Author: Robert Zimmerman

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• OneWeb and ISRO complete integration of 36 satellites for March launch on India’s GSLV rocket

• Firefly touts its growing presence in Texas

The tweet links to an article describing the general growth of Texas’s space industry, much of it coming from companies fleeing California’s Stalinist government regulations.

• At press conference about the next Chinese manned mission, a government official reminded reporters that everything “must be censored before release.”

It is kind of funny that this official felt he needed to do this, since every one of those “journalists” knows he or she is really employed by the government and knows everything they write must serve that government. Why underline China’s authoritarian rule?

• Russian officials confirm that the launch of an unmanned Soyuz to ISS will take place on February 23rd

There had been some conflicting reports about the exact launch date. This announcement ends that confusion.

• All the Starlink satellites presently in orbit

The tweet shows a short video quickly illustrating the present state of the constellation. It almost literally covers the Earth.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, except for the last two.

• Soyuz capsule placed inside its payload fairing for a likely February 21th launch

That date, reported by Roscosmos two days ago, is three days earlier than the date listed at the link. Unless something has changed and not been reported, I would favor the earlier reported date.

• Images of the new Angara rocket assembly stand at Vostochny

Looks very clean and sleek, but also has taken decades to build.

• Damaged Progress to undock from ISS shortly

Live stream is here, scheduled to go live around 6:15 pm Pacific. Following undocking the freighter will be maneuvered so that the leak in its coolant system on its service module can be photographed.

• U.S. military is loosening its rules for bidding on its launches

The language in the screen capture at the link is typical bureaucratic blather, but the bottom line is that the military is no longer limiting bidding on launch contracts to just SpaceX and ULA, a foolish program I have begging the military to abandon for years. At this point they will let others bid on missions that are less risk tolerant. Expect with time this policy to loosen even more, as more competition can only save the military money, while providing it more redundancy and capability.

• China’s Xuntian Space Telescope, a Hubble-class optical space telescope, is still targeting a ’24 launch

The telescope will orbit close to Tiangong-3, and according to images at the link, will dock with the station for maintenance.

• NASA’s corrupt safety panel worries about NASA’s “safety culture” in its Artemis program

Though in this case the panel is likely right, I don’t take anything it says seriously. It has been so wrong so many times in the past, clearly biased against private space while favoring NASA, its analysis is simply worthless. I only include the link to its report now for completeness.

• FAA proposes fining SpaceX $175K for not providing “launch collision analysis trajectory data” prior to a August 19, 2022 Starlink launch

SpaceX has 30 days to respond. Considering the increased hostility by the bureaucracy to SpaceX since Biden took office, I think it is understandable to think this is simply another bureaucratic attack for political reasons.

• One instrument on the Parker Solar Probe is temporarily down

It appears the problem simply requires a software upload of that instrument, which cannot be done for another few weeks because the spacecraft is in a blackout period due to orbital mechanics.

• Boeing and NASA still aiming for mid-April launch of first manned Starliner mission to ISS

That timeline remains in flux, and will be finalized in early March when they decide on when to begin fueling the service module. Once that happens, they need to launch with 60 days. Expect an actual launch date to announced around then.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Free access to ESA Bulletin, their space magazine

• China’s present deep space timeline
• 2024 lunar sample return: Chang’e-6
• 2025 asteroid sample return: Tianwen-2
• 2026 lunar south pole: Chang’e-7
• 2028 Mars sample return: Tianwen-3
• 2030 lunar station: Chang’e-8
• 2030 Jupiter/Uranus: Tianwen-4

• Ten-minute video outlining the recent history of China’s planned large internet constellations

An excellent summary. If you want to understand why I call all of China’s so-called private companies “pseudo,” watch this video. The earlier constellations planned by two pseudo companies vanished when the government decided something else should be launched instead. Neither company was private, and both were always entirely owned by the government.

• Flapless Starship prototype #26 rolled out to suborbital Pad A at Boca Chica for tests

Some have labeled this prototype the “bullet” because it also lacks tiles. SpaceX is clearly designing this for orbital tests without any intention of bringing it back to Earth safely. For all we know, the company might send it on an interplanetary flight for PR purposes.