Space Exploration

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 22-28 November 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global,

Maritime Launch Services is preparing to launch the country’s first commercial spaceport to provide satellite launch services to Canada’s growing commercial space sector. Their first payload services provider will be Nanoracks, Maritime announced. Nova Scotia-based aerospace company, Maritime, unveiled the preliminary designs for the spaceport’s Launch Control Centre (LCC).

Russia’s newest docking port, the Prichal module will arrive at the ISS today to provide five additional docking ports and fuel transfer capability to the space lab. Prichal is controlled by the Progress vehicle and will automatically dock to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

The in-orbit servicer Astroscale raised another $109 million from different investors, bringing the total capital raised to date to $300 million, the Japanese space company said. The Series F round was the “largest funding round in the company’s history”, as Astroscale says.

ESA and French space agency, CNES, are exploring the possibility to create a European Space Transportation Hub, ESA said. The Hub is planned to be located in the Paris region. It would bring the main European actors in space transportation together in the same location.

NASA successfully launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission this morning on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The aim of the mission is to demonstrate that sending a large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of an asteroid could change its motion. DART will now deploy its Roll Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) to provide the power needed for its solar electric propulsion system.

James Webb Space Telescope’s launch date has been moved for the fourth time, to no earlier than 22nd December, NASA reported. The additional time will be used for further testing of the observatory, following a recent incident during launch preparations. Webb was previously scheduled to launch 18th December on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour on Mars (5), SpaceWatch.Global contributing editor Dr. Emma Gatti spoke in this fifth episode of our AMADEE-20 coverage with Dr. Robert Wild, Analog Astronaut. Together, they talked about AMADEE-20, the future of Mars exploration, space training and lessons learned from the mission.

The member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) want to “accelerate the use of space in Europe to tackle the urgent and unprecedented societal, economic and security challenges faced by Europe and its citizens,” ESA said after a meeting of the countries´ ministers in charge of space in Matosinhos, Portugal.

SpaceX can have Starship’s first orbital flight as early as January, pending regulatory approvals, CEO Elon Musk said at a joint meeting of the National Academies’ Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy.  According to Musk, the company is in the final preparations of both the vehicle and their new launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.