NASA DELAYS ISS SPACEWALKS INDEFINITELY TO INVESTIGATE SPACESUIT COOLANT LEAK - NASA says its next spacewalk will be delayed indefinitely until engineers understand more about what caused a coolant leak on June 24. Tracy Dyson, a NASA astronaut, had a brief spacesuit leak a month ago while still in the hatch of the International Space Station (ISS). She and Mike Barrett had just opened the door for a 6.5-hour spacewalk for maintenance activities, when showers of ice particles erupted from a spacesuit connection to the ISS. The spacewalk was suspended, but the astronauts were never in any danger, NASA has emphasized. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 22)
NASA SETS BRIEFINGS FOR CREW-9 MISSION TO SPACE STATION - NASA will host a pair of news conferences Friday, July 26, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station. NASA will host a mission overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. The news conference will cover NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the microgravity laboratory and Expeditions 71 and 72. More (Source: NASA - Jul 22)
THERE ARE 10,000 ACTIVE SATELLITES IN ORBIT. MOST BELONG TO ELON MUSK - For the first time in human history, there are now 10,000 functioning satellites above our heads, whipping around the Earth at high speed. It’s a milestone that showcases decades of technical achievement but might also make it harder to sleep at night if you think about it for too long. The count comes from the latest estimate by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leading watcher of most things orbital. McDowell estimates there are 10,036 active satellites in orbit as of July 18. More (Source: Forbes - Jul 20)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW GAOFEN-11 HIGH RESOLUTION SPY SATELLITE - China added a fifth Gaofen-11 high resolution satellite to its CHEOS constellation with a launch late Thursday. A Long March 4B rocket lifted off at 11:03 p.m. Eastern July 18 (0303 UTC, July 19) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China. The launcher carried the Gaofen-11 (05) high resolution optical earth observation satellite. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) declared launch success shortly after in a statement. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 20)
ENHANCED DRAGON SPACECRAFT TO DEORBIT THE ISS AT THE END OF ITS LIFE - paceX will develop a souped-up version of its Dragon spacecraft for NASA to handle the deorbiting of the International Space Station around the end of the decade. At a July 17 briefing, NASA and SpaceX officials provided new details about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) spacecraft NASA selected SpaceX to build June 26 under a contract worth up to $843 million. At the time of the announcement, neither the agency nor the company described the design of the spacecraft or its specific capabilities. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jul 19)
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEXT 25 YEARS OF PRIVATE SPACE STATIONS - Humans have occupied low Earth orbit (LEO) over the past half century thanks to the Salyut, Skylab, Mir and Tiangong programs and, of course, the International Space Station (ISS). Aside from providing incredible views of Earth, these space stations have proved that humans can live and work in space while bringing unique lessons about microgravity and the cosmos. They have taught us about the challenges of living in microgravity and the fragility of life beyond our planetary cradle. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 19)
ISS COULD 'DRIFT DOWN' FOR A YEAR BEFORE SPACEX VEHICLE DESTROYS IT IN EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - Though the International Space Station is meant to be replaced in the 2030s, it will take a long time for the orbiting lab to officially reach the end of its life, NASA says. SpaceX's newly commissioned reentry vehicle will only push the International Space Station (ISS) into Earth's atmosphere some 12 to 18 months after the complex "drifts down" from its normal orbit. "We'll leave the crew on board as long as possible, so they're available to help maintain station and keep it healthy," NASA's Dana Weigel, ISS program manager, told reporters today (July 17) in a livestreamed briefing of the reentry plan. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 18)
RARE SPACEX ROCKET FAILURE SHOWS EXACTLY WHY NASA WANTS 2 COMMERCIAL OPTIONS TO FLY ASTRONAUTS TO ISS - Six years ago, a rare Russian abort during an astronaut launch caused delays in human spacecraft schedules. This week, NASA may face the same after a rare failure during a SpaceX launch. Back in 2018, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft was bound for the International Space Station (ISS) when a sensor issue aboard the rocket (also called Soyuz) forced the crew to escape in an emergency abort during liftoff. The two astronauts on board were safe, but for several weeks, it was unclear if the usual six-month rotation of ISS crews would be disrupted. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 18)
SATELLITES AROUND EARTH AT RISK AS ACTIVE SUNSPOT NEARS 'THE DANGER ZONE' - A massive sunspot on the surface of the sun is moving toward a prime position where any explosion could shower Earth with protons. The enormous sunspot, named AR3738, has a volatile 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that is set to send out explosions of solar plasma as coronal mass ejections or flashes of radiation as solar flares. More (Source: Newsweek - Jul 18)
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