Space

The US $10B space observatory has flown beyond the orbit of the Moon after completing the second of the three required mid-course correction burns, NASA reported. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas Day to begin its 29-day deployment process. About half an hour later, it automatically deployed its solar panel to start generating its own power.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 45th episode, a special, in our podcast series Space Cafe Podcast#045 Special: Peter Rumler, ESA, Launching James Webb Space Telescope. Episode 045 features a special guest Peter Rumler. Anyone who takes time for an interview just 40 minutes before the launch of the largest telescope of all time has a lot of nerve.

Satellites from SpaceX’s Starlink Internet Services had two "close encounters" with the Chinese space station in July and October, according to a document submitted by China to the UN's space agency. The China Space Station had to take “preventive collision avoidance control” measures to avoid colliding with the satellites.

Two Shenzhou-13 astronauts conducted a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday to install equipment outside Tiangong space station’s Tianhe module, the China Manned Space Agency reported. This was the fourth spacewalk conducted since the launch of the Tianhe core module in April this year.

In this Space Café Radio – our Review 2021 series, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Prof Kai-Uwe Schrogl. Prof Schrogl is an authority in global space law and space diplomacy. He was seconded from the European Space Agency ESA to the German Federal Ministry

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket equipped with the Fregat upper stage is to launch 36 OneWeb communications satellites later today from the Baikonur spaceport, Roscosmos reported. The deployment of the new spacecraft will increase the number of satellites in the cluster to 394.

Virgin Orbit partners with Horizon Technologies, takes an equity stake in it and becomes its preferred launch provider, the company said. Horizon wants to expand its Amber constellation and its space-based marine intelligence services with the help of Virgin Orbit´s LauncherOne.

Ariane 5 has launched the giant James Webb Telescope into its transfer orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Christmas day, and the telescope separated successfully at an altitude of close to 1500 kilometers 27 minutes into the flight.

In this Space Café Radio – our Review 2021 series, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr Moriba Jah, Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and host of the Space Cafe "Moribas Vox Populi". They talked about 2021 on earth, in space, what moved us, what challenged us! But also what we can expect next year.

During a recent core stage power test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft engineers identified an issue with one of the RS-25 engine flight controllers, NASA reported. The issue will cause delays in the launch of the Artemis I mission. The flight controller communicates with SLS, provides precision control as well as internal health diagnostics.