NASA TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF PROGRESS 88 LAUNCH, SPACE STATION DOCKING - NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Progress 88 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 5:43 a.m. EDT (2:43 p.m. Baikonur time) Thursday, May 30, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   More
(Source: NASA - May 30)

SPACEX HAS LAUNCHED THE EARTHCARE CLIMATE RESEARCH SATELLITE FOR ESA AND JAXA - The joint European-Japanese EarthCARE satellite has begun its mission to improve our understanding of Earth’s climate Tuesday, with a launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 3:20 PM Pacific Time (22:20 UTC).   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 29)

UPDATE: SHENZHOU-18 CREW TO CONDUCT EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITIES - The Shenzhou-18 crew members, who are currently on board China's space station, will conduct their first extravehicular activities (EVAs) within the next few days, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Monday. The astronauts, stationed in the orbital complex for the last 32 days, have accomplished a rotation with the Shenzhou-17 crew, attended to the maintenance and upkeep of the space station platform, ensured the upkeep of the life and health support system, conducted inspections and tests on EVA suits, and prepared for spacewalk.   More
(Source: Xinhua - May 28)

NORTH KOREA SAYS ITS LATEST SATELLITE LAUNCH EXPLODED IN FLIGHT - North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure on Monday when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight. The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would try to launch a satellite by June 4, in what would have been its second spy satellite in orbit.   More
(Source: CNBC - May 28)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA ON TUESDAY MORNING - SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Tuesday morning (May 28). A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to loft 23 Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday during a four-hour window beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT). SpaceX will webcast the launch live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before the window opens.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 28)

NASA LAUNCHES SMALL CLIMATE SATELLITE TO STUDY EARTH’S POLES - The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 p.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday. The agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission consists of two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest, most remote regions on the planet.   More
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA - May 27)

NASA SAYS BOEING’S STARLINER CREW CAPSULE CAN SAFELY FLY ‘AS IS’ WITH PROPULSION SYSTEM HELIUM LEAK - After nearly three weeks of exhaustive tests and data analysis, NASA managers said Friday they are confident Boeing’s oft-delayed Starliner crew capsule can safely launch “as is” June 1, saying a small helium leak in the ship’s propulsion system does not pose a flight safety concern. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said even if a suspect shirt-button-size rubber seal in the plumbing leading to one specific thruster failed completely in flight — resulting in a leak rate 100 times worse than what’s been observed to date — the Starliner could still fly safely.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 27)

JAPAN SAYS NORTH KOREA WILL LAUNCH A MILITARY SPY SATELLITE BY JUNE 3 - Japan said Monday that North Korea has informed it of a plan to launch a satellite by June 3, an apparent effort to put its second military spy satellite into orbit. The launch notification came as leaders of South Korea, Japan and China gathered in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting later Monday. Japan’s coast guard said it has been notified by North Korea about its planned launch of a “satellite rocket,” with safety cautioning in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and China and east of the Philippine island of Luzon beginning Monday through midnight June 3.   More
(Source: New York Post - May 27)

SPACE FORCE FOUND A SATELLITE LOST IN SPACE FOR 25 YEARS - he short NBC News documentary Battlefield Space took viewers inside Space Force, the newest branch of the United States military, for a look at its efforts to safeguard the final frontier. The organization’s stated mission is both broad and vague: to secure the interests of the U.S. and deter aggression in, from, and to space. While that might conjure images of space soldiers piloting tactical spacecraft in orbital dogfights, it mostly amounts to keeping an eye on the skies. The many duties of Space Force include but are not limited to Space Domain Awareness, which mostly amounts to detection, identification, tracking, and cataloging of satellites and space debris.   More
(Source: Syfy - May 24)

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