MYRADAR LAUNCHES AIRCRAFT TRACKING SATELLITE - Acme AtronOmatic, the makers of the MyRadar Weather Radar app, have launched a non-commercial, experimental communications satellite aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket with launch provider Alba Orbital. The launch event, dubbed “Running out of Fingers,” lifted off on Dec. 6. The cubesat will monitor aircraft tracking signals from orbit and relay the data to the ground.    More
(Source: Via Satellite - Dec 10)

CHINA LAUNCHES TWO KUAIZHOU ROCKETS IN SIX HOURS - Two solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rockets fired into orbit from the same spaceport in northern China Saturday, demonstrating a further advance in China’s aim for a quick-response, on-call satellite launch capability. The back-to-back Kuaizhou 1A missions both lifted off from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province, using separate road-mobile transporters as launch pads.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 9)

SPACEX DRAGON SUCCESSFULLY DOCKS WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station on Sunday, dropping off super muscular “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot. The station commander, Italy’s Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the South Pacific at the time of capture.   More
(Source: CNBC - Dec 9)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE - China sent a new optical remote sensing satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province at 10:55 a.m. Saturday (Beijing Time). The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B satellite, which belongs to the Jilin-1 satellite family, was launched by Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) and entered the planned orbit successfully. The satellite was independently developed by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., featuring high resolution, wide width and high-speed data transmission.   More
(Source: Xinhua - Dec 8)

SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS STIR A DEBATE OVER AVOIDING CATASTROPHIC ORBITAL CRASHES - The retired commander of the U.S. Strategic Command says the tens of thousands of satellites that SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon are planning to put into orbit over the next few years will require a new automated system for space traffic management — and perhaps new satellite hardware requirements as well. Retired Gen. Kevin Chilton laid out his ideas for dealing with potentially catastrophic orbital traffic jams at the University of Washington on Friday, during the inaugural symposium presented by UW’s Space Policy and Research Center.   More
(Source: GeekWire - Dec 8)

RUSSIAN PROGRESS CARGO SHIP FOLLOWS SPACEX DRAGON TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Soyuz booster propelled a Russian Progress cargo ship into orbit early Friday, kicking off a three-day flight to deliver 2.7 tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. The flight came less than 24 hours after SpaceX launched a station-bound Dragon cargo ship from Cape Canaveral on Thursday. The Progress MS-13/74P spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:34 a.m. EST (12:34 p.m. local time), the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit — a requirement for spacecraft attempting to rendezvous with a target moving at nearly five miles per second.   More
(Source: CBS News - Dec 7)

ROCKET LAB’S 10TH LAUNCH TESTS BOOSTER RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY - Rocket Lab closed out its 2019 launch schedule Friday with the 10th flight of the company’s Electron small satellite launcher, successfully deploying seven payloads in orbit while demonstrating new re-entry guidance and control technology to move closer to recovering and reusing future boosters. The 10th launch of an Electron rocket — and the sixth this year — lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Rocket Lab’s privately-run space base on New Zealand’s North Island at 3:18 a.m. EST (0818 GMT) Friday. The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) launcher took off at 9:18 p.m. local time in New Zealand and soared into a clear evening sky against a fading twilight sky.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 7)

DRAGON SOARS ON RESEARCH AND RESUPPLY FLIGHT TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A commercial Dragon supply freighter built and owned by SpaceX rocketed into a clear blue sky over Florida’s Space Coast Thursday with a menagerie of research experiments and holiday surprises heading for the International Space Station. Scientists loaded 40 genetically-engineered into the Dragon capsule to help gauge the effectiveness of an experimental drug to combat muscle and bone atrophy. There’s also an experiment sponsored by Anheuser-Busch to study the malting of barley in microgravity, which could lead to the brewing of beer in space, the company says.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 6)

FALCON 9 SCRUBS LAUNCH OF CRS-19 DRAGON TO THE ISS - SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will have to watch until Thursday afternoon to launch the company’s Dragon spacecraft on a resupply flight to the International Space Station. Falcon was set to lift off from Cape Canaveral at 12:51:58 local time (17:51 UTC), deploying Dragon a little over nine and a half minutes later to begin its mission. However, unacceptable upper level winds – and wind strength for recovery of the booster – scrubbed the launch ahead of prop loading.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 5)

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