NDAA compromise bill wants more focus on satellite protection, responsive launch
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-07 21:17
Compromise version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act released. It directs DoD to figure out a strategy to protect military satellites from threats in orbit. Bill continues to press the Space Force to work with commercial launch providers. Bill moved to the House floor Dec. 7; Senate leaders said they plan to take up bill next week.
NASA loses contact with ICON spacecraft
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-08 13:02
NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer has not communicated with ground stations since Nov. 25. The spacecraft, launched in October 2019, had not experienced any major issues reported by NASA before this incident. The $252 million ICON mission was designed to study the interaction of space weather with terrestrial weather.
3 Technical Accelerators for Space Domain Awareness
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-08 14:00
The race is on to develop space capabilities for a growing array of national security, civil, and commercial priorities. With the satellite population expected to reach as many as 100,000 assets by the end of the decade, the challenge of keeping track of all those orbital objects and associated debris is formidable.
China launches 14 satellites with new solid rocket from mobile sea platform
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-09 10:24
China launches its new Jielong-3 rocket from a mobile sea platform in the Yellow Sea. The four-stage rocket can carry 1,500 kilograms of payload into a 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit. The mission carried eight satellites developed by commercial remote sensing firm Changguang Satellite Technology.
SpaceX launches 40 satellites in first of three missions for OneWeb
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-09 00:31
SpaceX successfully launched 40 satellites for OneWeb’s rival broadband constellation Dec. 8. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 5:27 p.m. Eastern. It is the first of three dedicated Falcon 9 launches that OneWeb booked in March.
SpaceX requests permission for direct-to-smartphone service
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-08 22:51
SpaceX could provide "full and continuous" Direct-to-smartphone services by mid-2024. Less than a third of the 7,500 Gen 2 Starlink satellites approved last week will have capability. SpaceX has so far only announced a partnership to use spectrum from T-Mobile.
SES government unit rebranded as SES Space & Defense
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-08 22:00
SES Government Solutions will begin operating under the new name SES Space & Defense. The renaming follows SES’ recent $450 million acquisition of DRS Global Enterprise Solutions. SES operates a commercial fleet of more than 70 geosynchronous and medium Earth orbit satellites.
NASASpaceFlight.com
India launches a new ocean monitoring satellite on Saturday morning. The PSLV rocket delivered the EOS-06 spacecraft into a low Earth orbit. The mission, PSLV C54, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 11:56 local time (06:26 UTC)
Commercial Archives
Blue Origin has quietly been making progress on its orbital New Glenn vehicle. This progress has been made alongside the ongoing investigation into an in-flight abort of the fourth suborbital New Shepard mission of the year, which continues to keep that program grounded. Blue Origin has not commented on the test sightings.
International Archives
A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket was launched from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Dec. 1. Onboard was likely a Lotos-S electronic intelligence satellite for the Russian military. Only Lotos-S1 No. 6 and its Soyuz upper stage were initially cataloged in orbit.
ISS Updates – Spaceflight101 – International Space Station
A veteran NASA spacewalker and an EVA rookie from Japan ended their week with nearly six hours of work outside the International Space Station. The restoration of the Station’s Mobile Servicing System started last year and continued in January to provide Canadarm2 with a new pair of grappling hands.
Featured – Spaceflight101
SpaceX Falcon 9 takes to the skies over Florida’s Cape Canaveral Monday afternoon. The Falcon 9 is lifting a flight-proven Dragon spacecraft into orbit for a critical delivery of science gear, supplies and maintenance hardware to the International Space Station. It is the first of at least six cargo ships inbound to the U.S. Segment of ISS this year.
News – Spaceflight101
Europe's Copernicus satellite fleet is gearing up for the arrival of its next addition on Wednesday. A Russian Rockot booster set to blast off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 17:57 UTC with the Sentinel-3B multi-function satellite.
Re-Entry: Long March 11 Rocket Body – Spaceflight101
The CZ-11 fourth stage used leftover propellant for a partial de-orbit maneuver, lowering its perigee to 120 Kilometers to significantly accelerate its orbital decay. It is reportedly built around a YF-50 main engine and conducts the orbital circularization after the three CZ-11 stages finish their job.
Water Mission to Gauge Alaskan Rivers on Front Lines of Climate Change
Swot is being jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the CSA and the UK Space Agency. “SWOT is going to allow us to see what’s going on in Alaska hydrologically in ways that we haven’t before,” says NASA’s SWOT freshwater science lead.
NASA Press Events at 2022 Fall AGU Meeting
NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, is on track to deliver a sizable sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. Join experts at the NASA booth to hear hyperwall talks about Planetary Science, Astrophysics, Earth Science and Heliophysics.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Gets the Dirt on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. One of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month. Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on Earth to search for signs of ancient microbial life.
NASA Sets Coverage for SWOT Water Survey Mission Launch
NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. Live launch coverage will begin at 6 a.m. EST (3 a.m. PST) on NASA Television, YouTube, Twitter, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. SWOT will survey nearly all water on Earth’s surface for the first time, measuring the height of the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes.
NASA Is Testing a New Robotic Arm That Really Knows How to Chill Out
COLDArm uses gears made of bulk metallic glass. Glass is tougher than ceramic and twice as strong as steel. Sensor embedded in COLDArm’s “wrist” gives the arm feedback. Like the Mars helicopter, COLDArm could operate autonomously.
VP Harris, French President Get First Look at Galactic Get-Together
A merging galaxy pair cavort in this image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. II ZW 96 is roughly 500 million light-years from Earth and lies in the constellation Delphinus, close to the celestial equator. The two galaxies are in the process of merging and as a result have a chaotic, disturbed shape.
Baby Star ‘Burps’ Tell Tales of Frantic Feeding, NASA Data Shows
Newborn stars "feed" At a furious rate and grow through surprisingly frequent feeding frenzies. Outbursts from stellar babies at the earliest stage of development occur roughly every 400 years. The first such outburst was detected nearly a century ago, and they’ve rarely been seen since.