mission scrub. The flight is needed to relieve the station’s current crew, including the two astronauts who originally launched on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. The international crew consists of two American astronauts, a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. When the mission launches, the quartet will fly to the orbiting outpost onboard the Dragon Endurance spacecraft, which previously flew the Crew-3, Crew-5 and Crew-7 missions. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 13)
ASTRONAUTS LAUNCHING TO SPACE WILL FINALLY RELIEVE THE PAIR WHO FLEW ON BOEING'S TROUBLED CAPSULE - Four astronauts are gearing up to launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday. Their arrival will, at long last, kick off the process of bringing NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home to Earth. Williams and Wilmore have been the focus of public attention since they launched on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June. Although the plan called for them to stay on the space station for roughly a week, they have now spent nine months in orbit. More (Source: NBC News - Mar 12)
LONG MARCH 8 LAUNCHES THOUSAND SAILS SATELLITES FROM COMMERCIAL SPACEPORT - A new group of 18 satellites entered orbit Tuesday for the Thousand Sails constellation with the first launch from a new commercial launch pad. A Long March 8 rocket lifted off at 12:38 p.m. Eastern (1638 UTC) March 11 from launch pad 1 of the Hainan Commercial Launch Site near Wenchang, Hainan island. The kerosene-liquid oxygen propellant rocket illuminated clouds as it climbed into the night sky. More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 12)
CHINA CREATES POWERFUL SPY SATELLITE CAPABLE OF SEEING FACIAL DETAILS FROM LOW ORBIT - Scientists in China have created a satellite with laser-imaging technology powerful enough to capture human facial details from more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away. This breakthrough represents a performance increase of 100 times or more compared to leading spy cameras and traditional telescopes, according to a report on the new technology in the South China Morning Post. More (Source: Live Science - Mar 12)
STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE WILL REDUCE THE NUMBER OF SATELLITES THAT CAN SAFELY ORBIT IN SPACE - MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there. In a study appearing today in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. More (Source: MIT News - Mar 11)
SWISSTO12 TO BUILD SMALL ASIA-FOCUSED DIRECT-TO-DEVICE GEO SATELLITE - Singapore’s Astrum Mobile has ordered a small satellite from Swissto12 to deliver resilient, low-bandwidth multimedia and connectivity services directly to devices across Asia from geostationary orbit (GEO). Announcing its third customer for the HummingSat platform March 10, Switzerland-based Swissto12 said the deal reflects growing demand for smaller, regionally focused satellites — closer in size to a washing machine than traditional school bus-sized GEO spacecraft.” More (Source: SpaceNews - Mar 11)
SPACEX SCRUBS LAUNCH OF TWO NASA SATELLITE MISSIONS - Two NASA missions will have to wait longer for a launch aboard a single rocket. Both aim to unravel mysteries about the universe — one by peering far from Earth, the other by looking closer to home. SpaceX on Saturday night announced on the social platform X about two hours before the scheduled launch time of 10:09 p.m. Eastern that it needed to continue checking the Falcon 9 rocket that was to lift the vehicles to orbit. The company said it would announce the next launch attempt from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California when it was possible to do so. More (Source: The Japan Times - Mar 10)
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