TOP NEWS
Air Leaking Crack in ISS Russian Module Might Get Repaired in December, Space Official Says
A supply of nitrogen and repair materials will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) in December that can be used to fully fix the crack in the shell of the Zvezda module, ISS Russian Segment Flight Director Vladimir Solovyov said on Wednesday.
“The cosmonauts covered the crack with a tape. Specialists of the TSNIIMASH research centre and the Khrunichev research centre [both part of the Russian state space agency, Roscosmos] are currently clarifying the cause of the crack and determine the technology for its complete elimination. In December, we will probably deliver nitrogen and sealants to the ISS,” Solovyov told Roscosmos’ Russky Kosmos journal.
Read more at: Sputniknews
New Initiative To Promote Satellite Servicing And In-Space Assembly Technologies
A new “national initiative” wants to promote the development of satellite servicing and in-space assembly technologies among U.S. government agencies that have differing views on the value of such capabilities.
The On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) National Initiative is intended to exchange information and establish partnerships among government agencies, and with industry and academia, on the use of such technologies to repair existing satellites and create new capabilities in space.
Read more at: Spacenews
NASA’s Megarocket Mobile Launcher Crawls To The Launch Pad For Moon Mission Prep
NASA’s massive Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) was on the move last month.
On Oct. 20, the massive platform rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building here at Kennedy Space Center, on top of NASA’s crawler transporter. The 380-foot-tall (116 meters) platform will eventually carry the agency’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis 1 lunar mission, which is set to blast off sometime late next year.
Read more at: Space.com
Russia To Start Tests Of Emergency Rescue System For Oryol Lunar Spacecraft In 2023
The drop tests of an emergency escape system for Russia’s latest Oryol crewed spacecraft will begin in 2023, Chief Designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology Yuri Solomonov told TASS on Monday.
“This is the so-called rocket escape unit for manned launches atop large carriers. The work is being organized in a way to hold first full-scale drop tests in 2023,” the chief designer said, replying to the corresponding question.
Read more at: TASS
After Rollout, ULA Delays Launch Of Atlas V Rocket From Cape Canaveral
Despite the rollout of an Atlas V rocket Monday afternoon, United Launch Alliance delayed its planned Election Day launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Teams at Launch Complex 41 were slightly delayed in rolling the 206-foot rocket out to its pad, but it successfully made the 1,800-foot trek from the vertical integration facility by 1:30 p.m. Monday. ULA had been targeting Tuesday evening, but now plans on launching at 5:54 p.m. Wednesday.
Read more at: Florida today
Boeing Appoints Jinnah Hosein to New Software Engineering Leader Role
The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) today named Jinnah Hosein as the company’s vice president of Software Engineering, effective immediately. In this newly created role, Hosein will report to Greg Hyslop, Boeing chief engineer and senior vice president of Engineering, Test & Technology, and will focus on further strengthening Boeing’s focus on software engineering across the enterprise.
“The continued advances in software makes excellence in software engineering an imperative for our business,” said Hyslop.
Read more at: Spaceref
NEW SPACE
#SpaceWatchGL Column: Dongfang China Aerospace News Roundup
This week, we bring you updates on China’s Earth Observation sector, discussions on satellite 5G/6G and IoT, but first, part 2 of our summary of the 6th annual China Commercial Aerospace Forum, held in Wuhan 2 weeks ago.
Read more at: Spacewatch global
ESA Signs First Boost! Commercial Space Transportation Contracts
Boost! – ESA’s Commercial Space Transportation Services and support to Member States programme was adopted at Space19+ and an Open call for proposals under its Element 1 was launched in April this year. Through this programme, ESA aims to stimulate and support competitiveness and new commercial European space transportation services.
ESA provides co-funding, expert advice and the use of testing facilities that help entrepreneurs to take their service projects towards commercialisation.
Today, the first Boost! support contracts have been signed with three German New Space companies: HyImpulse Technologies, Isar Aerospace Technologies, and Rocket Factory Augsburg.
