AMSAT-OSCAR 7: THE HAM SATELLITE THAT REFUSED TO DIE - When the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7) amateur radio satellite was launched in 1974, its expected lifespan was about five years. The plucky little satellite made it to 1981 when a battery failure caused it to be written off as dead. Then, in 2002 it came back to life. The prevailing theory being that one of the cells in the satellites NiCd battery pack, in an extremely rare event, shorted open — thus allowing the satellite to run (intermittently) off its solar panels.   More
(Source: Hackaday - Mar 30)

CHINA LAUNCHES CLASSIFIED TJS-16 SPACECRAFT, COMPANION OBJECT EMERGES ALONGSIDE EARLIER TJS-15 SATELLITE - China launched the new TJS-16 classified satellite on Saturday aboard a Long March 7A rocket, continuing the opaque series of experimental missions. A Long March 7A rocket lifted off at 12:05 p.m. Eastern (1605 UTC) March 29 from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island province of Hainan. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success around an hour after liftoff, revealing the payload to be the communication technology experiment satellite-16, or Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-16 (TJS-16).   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 30)

CHINA ROUNDUP: THIRD SUCCESSFUL EVA AND DEEP-SPACE AMBITIONS AS CHINA’S SPACE ECONOMY SURGES - The Shenzhou-19 crew recently conducted their third spacewalk this month as the China National Space Administration announced it is open to including international scientific payloads aboard a forthcoming Mars mission. Meanwhile, bold plans for planetary exploration have been revealed and a design has emerged for a new space telescope with a familiar design.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Mar 30)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH 28 STARLINK V2 MINI SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM CAPE CANAVERAL - SpaceX is hoping to close out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday, however, is quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.” Liftoff of the Starlink 6-80 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is currently targeted for 3:20 p.m. EDT (1920 UTC) on Sunday, March 30.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 30)

CYGNUS DEPARTS STATION AFTER RELEASE FROM ROBOTIC ARM - At 6:55 a.m. EDT, the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which earlier detached Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying about 260 miles over the Pacific Ocean. The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the space station more than seven and a half months after arriving at the microgravity laboratory to deliver about 8,200 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo for NASA.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 29)

CYGNUS SET TO DEPART FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station Friday after having delivered more than 4 tons of supplies, scientific instruments used in experiments, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo. The undocking is scheduled to begin for 6:30 a.m. EDT and will be broadcast live online by NASA.    More
(Source: UPI - Mar 28)

NASA CANCELS CARGO LAUNCH TO ISS DUE TO DAMAGED CYGNUS SPACECRAFT - NASA has called off a planned cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) due to a damaged spacecraft. The spacecraft is a robotic Cygnus freighter, built by the Virginia-based company Northrop Grumman. It had been scheduled to launch several tons of food, fuel and other supplies to the ISS from Florida's Space Coast this June. On March 5, however, NASA announced that Cygnus' shipping container sustained damage during the trip to the launch site. The agency had said mission teams would inspect the freighter over the coming days to determine if Cygnus itself was still intact. That work has now been completed — and there's some bad news.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 28)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW DATA RELAY SATELLITE - China successfully sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday. The Tianlian II-04 satellite was launched at 23:55 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket and entered its planned orbit. Tianlian II-04 is China's second-generation geosynchronous orbit data-relay satellite.   More
(Source: www.gov.cn - Mar 28)

U.S. SPACE FORCE CERTIFIES ULA’S VULCAN ROCKET TO BEGIN LAUNCHING NATIONAL SECURITY MISSIONS - In an announcement highly anticipated by United Launch Alliance and others in the spaceflight community, the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) office affirmed that the Vulcan rocket is now fully certified to launch national security payloads. The completion of this multi-year process means that the USSF’s Space Systems Command can begin launching National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions on the two-stage, heavy-lift rocket.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 28)

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