SPACEX LAUNCHES TüRKSAT 6A SATELLITE, TURKEY’S FIRST DOMESTICALLY-BUILD SATELLITE - Turkey launched its first home-grown communications satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday evening. Prior to the mission’s launch, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu called the Türksat 6A geostationary satellite “the symbol of our independence”. While this wasn’t the first Türksat spacecraft launched, it’s garnered such national pride because it is the first of its kind to be entirely built in Turkey. Uraloğlu said Turkey is just the 11th country capable of manufacturing its own communications satellites.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 9)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH TüRKSAT 6A COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE MONDAY AFTERNOON FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - After bouncing around the range schedule a bit, SpaceX's upcoming launch of the Türksat 6A communications satellite is targeted for a Monday afternoon liftoff, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows. Though SpaceX has yet to announce this mission, the Falcon 9 rocket liftoff target time is 5:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   More
(Source: Yahoo - Jul 8)

COMPANIES PREPARE NEXT GENERATION OF SPACE STATIONS FOR ORBIT - NASA is working with at least three companies that are designing space stations to replace the International Space Station before it de-orbits in 2031. "NASA can utilize those resources in our exploration of the heavens, back to the moon and on to Mars. Then we can rent space on a commercial space station to do our research, to prepare our astronauts for longer flights out into the cosmos," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. "We've given them seed money so that they can jump start developing space stations." The cost to the U.S. government is a factor, but Nelson believes the investment will pay off.   More
(Source: FoxNews - Jul 7)

LOW-INTENSITY EXPLOSION CAUSED RUSSIAN SATELLITE TO SPEW DEBRIS - A Russian satellite likely suffered a “low-intensity explosion” that created hundreds of pieces of debris in low Earth orbit, according to one company’s analysis. Both U.S. Space Command and private space situational awareness providers reported that Resurs P1, a defunct Russian remote sensing satellite, suffered a breakup event on June 26. That event created more than 100 pieces of debris that could be tracked by ground-based sensors.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 7)

CHINA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE GROUP - China successfully launched the Tianhui 5-02 satellite group at 6:49 a.m. Friday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province. The satellite group was carried by a modified Long March-6 carrier rocket and has entered the planned orbits. This group of satellites will be used for geographic mapping, land resource surveys, scientific experiments and other purposes. It was the 527th mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.   More
(Source: www.gov.cn - Jul 6)

NASA ASTRONAUTS SEND FOURTH OF JULY MESSAGE TO EARTH FROM ISS - The six NASA astronauts who are living off planet at the moment just beamed a special birthday message down to their home country. Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Jeanette Epps, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore each took a turn at the mic, saying a few words about the Fourth of July from their perch aboard the International Space Station (ISS), about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 6)

AIRBUS BUILT, COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2C CLIMATE SATELLITE HEADING FOR LAUNCH SITE - After road transport from Airbus in Friedrichshafen to Bremen on 2 July, the Airbus-built Sentinel-2C satellite, the third Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, is about to be shipped to the European spaceport in French Guiana. The container has been loaded today onto the iconic Canopée, the first sail-assisted cargo ship designed specifically to transport Ariane 6 rocket components from European ports to the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, where it will arrive in approximately two weeks.   More
(Source: ASDNews - Jul 5)

BLUE ORIGIN, STOKE SPACE SELECTED BY U.S. SPACE FORCE TO COMPETE FOR SMALL SATELLITE MISSIONS - The U.S. Space Force has added Blue Origin and Stoke Space Technologies to its roster of launch providers eligible to compete for short-turnaround small-satellite missions under the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4) contract. OSP-4, an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, was established by the Air Force in 2019 to leverage emerging commercial launch capabilities. IDIQ contracts allow for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period, with the government placing orders as needs arise.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 5)

FIREFLY SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED ALPHA ON NOISE OF SUMMER MISSION - After six months of preparation following its last flight, Firefly successfully launched the Alpha rocket on its fifth mission. After deciding to stand down from a July 2 launch attempt while teams evaluated and tested the systems responsible for aborting the launch on Monday, July 1, Firefly took off at 9:04 PM PDT on July 3 (4:04 UTC on July 4). The mission, named Noise of Summer, launched eight CubeSats to a Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) from Space Launch Complex-2W (SLC-2W) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. NSF is providing livestream production services to Firefly, with the stream starting at T-30 minutes and available on the NASASpaceflight YouTube channel.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jul 4)

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