Read more at: Spacenewsfeed
Russian Private Firm To Create Satellite Cluster For Internet Of Things
The Design Bureau Fifth Generation (a resident of the Skolkovo hi-tech hub in Moscow and the Academpark technology park in Novosibirsk) plans to launch a group of small satellites for the Internet of things, the design bureau’s press office told TASS on Monday.
“Our future plans envisage launching a cluster of small satellites for establishing communications in the M2M (machine-to-machine) segment,” the design bureau said, without specifying the timeframe of creating the orbital constellation.
Read more at: TASS
Chinese Rocket Firm Galactic Energy Succeeds With First Orbital Launch, Secures Funding
Chinese rocket firm Galactic Energy successfully sent a small satellite into orbit Saturday with the first launch of its Ceres-1 launch vehicle.
The Ceres-1 four-stage solid rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near the Gobi Desert at 2:12 a.m. Eastern Saturday.
First indications of launch came from spectators posting footage on Chinese social media. Chinese state media announced launch success around 30 minutes later.
Read more at: Spacenews
NASA Objects To New Mega-Constellation, Citing Risk Of “Catastrophic Collision”
NASA has formally commented on a request by a US company to build a mega-constellation of satellites at an altitude of 720km above the Earth’s surface, citing concerns about collisions. This appears to be the first time that NASA has publicly commented on such an application for market access, which is pending before the Federal Communications Commission.
“NASA submits this letter during the public comment period for the purpose of providing a better understanding of NASA’s concerns with respect to its assets on-orbit, to further mitigate the risks of collisions for the mutual benefit of all involved,” wrote Samantha Fonder, an engineer for the space agency.
Read more at: Arstechnica
SPACE HAZARDS & SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
An Underappreciated Danger of the New Space Age: Global Air Pollution
The space industry is growing and innovating at a pace not seen since the days of the moon landings. Fifty years ago, nearly everything related to space was a government-sponsored project. In 21st-century space, launch vehicle and satellite finance are most often bottom-line corporate investments or public-private partnerships.
Untethered from government leashes, the global space industry looks and operates increasingly like global aviation. Reusability. Regular flight cadence. Mass production of spacecraft and launch vehicles. Analysts predict that the space industry’s contribution to global GDP could cross the 1 percent threshold by 2040.
Read more at: Scientific American
Space Traffic Management Idling In First Gear
On Sept. 22, International Space Station controllers acted quickly to adjust the orbit of the station when U.S. Space Command informed them that an unidentified piece of debris would come within 1.4 kilometers of the station later that day. A Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the station fired its thrusters, nudging the station enough to ensure the object — later found to be debris from an H-2A rocket upper stage that broke apart last year — passed without incident.
“The space station has maneuvered three times in 2020 to avoid debris. In the last two weeks, there have been three high concern potential conjunctions. Debris is getting worse!” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted shortly after the debris passed.
Read more at: Spacenews
Anticipated Re-entries
The table are re-entries expected over the next few weeks. The table includes only natural re-entries of satellites and rocket bodies. It excludes debris items and planned events like a Soyuz spacecraft returning from the ISS. Information comes from Space-Track. Most entries are from the 60-day decay prediction messages that are updated each week on Thursday at about 01:00 UTC but some are extracted from TIP Messages. If the re-entry date has already passed then you might find the object is in the actual re-entry list further down the page.]
Read more at: Zarya
Did You See The Fireball Streak Birmingham’s Sky On November 1, 2020?
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s a fireball! Come on, you know we had to use this age-old phrase. On the evening of November 1, a fireball was seen shooting across the sky—and it was visible to many across Alabama. Here’s what we know.
I know what you’re thinking. COVID-19, murder hornets, hurricanes and now fireballs? 2020 has been quite the year. Luckily, this event was nothing more than a moment of beauty in the sky, because a fireball is just another term for a very bright meteor.
Read more at: bhamnow
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
