BOEING'S TROUBLED STARLINER SPACECRAFT LAUNCH IS DELAYED AGAIN - The first crewed launch of Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft has been delayed again, to May 25, this time because of a helium leak in the service module. NASA had set the liftoff for May 21 after scrubbing a May 6 launch but the helium leak was discovered on Wednesday. While the agency said the leak in the craft's thruster system was stable and wouldn't pose a risk during the flight, "Boeing teams are working to develop operational procedures to ensure the system retains sufficient performance capability and appropriate redundancy during the flight." More (Source: NPR - May 21)
BLUE ORIGIN LAUNCHES 1ST CREWED SPACEFLIGHT SINCE AUGUST 2022 - Blue Origin's nearly two-year human spaceflight drought is over. Jeff Bezos' aerospace company launched its NS-25 mission today (May 19), sending six people — including the United States' first-ever Black astronaut candidate — on a brief trip to suborbital space aboard its New Shepard rocket-capsule combo. It was Blue Origin's first space tourism launch since August 2022. That previous mission went well, but the company's next flight, an uncrewed research jaunt that launched a month later, did not: New Shepard suffered a serious anomaly, causing the destruction of the first-stage booster. More (Source: Space.com - May 20)
NASA, BOEING FURTHER DELAY STARLINER CREW FLIGHT TEST LAUNCH AMID ONGOING HELIUM LEAK REVIEW - Ongoing analysis of a helium leak on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft forced NASA and Boeing to delay the Crew Flight Test mission further. A blog post, issued late on Friday afternoon, announced a new target launch date for Starliner CFT with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams of no earlier than Saturday, May 25, at 3:09 p.m. EDT (1909 UTC). The spacecraft will launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance to dock with the International Space Station for a roughly eight-day stay before returning to Earth. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 18)
CHINA LAUNCHES NEW MYSTERY SHIYAN SATELLITE - China launched the latest in its secretive Shiyan satellite series over the weekend. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, northwest China, at 7:43 p.m.EDT on May 11 (2343 GMT, or 7:43 a.m. Beijing time on May 12). Chinese authorities revealed the mission payload to be Shiyan-23 once launch was declared to be successful. Chinese authorities provided no images of the satellite. The only description of the spacecraft states that Shiyan-23 will be used for space environment monitoring. More (Source: Space.com - May 18)
SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCHES STARLINK SATELLITES ON RECORD 21ST FLIGHT - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for the 21st time tonight (May 17), setting a new reusability record for the company. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:32 p.m. EDT (0032 GMT on May 18), sending 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites toward orbit. The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. More (Source: Space.com - May 18)
BOEING STARLINER'S CREW DEBUT DELAYED AGAIN OVER SPACECRAFT ISSUE - Boeing's first Starliner mission carrying astronauts into space has been delayed again - until at least May 21 - over an issue with the spacecraft's propulsion system, the company said on Tuesday. Starliner's mission carrying two NASA astronauts had been scheduled for liftoff from Florida last week until a technical issue with its Atlas 5 rocket prompted a delay to Friday, May 17, the latest postponement for a program years behind schedule and more than $1.5 billion over budget. More (Source: Reuters - May 16)
SPACE FORCE AIMS TO LAUNCH 1ST 'FOO FIGHTER' SATELLITES IN 2027 TO TRACK HYPERSONIC THREATS - The United States Space Force has ordered the first satellites for an upcoming advanced missile defense constellation. The Space Development Agency (SDA), an agency within the U.S. Space Force tasked with developing new, disruptive space technologies, awarded $414 million to California-based Millennium Space Systems, Inc. to build eight satellites for its upcoming Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter program, also known as F2 or FOO Fighter. More (Source: Space.com - May 15)
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW WHAT THE HISTORIC GEOMAGNETIC STORM LOOKED LIKE FROM SPACE - Millions of Americans looked to the night sky and snapped magical photos and videos of the northern lights this weekend during the momentous geomagnetic storm. But cameras were also trained on the storm from space, capturing phantasmal monochromatic shots from the sun's electromagnetic radiation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) released eight satellite images of the storm on Tuesday, photographed by the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) fleet early Saturday. More (Source: CBS News - May 15)
SPACEX LAUNCHES 50TH FALCON 9 ROCKET OF 2024 ON STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX continues to expand its Starlink constellation that offer Direct to Cell capability through its Falcon 9 launch on Tuesday. There were 13 Direct to Cell-capable Starlink satellites among the 20 that launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 11:39 a.m. PDT (2:39 p.m. EDT, 1839 UTC). This was the 16th launch from VSFB this year, more than half of the total number of launches from Vandenberg in 2023. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 15)
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