KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA is delaying the upcoming launch of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission due to a minor medical issue involving one of its crew members. The issue is not a medical emergency and not related to COVID-19. The launch to the International Space Station was planned for Wednesday, Nov. 3.

The agency takes every effort to protect the crew prior to its launch through a health stabilization plan. Crew-3 astronauts will remain in quarantine at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida while preparing for their launch.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 1, 2021 (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital PR) — Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth last September, included special cargo for a post-splashdown auction, benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^®.

Now until Wednesday, Nov. 10, the general public may bid on various payload items, including a space-flown jacket with St. Jude patient art, unique pilot’s watches (chronograph edition by luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen), license plates bearing patient art, and U.S. postage stamps featuring St. Jude founder Danny Thomas. Additionally, there will be vacation packages and unique experiences available for auction.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper will launch two satellites by Q4 2022 on ABL Space Systems’ all-new RS1 rocket.

SEATTLE (Amazon PR) — Amazon continues to make progress on Project Kuiper, a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation that will provide fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world. This is a major, long-term initiative, and today we’re excited to share plans to launch and deploy our first satellites.

PARIS (CNES PR) — Karista announces the first closing of CosmiCapital, its venture capital fund initiated by CNES and entirely dedicated to NewSpace. Subscribed in particular by CNES, initiator of the fund, and the National Seed Fund 2 (FNA 2), managed on behalf of the State by Bpifrance, within the framework of the Future Investments Program (PIA), the fund will have an investment capacity of 38 million euros [US $43.9 million] to fulfill its main objective: take advantage of the unprecedented acceleration of the space economy and invest in French and European technology start-ups in the sector. With this closing, Karista completes its range of funds to become a European multi-fund venture management platform.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The International Astronautical Congress wrapped up last week in Dubai. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin and Glavkosmos boss Dmitry Loskutov held forth during the conference on SpaceX, space tourism and other topics.

Roscosmos is the state-owned corporation that runs Russia’s space program. Glavkosmos is Roscosmos’ commercial arm.

Cosmonauts to fly on Crew Dragon: Rogozin said SpaceX’s Crew Dragon now has enough flights under its belt for Russian cosmonauts to fly aboard it. Crew Dragon has flown three crews to the International Space Station (ISS) and a group of amateur astronauts on a three-day orbital flight. Roscosmos and NASA will pursue a barter agreement that will allow U.S. astronauts to fly on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Before Crew Dragon began flights, NASA was paying Roscosmos $90 million per seat to fly its astronauts to ISS.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve mothership returned to the Mojave Air and Space Port in California on Saturday for the start of 8-10 months of upgrades and repairs. The dual fuselage airplane flew from its operating base at Spaceport America in New Mexico to the spaceport where it was built and first flew 13 years ago on Dec. 21, 2008.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Indian launch startup Skyroot Aerospace last week reported that it has signed a launch deal with satellite provider Dhruva Space as the company gears up to raise an additional $40 million next year to fund its booster development.

Airbus Defence and Space and Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre have signed an agreement to work together on the Emirates Lunar Mission to operate the Rashid rover on the moon next year. The Khaleej Times reports: The MBRSC recently signed an agreement with Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus responsible for defence and aerospace products and services, for collaboration on the country’s Mission to Moon for […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected National Geographic to help tell the story of Artemis II, the first Artemis flight that will carry astronauts around the Moon and back to Earth aboard the agency’s Orion spacecraft.

EDWARDS, Calif. (NASA PR) — Following successful Flight Opportunities-supported parabolic flight testing on Zero Gravity Corporation’s G-FORCE ONE aircraft in April and May, 2021, the Ring-Sheared Drop (RSD) experiment from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center arrived at the International Space Station on Northrop Grumman’s NG-16 Cygnus spacecraft on August 12, 2021.

DUBAI, UAE (SSC PR) — Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and Bradford Space / ECAPS, a leading manufacturer of non-toxic propulsion systems, have signed an MoU for the collaborative offering of orbital debris removal services. Starting in 2024, SSC and Bradford Space will offer orbital debris removal as a commercial service from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden, mainland Europe. The agreement was signed today at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2021 in Dubai.

The new services will address the issue of common orbits becoming increasingly congested as more actors are accessing space, creating a hazard to other spacecraft using these orbits. A Bradford Space satellite bus, named ‘Square Rocket’, with significant delta-V capability will be inserted into orbit via launch from the Esrange Space Center to then rendezvous with and deorbit the debris. The target orbits are high-inclination polar, including the common Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

The National reports that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is eyeing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for launches of its New Shepard suborbital crew system. In an exclusive interview with The National, Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programmes for Blue Origin, said the UAE was an “obvious choice” for a spaceport and that it was looking to expand its launch sites from the current one in El Paso, Texas. “Now that […]