North America

The smoke alarm went off yesterday in Russia's segment of the ISS while astronauts smelled burning plastic on board, Roscosmos and NASA said. The news comes after small cracks have been found in the Zarya module just last month. The smoke detector was triggered during automatic battery charging, Roscosmos said.

Rocket Lab will launch and deploy the satellite constellation of Kinéis, a global Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity provider, the company said. The multi-launch contract will see Rocket Lab deploy 25 Internet-of-Things (IoT) satellites across five dedicated missions on the Electron launch vehicle.

Challenging Elon Musk`s Starlink in his home turf, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb works with the telecommunications company AT&T to provide satellite access for businesses in remote areas across the U.S., the company said.

The European and the U.S. space agencies, ESA and NASA, have scheduled the launch of the giant James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 rocket for 18 December 2021, Arianespace said. Flight VA256 is scheduled for 18 December from the Guiana Space Center, Arianespace said. The launcher and launch services are part of ESA´s contribution to the Webb project.

Virgin Orbit is planning to expand its participation in the military by competing for tactically responsive launch contracts with Space Force, SpaceNews reports. They are trying to prove that rockets launched from airplanes in flight can be useful for national security.

Masten Space Systems was awarded a Phase II SBIR contract to develop and test a lunar positioning and navigation network prototype, Masten said. The GPS-like solution is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s AFWERX program. The network will boost cislunar security, improve landing accuracy and hazard avoidance by providing location tracking for spacecraft and astronauts on the lunar surface.

Investigation uncovered that Firefly Aerospace’s first Alpha rocket had failed due to the shutting down of one of its first-stage engines, Firefly said. The launch took place at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 2nd September. The engine shut down just a few seconds after lift-off making the rocket tumble out of control two and a half minutes into the flight.

The U.S. Space Force and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Air Force reached an agreement on 27th August to join South Korea’s air force in U.S. Space Force-led military drills, ROK Air Force said. The aim is to reinforce the U.S. Space Force’s defence capabilities in outer space.

NASA began flight testing with Joby Aviation’s all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on 30th August, NASA reported. The testing forms part of the agency’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign. eVTOL aircraft could potentially be used as air taxis transporting people and cargo.

For this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening got to sit down with Ronald van der Breggen, a Dutch business strategist and founder and CEO of Route206. Established in 2013 in the Netherlands, the company works with a wide range of clients in the space and satellite sector