ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES FINAL SET OF KINéIS SATELLITES - Rocket Lab has completed the deployment of a constellation of Internet-of-Things satellites for French company Kinéis with a launch March 17. An Electron rocket lifted off from Pad A of Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9:31 p.m. Eastern. The payload of five satellites for Kinéis were deployed by the rocket’s kick stage into sun-synchronous orbits at altitudes of 650 kilometers a little more than an hour later.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 19)

SWARMS OF SATELLITES ARE HARMING ASTRONOMY. HERE’S HOW RESEARCHERS ARE FIGHTING BACK - In the next few months, from its perch atop a mountain in Chile, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin surveying the cosmos with the largest camera ever built. Every three nights, it will produce a map of the entire southern sky filled with stars, galaxies, asteroids and supernovae — and swarms of bright satellites ruining some of the view. Astronomers didn’t worry much about satellites photobombing Rubin’s images when they started drawing up plans for the observatory more than two decades ago. But as the space around Earth becomes increasingly congested, researchers are having to find fresh ways to cope — or else lose precious data from Rubin and hundreds of other observatories.   More
(Source: Nature - Mar 19)

SATELLITES POWERED BY SOLID METAL COULD ONE DAY USE SPACE JUNK FOR FUEL - Space is getting crowded — humans have now placed over 20,000 satellites into orbit since the start of the space age, and there are plans to launch thousands more over the next few years. Some of those satellites have already burned up in the atmosphere or fallen back to Earth, often into the ocean, but more than 13,000 are still up there. About a fifth are inactive, simply orbiting as as space junk. Over the last couple of decades, hundreds of these dead satellites have collided to create millions of pieces of shrapnel.   More
(Source: CNN - Mar 19)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES TUESDAY AFTERNOON FALCON 9 FLIGHT - SpaceX launched a batch of 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit as it and NASA are in the process of returning four people from the International Space Station back to Earth. The Starlink 12-25 mission launched using a Falcon 9 rocket departing from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday afternoon. Liftoff happened at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 UTC).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 19)

SPACEX DRAGON FREEDOM SPLASHES DOWN OFF COAST OF FLORIDA, ENDING CREW-9 MISSION - Shortly before 6 p.m. EDT (2200 UTC) on Tuesday evening, the four members of the Crew-9 mission splashed down in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico near Tallahassee, Florida. The quartet began their journey home onboard the Dragon Freedom spacecraft about an hour after midnight on Tuesday, when the spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station. The crew is an unusual blend of two different missions that ultimately coalesced into one.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 19)

STARLINER ASTRONAUTS HEAD BACK TO EARTH WITH SPACEX CREW-9 DUO TO MAKE LONG-AWAITED LANDING - Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are heading back to Earth after an unexpectedly long and eventful space mission, and you can watch their homecoming live. Wilmore, Williams, fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov departed the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom" early Tuesday morning (March 18), setting up their splashdown off the coast of Florida later the same day.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 18)

NASA TO PROVIDE LIVE COVERAGE OF CREW-9 RETURN, SPLASHDOWN - NASA will provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT Monday, March 17. NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida’s coast for the return of the agency’s Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 18)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES FINAL 5 SATELLITES FOR FRENCH 'INTERNET OF THINGS' CONSTELLATION - Rocket Lab launched the final five satellites for the French company Kinéis' "Internet of Things" constellation tonight (March 17). An Electron vehicle carrying five of Kinéis' "Internet of Things" spacecraft lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site today at 9:31 p.m. EDT (0131 GMT and 2:31 p.m. local New Zealand time on March 18). The Electron deployed the five satellites into a circular orbit 404 miles (650 kilometers) above Earth about 66.5 minutes after liftoff as planned.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 18)

A GOOGLE-BACKED WEAPON TO BATTLE WILDFIRES MADE IT INTO ORBIT - The first satellite of the Google-backed FireSat constellation successfully made it to orbit over the weekend, kicking off what promises to be a new era in wildfire detection and monitoring. The constellation will keep a close eye on wildfires. When fully operational, the constellation’s more than 50 satellites will be able to image nearly all of Earth’s surface once every 20 minutes. The initial phase will consist of just three satellites, and it will revisit every point on the globe twice per day when it’s operational in 2026.   More
(Source: TechCrunch - Mar 18)

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