UK COMPANY TO BUILD SATELLITE SYSTEM WORTH £127M - A new military satellite system costing £127m is being designed and built in the UK. Airbus said the contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could create about 200 skilled jobs at Stevenage in Hertfordshire, and Portsmouth. The satellite system, named Oberon, is expected to launch in 2027 and will be able to capture images on the ground in the daytime and at night.   More
(Source: BBC - Feb 11)

SKY SKIMMERS: THE RACE TO FLY SATELLITES AT THE LOWEST ORBITS YET - There's a new race in space, but it's not where you might think. It's happening close to home – in the nearest bit of space, right on the edge of Earth's atmosphere. High in the skies of Earth, a new space race is underway. Here, just above the boundary where space begins, companies are trying to create a new class of daring satellites. Not quite high-altitude planes and not quite low-orbiting satellites, these sky skimmers are designed to race around our planet in an untapped region, with potentially huge benefits on offer.   More
(Source: BBC - Feb 10)

NASA WILL BEAM SUPER BOWL LIX TO ORBIT FOR ASTRONAUTS ABOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Are you ready to catch the big game? On Sunday (Feb. 9), across the United States and around the world, Americans and American football fans will tune in to watch the top two teams in the National Football League (NFL) go head-to-head in the ultimate post-season game, and even astronauts living in space will have the chance to watch the action live.   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 9)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES FOURTH SET OF KINéIS SATELLITES - Rocket Lab launched a fourth set of satellites for French company Kinéis Feb. 8 as it extends its lead in the small launch sector. A Rocket Lab Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1, Pad A, at 3:43 p.m. Eastern. The vehicle’s kick stage deployed its payload of five satellites a little more than an hour after liftoff in orbits with planned altitudes of 646 kilometers and inclinations of 97 degrees.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 9)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH 23 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CALIFORNIA - SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday. The Starlink 11-10 mission will send 23 satellites into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East is set for 4:03 p.m. PST (7:03 p.m. EST, 0003 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHING 21 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA ON FEB. 8 - SpaceX is set to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast on Saturday (Feb. 8). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, during a nearly four-hour window that opens at 1:23 p.m. EST (1823 GMT).   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 8)

NASA ASTRONAUT SUNITA WILLIAMS SAYS "WE DON'T FEEL ABANDONED" OR "STUCK" AS SPACE MISSION STRETCHES ON - Contrary to a recent social media post from President Trump, Starliner astronaut Sunita Williams says she and crewmate Barry "Butch" Wilmore have not been "virtually abandoned" in space, despite a mission that's been extended from a little more than one week to more than nine months. "I don't think I'm abandoned. I don't think we're stuck up here," she told CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson during an in-flight interview airing Friday night. "We've got food. We've got clothes. We have a ride home in case anything really bad does happen to the International Space Station.   More
(Source: CBS News - Feb 8)

NASA INSPECTOR ISSUES WARNING ABOUT CRACKS AND LEAKS IN SPACE STATION - According to a new report by NASA's inspector general, the space agency is growing significantly concerned over leaks in a tunnel connecting the International Space Station's Russian segment to a docking port. Worse yet, officials are still not entirely sure what is causing them. "On-going cracks and air leaks in the Service Module Transfer Tunnel are a top safety risk," the report reads.    More
(Source: MSN - Feb 8)

JAPAN PUTS NEW US SPACE FORCE CAPABILITY INTO ORBIT - A Japanese navigation satellite launched from one of Japan’s southernmost islands earlier this week, carrying into space a U.S. Space Force space domain awareness payload. The successful Feb. 2 launch aboard a Japanese H3 rocket is a milestone in the U.S.-Japan alliance and in the Space Force’s push to deepen its international partnerships. It marks just the third USSF payload to be hosted on a foreign-owned satellite.    More
(Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine - Feb 7)

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