ASTRONAUTS READY FOR FIRST, ALL-EUROPEAN MISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - For the third time, Axiom Space is preparing a charter mission to the International Space Station. The Ax-3 mission carries the distinction of featuring an all-European crew, with Commander Michael López-Alegría being a dual citizen of both the United States and Spain. Following the Flight Readiness Review on Wednesday, the crew spoke about their upcoming mission amid their ongoing quarantine in Florida, which has been in place for a little over a week. They are set to launch to the ISS, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 UTC). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 12)
NASA EYES BILLION-DOLLAR SPACE VEHICLE TO AVERT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION'S UNCONTROLLED REENTRY - An approaching federal contract deadline may reveal the solution to an urgent problem facing the U.S. space program: how to safely deorbit the International Space Station in the event of an emergency or when its mission wraps up. Companies have until March 4 to turn in their proposals to "design, develop, manufacture, test, integrate, achieve NASA acceptance, deliver, and sustain" what the space agency is calling the United States Deorbit Vehicle, envisioned as "a new or modified spacecraft using a large amount of propellant." More (Source: Military.com - Jan 12)
NASA AWARDS ANOTHER $100 MILLION FOR PRIVATE SPACE STATIONS - NASA has awarded nearly $100 million in additional funding to commercial space station partners that are developing low Earth orbit destinations. With the International Space Station (ISS) set for retirement in 2030, NASA has Space Act Agreements with Blue Origin and Voyager Space to develop concepts for a new orbiting lab as part of the space agency's Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) program. On. Jan. 5. NASA announced modifications to its existing agreements, including new technical milestones and reallocated funding. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 12)
OVZON 3 SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYS SOLAR ARRAYS IN GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT - Redwire said Jan. 10 the two unfurlable solar array wings it provided for Ovzon 3, the first commercial satellite to use the space technology company’s Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) hardware, have successfully deployed in geostationary orbit. Each 10-meter-long ROSA is operating nominally following Ovzon 3’s launch last week aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, Redwire announced, providing the 1,500-kilogram broadband satellite and its electric propulsion with a combined 10-kilowatts of power for a trip due to take several months to its final orbital position. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 11)
IRIDIUM PIVOTS TO STANDARDIZED DIRECT-TO-DEVICE SATELLITE SERVICES - Iridium Communications plans to make its low Earth orbit constellation compatible with 5G standards used by mass-market smartphones, aiming to enable them to access messaging and SOS services outside cellular coverage from 2026. The standards-based approach comes after a proprietary-only strategy for serving the emerging direct-to-device market derailed last year when Qualcomm scrapped plans to make specialized chips that would give smartphones the ability to connect to Iridium’s satellites. More (Source: SpaceNews - Jan 11)
CHINA TO LAUNCH 26,000 SATELLITES, VYING WITH U.S. FOR SPACE POWER - China will start building this year its own version of StarLink, a satellite internet constellation using low Earth orbit, with plans of launching some 26,000 satellites to cover the entire world led by state-run companies. Now that the military use of satellite-based communications systems for warfare in such places as Ukraine and Gaza is increasing, China will set up its own satellite network to compete with the U.S. as a "space power." More (Source: Nikkei Asia - Jan 11)
CHINA'S 1ST LAUNCH OF 2024 PUTS 4 SMALL WEATHER SATELLITES INTO ORBIT - A Kuaizhou 1A solid rocket lifted off from a transport erector launcher at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 6:20 a.m. EST (1120 GMT and 7:20 p.m. Beijing time) on Jan. 5. Aboard were four Tianmu-1 weather satellites, numbered 15-18. The satellites join two other sets of four Tianmu-1 satellites, which were launched separately on Dec. 24 and Dec. 27 last year. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 11)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH 22 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM CALIFORNIA EARLY JAN. 11 AFTER DELAYS - SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday (Jan. 11) at 3:59 a.m. EST (0859 GMT; 12:59 a.m. local time in California). The mission was initially scheduled to launch on Jan. 9. You can watch the launch via SpaceX's account on X. Coverage will begin about five minutes before the launch. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 11)
LAUNCH ROUNDUP: AXIOM-3 CREW AND TIANZHOU 7 CARGO SPACE STATION MISSIONS THIS WEEK - A pair of missions to space stations headline the launches for the week of Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. Axiom-3 will be flying four private astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the first crew launch of 2024. Crew Dragon Freedom will fly from Florida, with a multinational crew, for a mission to the Station lasting around two weeks. The Tianzhou 7 cargo spacecraft headed for the Chinese Space Station Tiangong is also flying this week, and Japan is launching a military reconnaissance satellite aboard one of its last H-IIA rockets. In addition, the Gravity-1 rocket developed by the Chinese firm OrienSpace is making its maiden flight. Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1, Starlink 7-10, and Starlink 6-37 are also now on the schedule for this week. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 10)
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