Welcome to the Launch Roundup! This week, Russia will send a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS), and a NASA astronaut prepares to return home after setting a new American endurance record he never intended to set. Axiom Space named the crew for the company’s next private mission to the station. And Japan launched a spacecraft to land on the Moon last week.

This year’s Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah was the largest and best attended in history. But, is it about to get a lot larger as the space industry grows around the world? And what underrepresented country could boost attendee numbers the most? Let’s take a look.

Welcome to this week’s Launch Roundup! We were on vacation last week, so we’ve got some catching up to do. On August 10, Russia will launch its first spacecraft to land on the Moon since the Soviet Union did so 47 years ago. Last week, Northrop Grumman launched the second version of the Antares rocket for the final time and announced a slip in the maiden flight of its replacement.

Japan’s new rocket fizzled on the pad last week as the United States and Russia prepared for key launches this week to the International Space Station (ISS).

Georgia Spaceport Setback

Camden County’s plan to build a spaceport has suffered a potentially fatal blow as the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that citizen initiated referendum rejecting the plan was constitutional. The Associated Press reports:

Japan is set to launch its H3 rocket for the first time and a trio of spacecraft are headed to the International Space Station (ISS) in the weeks ahead. India is also hoping the second launch of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) will succeed where the first failed.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Russia recently marked the 25th anniversary of the entry of the Proton rocket into the international commercial marketplace. On April 8, 1996, a Proton-K booster with a DM3 upper stage launched the Astra 1F geosynchronous communications satellite built by U.S.-based Hughes for Luxembourg’s SES from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — Glavkosmos (part of Roscosmos) and the Russian private company Orbital Express have signed an agreement on cooperation in promoting services to the global space market with the help of the Russian rocket and space technology. The document was signed on Thursday at the Glavkosmos headquarters in Moscow. 

“Glavkosmos welcomes the initiative of Russian private NewSpace companies to enter the foreign space market,” says Dmitry Loskutov, Director General of Glavkosmos. “We hope that the interaction between Glavkosmos and Orbital Express will be successful. We believe that it will have a positive impact on the development of Russian rocket and space technologies.”

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Thursday, Nov. 5, after making the trek from its processing facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — On August 22, 2019 at 03:38:32 UTC, the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft successfully lifted off from the launch pad No. 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The spacecraft will deliver scientific equipment for the experiments, medication, containers with food supplies, packages for the crew, as well as the Skybot F-850 humanoid robot. The Russian cosmonauts will test the robot systems under the spaceflight conditions. The main purpose of the robot […]