Satellite News
NASA’s new rocket on launchpad for trip to Moon
NASA’s giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad Wednesday in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks. It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program – America’s quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
NASA selects astrophysics mission proposals for study
NASA has selected four mission concepts for additional study in the latest round of an astrophysics program, but selected missions could face delays because of budget constraints.
MIDEX proposals : STAR-X, UVEX, LEAP, MoonBEAM,
ESA to request funding for space-based solar power study
The European Space Agency will seek funding this fall for a feasibility study of space-based solar power, the latest sign of support for a concept that still faces significant technical and financial challenges.
Launcher News
NGC Teams with Firefly Aerospace to Develop Antares Rocket Upgrade
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and Firefly Aerospace have joined forces to provide an American-built first-stage upgrade for the Antares rocket and a new medium launch vehicle to serve commercial, civil and national security space launch markets. “Through our collaboration, we will first develop a fully domestic version of our Antares rocket, the Antares 330, for Cygnus space station commercial resupply services, followed by an entirely new medium class launch vehicle,
Sky Perfect JSAT picks SpaceX’s Starship for 2024 satellite launch
Sky Perfect JSAT said Aug. 18 it has picked SpaceX’s Starship rocket to launch its Superbird-9 satellite in 2024.
China’s spaceplane remains in orbit but clues emerge from recovered launch debris
The “reusable experiment spacecraft” launched from Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert atop of a Long March 2F rocket Aug. 4 and has remained in 346 by 593 kilometer orbit inclined by 50 degrees since launch, according to tracking by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron (18 SDS).
Though China has released no details of the mission, there are clear differences from the spacecraft’s apparent first outing in September 2020. The new mission orbit is more eccentric than that of the first, when the spaceplane spent two days in an orbit of 331 by 347 kilometers.
Exploration News
NASA selects potential lunar landing sites for Artemis 3
NASA has selected 13 regions around the south pole of the moon that it is considering for the first crewed landing of the Artemis program later this decade.
NewSpace News
Ukraine Crowdfunded a $17M Reconnaissance SAR Satellite
Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation signed a contract with ICEYE to provide the Government of Ukraine with the SAR reconnaissance data and full capabilities of one of ICEYE’s satellite already in orbit. The deal was closed with the money from the Foundation’s crowdfunding initiative. The Crowdfunding The story of this acquisition is rather interesting.
Fleet Space’s Exosphere Earth scanning technology’s success at Australian Lithium Exploration Project trial
Fleet Space Technologies successfully completed a trial using its proprietary Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) technology to faster and non-invasively find critical lithium deposits. This was commissioned by Australia’s newest lithium miner, Core Lithium, at its Finniss Project in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Space Safety News
‘Cannibal’ solar burst headed for Earth could make northern lights visible in U.S.
A plume of “dark plasma” from the sun is expected to be overtaken by a “cannibal” solar burst that may cause an aurora display visible throughout large portions of the United States on Thursday.
Intelsat working to regain control of Galaxy 15 satellite
Intelsat said Aug. 19 it has lost control of its Galaxy 15 satellite after it was likely hit by a geomagnetic storm.
Science &Technology News
ESO Telescope Images a Spectacular Cosmic Dance
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has imaged the result of a spectacular cosmic collision — the galaxy NGC 7727. This giant was born from the merger of two galaxies, an event that started around a billion years ago. At its centre lies the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever found, two objects that are destined to coalesce into an even more massive black hole. Just as you may bump into someone on a busy street, galaxies too can bump into each other.
Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space
Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space. NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.
