TANAGER-1 IS READY FOR LAUNCH: PLANET’S FIRST HYPERSPECTRAL SATELLITE - We are proud to announce today that our first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1—made possible by the Carbon Mapper Coalition and its philanthropic partners—is ready for launch. The spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 3rd in preparation for liftoff as early as July on board the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX. Tanager-1 will be the first of a next-generation hyperspectral fleet which will expand Planet’s imaging capabilities in the spectral domain to complement the existing imaging capabilities in the temporal and spatial domains offered by the PlanetScope, SkySat, and Pelican missions.   More
(Source: Planet Labs - Jun 7)

NASA LAUNCHES SECOND SMALL CLIMATE SATELLITE TO STUDY EARTH’S POLES - Data from the pair of CubeSats will offer new insights into how much heat the Arctic and Antarctica radiate into space and how this influences global climate. The second of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) two satellites is communicating with ground controllers after launching at 3:15 p.m. NZST, Wednesday (11:15 p.m. EDT, June 4). Data from these two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, will better predict how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world — providing information to help humanity thrive on our changing planet.   More
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - Jun 6)

BOEING'S STARLINER LAUNCHES ASTRONAUTS FOR 1ST TIME IN HISTORIC LIFTOFF - Boeing's Starliner's first-ever astronaut mission is underway. Starliner, Boeing's new astronaut taxi for NASA, soared into space today (June 5) from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, notching a huge milestone after nearly two decades of commercial crew planning. Veteran NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former U.S. Navy test pilots with 11,000 flight hours between them, are riding aboard the Boeing Starliner capsule, which launched today at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance's (ULA) workhorse Atlas V rocket. As it was for Starliner, this was also the first time astronauts have launched atop an Atlas V in its 22-year flight history.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 5)

MAINE COMPANY PLANS TO LAUNCH SMALL SATELLITES STARTING IN 2025 - Representatives for a Maine company that plans to send small satellites into space from the Northeast's most rural state said they will start launches next year. Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace hopes to turn Maine into a hub for the launching of commercial nanosatellites and has been making progress toward that goal for more than three years. A successful recent round of fundraising means commercial suborbital launch is on track to start in 2025, company officials said Tuesday.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Jun 5)

DESPITE GYRO FAILURE, NASA SAYS HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE STILL UP TO WORLD-CLASS SCIENCE - Trouble with one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s three remaining gyroscopes, critical for aiming and locking onto targets, has prompted mission managers to switch to a backup control mode that will limit some observations but keep the iconic observatory running well into the 2030s, officials said Tuesday. “We still believe there’s very high reliability and likelihood that we can operate Hubble very successfully, doing groundbreaking science, through the rest of the 20s and into the 2030s,” Patrick Crouse, the Hubble project manager, told reporters during an afternoon teleconference.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 5)

ULA’S UPDATE AFTER YESTERDAY’S SCRUB OF BOEING STARLINER AND NASA ASTRONAUTS MISSION TO ISS - NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance) are forgoing a Crew Flight Test launch attempt Sunday, June 2, to give the team additional time to assess a ground support equipment issue at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 in Florida. Saturday’s launch was to carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the International Space Station scrubbed due to an observation of a ground launch sequencer. The system was unsuccessful in verifying the sequencer’s necessary redundancy.   More
(Source: SatNews - Jun 4)

TüRKIYE SEEKS DOMESTIC SOLUTION AGAINST SPACE DEBRIS - Türkiye is seeking to find a national solution to the problem of space debris, the satellite programs director of Turkish communications satellite operator Türksat said Saturday. Fatih Ayhan told Anadolu Agency (AA) that space debris could harm the activities in orbit, and the national technologies to be developed will prevent this, providing export potential by creating international competition in the process.   More
(Source: Daily Sabah - Jun 3)

RUSSIAN PROGRESS 88 CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT ISS CARRYING TONS OF FRESH SUPPLIES - A robotic Russian cargo craft docked at the International Space Station on Saturday morning (June 1) to deliver tons of fresh supplies, just hours ahead of the planned launch of a Boeing Starliner spacecraft set to carry two astronauts to the station for the first time. The Roscosmos Progress 88 freighter linked up with the orbiting lab's Poisk module Saturday at 7:43 a.m. EDT (1143 GMT) in a smooth automated docking as the two spacecraft sailed high above southern Russia.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 2)

NASA FOREGOES SUNDAY LAUNCH, DELAYING STARLINER TAKEOFF TO AT LEAST WEDNESDAY - The seemingly star-cross Boeing Starliner — within minutes of its long-delayed blastoff on the spacecraft’s first piloted test flight — was grounded again Saturday when one of three redundant computers managing the countdown from the base of the launch pad ran into a problem, triggering a last-minute scrub. Engineers initially were told to set up for another launch try Sunday, at 12:03 p.m. EDT, assuming the problem could be resolved in time. But NASA later announced the team would pass up the Sunday opportunity to give engineers more time to assess the computer issue.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 2)

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