NEW NASA SATELLITE WILL BE 'ON A MISSION TO TOUCH THE SUN' - The $1.6-billion mission aims to improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as astronauts in space, NASA said. Space weather can also change the orbits of satellites, shorten their lifetimes, or interfere with onboard electronics. “Parker Solar Probe is going to answer questions about solar physics that we’ve puzzled over for more than six decades,” said project scientist Nicola Fox of the APL. The probe will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to the star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury. More (Source: USA Today - Sep 30)
SPACEX’S ELON MUSK UNVEILED A ROCKET THAT CAN FLY TO THE MOON, MARS—AND SHANGHAI - If Elon Musk has to make his big rocket smaller, he’s going to make sure it still has enormous ambitions. SpaceX’s chief executive updated his company’s plans to colonize Mars at a global space conference in Australia. He described a rocket and spacecraft suitable for transporting humans safely to the surface of the moon in 2022, to a Martian colony by 2024—and from New York to Shanghai in less than 40 minutes. The serial entrepreneur’s speech at the International Astronautical Congress is a sequel to one delivered in 2016 that described the architecture for a rocket system that could take humans to Mars at $200,000 a ticket. More (Source: Quartz - Sep 30)
AN ARTIST IS LAUNCHING A 100-FOOT SATELLITE THAT WILL BE VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE - In space, nothing frivolous is tolerated. There's plenty of beauty in the abyss of the universe, but relatively little of it is human-made. We build habitats, rocket ships, and satellites that can be beautiful in their own utilitarian ways, and we gain a lot of inspiration from what these devices see for us: Distant stars, awesome nebulas, our own home world. But art, made by humans, and actually installed in space? It's not a thing. There is no space-based art world. More (Source: CNET - Sep 29)
EUROPE PLANS SENTINEL SATELLITE EXPANSION - Europe has begun the process of scoping an expansion to its Sentinel Earth observation network. Six new satellite concepts will be studied, including a constellation of spacecraft that can monitor emissions of carbon dioxide. Invitations to tender (ITTs) for the feasibility work will be sent out to industry in the coming weeks. The European Space Agency hopes to put a list of satellites for implementation before ministers in late 2019. Those platforms that are selected would launch in the mid-2020s. More (Source: BBC News - Sep 29)
SPACEX SETS TARGET LAUNCH DATES FOR BACK-TO-BACK FLIGHTS NEXT MONTH - SpaceX engineers are readying two Falcon 9 rockets for launches Oct. 7 and Oct. 9 from Florida and California, setting up another quick turnaround to first deploy a large TV broadcasting satellite for SES and EchoStar over the United States with a previously-flown booster, then add 10 more spacecraft to Iridium’s fleet of new-generation voice and data relay network. First up is the Oct. 7 launch of an Airbus-built communications satellite from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for SES and EchoStar. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 28)
HELLO, UP THERE! VICE PRESIDENT PHONES SPACE STATION ASTRONAUTS - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spoke with three NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station during his visit to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on Monday (Sept. 25). Pence asked NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, the space station's current commander, and Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba, who both arrived two weeks ago, about what it's like to be in space. He also queried the astronauts on their best advice for kids who dream of spaceflight and how their work in orbit advances U.S. leadership in space. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 28)
B.O.B’S $1 MILLION FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY SATELLITE GOFUNDME IS A SCAM - Musician B.o.B has started a GoFundMe campaign that’s looking to raise $1 million to “launch one, if not multiple, satellites into space,” toward the goal of “finding the curve.” In other words: B.o.B would like you to give him a million dollars so that he can prove that the Earth is in fact round, and not, as B.o.B currently believes (despite the frankly impossibly overwhelming glut of evidence to the contrary) flat. More (Source: The Verge - Sep 27)
BLUE ORIGIN SELECTED AS LAUNCH PROVIDER FOR SATELLITE STARTUP MU SPACE - Thai space startup mu Space will launch its first geostationary satellite with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the companies announced today at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia. Mu Space, founded by Northrop Grumman Corporation alum James Yenbamroong, will launch its first geostationary satellite with a target date of 2021, with the aim of helping provide space-based satellite broadband, broadcast, mobile and satellite services to Thailand. Blue Origin, the Amazon billionaire’s rocket company, intends to build New Glenn to bring orbital payloads to space, with a reusable platform that can potentially be flown multiple times like rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch craft. New Glenn is expected to make its first test launches before 2020, and then move on to serving customers. More (Source: TechCrunch - Sep 27)
LONG MARCH 5 FAILURE TO POSTPONE CHINA’S LUNAR EXPLORATION PROGRAM - A leading official of China’s space program confirmed Sept. 25 that the July failure of the country’s largest launch vehicle will lead to delays to upcoming lunar missions, including one to return samples. Tian Yulong, secretary general of the China National Space Administration, said at a press conference during the 68th International Astronautical Congress here that the investigation into the July 2 failure of the Long March 5 on its second mission was ongoing, with no updates on the cause of the failure. “The Long March 5 is a bigger challenge for China’s space agency,” he said. “In the future, maybe the end of the year, we will have a clear understanding of the problem.” More (Source: SpaceNews - Sep 27)
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