New launch vehicles inch towards the pad
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-15 08:24
Executives of several launch providers say they are entering home stretch of development of next-generation vehicles. United Launch Alliance still preparing for a first launch of its Vulcan Centaur before the end of the year. Japanese space agency JAXA preparing to perform the first launch of the H3 rocket before next March.
Satellite operators weigh strategies for an industry in transformation
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-15 16:33
Intelsat CEO David Wajsgras: "The way the industry looks today with the core players may or may not look the same in the next couple of years" The entry of Starlink’s low Earth orbit constellation is increasing competition in the broadband market. Eutelsat is seeking to merge its business in geostationary orbit with OneWeb.
Intuitive Machines to go public in SPAC merger
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-16 11:48
Houston-based Intuitive Machines will merge with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. The merged company would have a pro forma enterprise value of $815 million. Intuitive Machines is developing a series of lunar landers. The company is also developing a satellite network to provide communication around the moon.
PLD Space completes static-fire tests of Miura 1
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-16 10:48
Spanish company PLD Space says it is ready to proceed with the launch of a suborbital technology demonstrator. The company conducted a 122-second test of its Miura 1 rocket Sept. 15 at a company facility in Teruel, Spain. The test simulated how the vehicle would perform on an actual suborbital flight.
Commercial in-orbit vehicles caught in the space arms crossfire - SpaceNews
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-16 10:00
Satellite-servicing firm SpaceLogistics has two spacecraft in orbit providing life-extension services to two Intelsat geostationary satellites. A key problem for the satellite-servicing industry is that major space powers can’t agree on a definition of a space weapon. The United States and a growing number of spacefaring countries are hashing out these issues with fresh urgency.
Congress asks for more transparency into New Shepard failure investigation
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-16 09:17
Reps. Don Beyer and Brian Babin ask FAA for more details on New Shepard launch accident. They wrote that their interest stems from the fact that New Shepard also carries people. They also asked for a briefing of subcommittee staff within 10 days. Neither the FAA nor Blue Origin have provided more details about the incident.
Live coverage: SpaceX scrubs Starlink launch attempt for third day in a row – Spaceflight Now
Original Publication Date: 2022-09-15 00:00
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed Thursday night due to bad weather. Falcon 9 is now scheduled to lift off Friday, weather permitting, to carry the next 54 Starlink internet satellites into orbit. Liftoff time is set for 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 GMT Saturday), when forecasters predict a 50-50 chance of acceptable weather conditions. The Falcon 9’s upper stage will release the satellites over the North Atlantic Ocean about 15 minutes after liftoff.
NASASpaceFlight.com
The SSLV or Small Satellite Launch Vehicle conducted its launch debut from Sriharikota, India on Sunday, August 7. An issue with the fourth stage resulted in the satellites being deployed in an unusable orbit. The SSLV program’s genesis was a December 2015 National Institute of Advanced Studies proposal to create a “Small Satellite Launch Vehicle-1”
Commercial Archives
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket has made its 30th flight. Rocket Lab's third dedicated flight for Japanese company Synspective. Rocket Lab’s 150th satellite since the rocket’s first flight in 2017. This flight also marks the 300th flight of a Rutherford engine.
International Archives
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket launched to Sun-synchronous orbit on Sept. 15. It was the company's third dedicated flight for Japanese company Synspective. The launch took place from Rocket Lab’s private spaceport at Mahia, New Zealand, using the company’s Launch Complex-1B launch pad.
Chinese Long March 3B Launches APStar-6C Communications Satellite – Spaceflight101
China conducted a rare commercial launch of a Long March 3B rocket with the APStar-6C communications satellite. Long March 3B lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 16:06 UTC on a mission of under half an hour to lift the spacecraft into an elliptical Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Confirmation of launch success was provided by APT Satellite around 40 minutes after liftoff when the satellite had been separated into its target orbit.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard Reaches new Heights in latest Test Flight – Spaceflight101
Blue Origin launched their reusable New Shepard launch system on Sunday. The mission was designed to expand the vehicle’s operational envelope by sending it to a peak altitude of 107 Kilometers. Sunday’s flight marked the second for this particular set of hardware, following up on the successful December 2017 mission.
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. First of at least six cargo ships inbound to the U.S. Segment of ISS this year. Dragon spacecraft will deliver science gear, supplies and maintenance hardware to the orbiting laboratory.
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. Read more
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.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Geologically Rich Mars Terrain
The rover has collected four samples from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater since July 7. Twenty-eight miles (45 kilometers) wide, Jezero Crater hosts a delta – an ancient fan-shaped feature that formed about 3.5 billion years ago at the convergence of a Martian river and a lake.
NASA to Host Briefing on Perseverance Mars Rover Mission Operations
The briefing will livestream on NASA Television, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as the agency’s app. Questions can be asked on social media during the briefing using #AskNASA. Perseverance marks the first step in the Mars Sample Return campaign, which would return scientifically promising samples to Earth for further study.
NASA’s AIRS Instrument Records Typhoon Hinnamnor Before Landfall
Airlines like AIRS and AMSU-A provide a 3D look at the planet’s weather and climate, making observations down to Earth’s surface. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3D map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations.
A Cosmic Tarantula, Caught by NASA’s Webb
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb has already begun revealing a universe never seen before, and is only getting started on rewriting the stellar creation story.
NASA’s Webb Takes Its First-Ever Direct Image of Distant World
Astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and is not habitable. The finding is detailed in NASA’s latest JWST blog entry.
Explore the Solar System With NASA’s New-and-Improved 3D ‘Eyes’
Learn the basics about dwarf planets or the finer points of gas giants. Ride alongside no fewer than 126 space missions past and present. Scroll through rich interactive journeys, including Voyager’s Grand Tour of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. You can rotate objects, compare them side by side, and even modulate the perspective as well as the lighting.
Engineers Solve Data Glitch on NASA’s Voyager 1
Engineers have repaired an issue affecting data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft. Earlier this year, the probe’s attitude articulation and control system began sending garbled information about its health and activities. The team has since located the source of the garbled information: The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago.