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Hi folks 🖖;
Erratum: the third unconventional satellite in the previous issue was not included. It is about LAGEOS, two giant disco balls launched by NASA in 1976 and 1992 that reflect laser beams coming from Earth. LAGEOS does not hold any kind of onboard electronics or attitude control devices…Just a giant aluminium sphere. The aim was to measure ranges permitting ground stations in different parts of the Earth to measure their separations to better than one inch in thousands of miles!
🍪 Cookie of the week
Gemini 4 was a NASA’s crewed spaceflight in June 1965. On this flight, astronaut Ed White performed the first extravehicular activity in the history of the USA. The Experience footage was interpolated to 24fps and released in stunning 4k!!! Enjoy here. Ed White died in the Apollo 1 pre-launch testing fire.
🚀 Toward orbit
Owner: SpaceX
Satellite: Starlink
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Owner: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Satellite: Gaofen 13
Rocket: Long March 3B/E
Site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
🛰 Here is what you missed
👉 Besides Amazon, SpaceX, and OneWeb, GW, a Chinese Satcom company, applied for spectrum allocation from the ITU to put in orbit 13.000 broadband satellites. [+]
👉 SpaceX and L3Harris won bids to build missile-tracking satellites for around $342 million.[+]
👉 The University of Glasgow won a price from the Scottish Ministry of defence of $117.000 to build a rocket that burns its own structure as a propellant to put smallsat in orbit.[+]
👉 In Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, the second qualification of the Ariane 6 solid rocket motor P120C completed successfully its final hot firing. [+]
👉 The DOD published its space strategy document. It presents the department’s short and middle term priorities to be done in space.[+]
👉 After reaching 775 satellite in orbit this week, Elon Musk tweeted that SpaceX is close to a public beta testing in the northern US and southern Canada.[+]
👉 The Indian startup Agnikul Cosmos Launch Vehicles signed an agreement with Alaska Aerospace Corporation to test they smallsat launcher in Alaska.[+]
👉 Russia is on its way to developing a super-heavy reusable launcher based on its rocket Amur. The rocket’s booster that can be reused 10 times.[+]
👉 UAE space agency announced that that will launch its first moon rover by 2024. “We plan to go and explore new areas that have not been explored during previous missions and that will allow us to do interesting science," said Al Marzooqi, project manager for the new lunar mission. The agency did not unveil yet which rocket they are going to use. [+]
👉 Airbus partners with the French company Earthcube, to offer a defence site monitoring service to defence actors, combining AI and advanced satellite imagery.[+]
👉 The 71st International Astronautical Congress taking place on Oct. 12- Oct. 14, will be broadcasted on NASA’s website. During the conference, NASA will discuss international cooperation for the agency’s lunar exploration plans throughout the Artemis program, which includes sending American astronauts to the surface of the Moon in 2024 and establishing a sustainable lunar presence by the end of the decade.[+]
🍕Chill corner
(This is our community shared area. Feel free to drop me an email if you want me to share something: puzzles, jokes, crosswords, pictures…The only limit is your imagination 😉)
While discussing with my friend Guillaume, he told me the following joke and proposed to share it in the newsletter:
“Yo momma so fat…Her driver's license picture had to be taken by satellite”
Here you are debriefed 👌. Rendezvous next week!