NASA safety panel skeptical of Starliner readiness for crewed flight
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-26 01:03
NASA safety panel chair urges agency not to rush into crewed test flight. Patricia Sanders: "There remains a long line of NASA processes still ahead" She says NASA should bring in an independent team to take a "deep look" At issues. CFT is the first crewed flight of the spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on board.
Orbit Fab selects Impulse Space’s orbital vehicle for in-space refueling demo
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 21:19
Orbit Fab will seek to refuel the U.S. Space Force Tetra-5 spacecraft with up to 50 kilograms of hydrazine. The demonstration, planned for 2025, was funded by the Space Force and the Defense Innovation Unit. Three satellites will be stationed in geostationary orbit where Impulse Space’s orbital service vehicle will serve as a hosting platform.
Kleos enters partnership with General Atomics
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 21:06
Kleos Space announces partnership with General Atomics Commonwealth Computer Research. Partnership aims to make it easier for analysts to derive insights from radio frequency data. General Atomics already provides RF data captured by drones in its catalog of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products. In the future, a Kleos satellite could identify suspicious activity, like piracy or illegal fishing, prompting a drone to fly over.
Northrop Grumman wins $45 million Space Force contract to launch small weather satellite
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 20:38
Northrop Grumman wins $45.5 million contract to launch a small weather satellite in 2025. The company’s Minotaur 4 rocket will launch a payload called Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) prototype. EWS demonstrations are an effort to fill a Defense Department need for weather data.
Virgin Galactic makes first suborbital spaceflight in nearly two years
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 16:49
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle flew to space for the first time in nearly two years. The flight, called Unity 25 by the company, was the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo since July 2021. The company did not host media for the launch or provide a livestream of the mission.
Viasat’s Inmarsat acquisition clears all regulatory hurdles
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 14:56
Viasat has secured all regulatory clearances needed to buy British satellite operator Inmarsat. European Commission got unconditional approval from the European Commission May 25. U.S. Federal Communications Commission said May 19 it had approved the deal, which now just needs to pass through customary closing conditions.
South Korea’s KSLV-2 rocket launches seven satellites, one unaccounted for
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 14:14
South Korea's KSLV-2 rocket put seven satellites into sun-synchronous orbit. An eighth cubesat is believed to have not deployed properly. Launch was initially scheduled for May 24, but was delayed by one day due to a technical glitch. President Yoon Suk-yeol hailed the launch as a "significant milestone"
Whitson says commercial station visit critical to private-sector space ops
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 00:00
Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is on a fully commercial visit to the International Space Station. Whitson joined Houston-based Axiom Space as director of human spaceflight after retiring from NASA. She logged a total of 665 days and 22 hours in space during those three flights.
Virgin Galactic resumes suborbital spaceflights
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 00:00
Virgin Galactic launched its suborbital spaceplane “Unity’ on its first crewed flight in two years Wednesday. It carried two pilots and four company astronauts to the edge of space in a final test flight before paying customers begin suborbital jaunts in June. Virgin Galactic suffered a catastrophic failure in 2014 that killed one of the two pilots on board.
In Their Honor … Lest We Forget – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 00:00
Satnews Publishers’ offices will be closed on Monday, May 29, in observance of Memorial Day. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, May 30. We salute the past, present and future fallen heroes. We also salute those whose sacrifice was a loved one.
UPDATE: It’s a go for Rocket Lab’s TROPICS constellation launch for NASA to monitor storms – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 00:00
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) successfully launced the second of two dedicated Electron launches to deploy a constellation of storm monitoring satellites for NASA. This mission, named Coming To A Storm Near You, launched May 25, and Friday, May 26, 2023 NZST from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The TROPICS constellation will help increase understanding of deadly storms and improve tropical cyclone forecasts.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) Flight Readiness Testing of the Vulcan rocket cancelled – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-25 00:00
The test was to be a validation of the fully integrated vehicle at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. ULA rolled the rocket back to the Vertical Integration Facility to gain access to the booster ignition system. The firing, when such occurs, will generate a roar of nearly a million pounds of thrust, but Vulcan will remain held to the launch pad by restraining mechanisms.
STN extends MENAFLIX programming to the world – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-26 00:00
MenaFLIX is an OTT streaming and on-demand service available in the Middle East. STN is one of the founding partners of MENAFLIX. Viewers will be able to watch live and on-demand channels from the entire Middle East region. MENAFLIX is also available through Roku and Amazon.
Momentus to deliver Lunasonde tech demo payload to orbit – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-26 00:00
Momentus has signed a contract with Lunasonde to deliver their Picacho CubeSat to orbit. Lunasonde is a sub-surface imaging company with the goal of making underground resources – such as water and minerals – easier to locate. The Picacho CubeSat is a tech demo of Lunasonde’s sensors and will measure the power spectral density of low-frequency radio signals.
Thuraya + eSAT Global announce satIoT breakthrough – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-26 00:00
ESAT Global and Thuraya have completed an over-the-air demo of low-latency, direct-to-satellite IoT texting system. ESAT was able to send and receive messages of lengths of up to 320 characters over the T2 satellite with less transmission power than that used by a typical car key fob.
Innovation endorsement from ClassNK to Inmarsat’s Fleet Secure Endpoint – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-26 00:00
ClassNK has granted their Innovation Endorsement to Inmarsat’s Fleet Secure Endpoint. FSE achieves cyber security across the five core functions of the NIST Framework on which the IMO 2021 regulation is based. It includes Security, Risk Assessment and Organizational Security Management Overview (OSMO) reports in format covering the IMO 2021 elements.
Rocket Lab launches final TROPICS mission
Original Publication Date: 2023-05-24 22:08
Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket on the “Coming to a Storm Near You’ mission on Friday. This was the company’s fifth mission of 2023 and 37th overall for the company. The TROPICS constellation is made up of five 3U cubesats, each measuring 10 x 10 x 36 centimeters. The first batch successfully launched on May 8 on the mission dubbed “Rocket Like a Hurricane”