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A Falcon Heavy launched the U.S. military's X-37B spaceplane Thursday night. The rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 8:07 p.m. Eastern carrying the X-37B on a mission designated OTV-7. The target orbit for this mission is classified, but observers believe that, based on navigational warnings and the fact that it's launching on a larger rocket than past missions, the vehicle is headed to a highly elliptical, high-inclination orbit, higher than previous missions. The vehicle will conduct a wide range of tests and deploy a smallsat developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy. The Space Force has not disclosed the length of the mission, but X-37B flights have been getting progressively longer, with the sixth mission lasting 908 days. [SpaceNews]
Technical issues with one spacecraft have delayed the launch of a set of missile-tracking satellites. The launch of six satellites, four for the Space Development Agency's Tracking Layer constellation and two for the Missile Defense Agency's Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program, were scheduled to launch this month but have been delayed to the second quarter of 2024. MDA said the vendor for one satellite reported problems with final integration testing that caused the delay. L3Harris and Northrop Grumman are each building one satellite for MDA, while L3Harris is building the four SDA satellites. Both sets of satellites are pieces of a planned multi-layered missile-defense architecture. [SpaceNews]
The SPAC that has proposed merging with Lynk Global has returned nearly two-thirds of its funds to shareholders. Slam Corp. announced this week that shareholders approved a proposal to extend the deadline by which it needs to complete a deal by a year. However, shareholders elected to redeem $176 million in funds, leaving Slam with less than $99 million. Slam, founded in 2021 by former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, announced earlier this month it signed a non-binding letter of intent to merge with Lynk Global, which is developing a satellite constellation to provide direct-to-device communications. The high redemption rate is a blow to Lynk's hopes to use the funds to grow its constellation, although extra financing could come from other sources as merger talks continue. [SpaceNews]
A Chinese communications satellite has malfunctioned in geostationary orbit. China Satcom said that its Zhongxing 6C, or Chinasat 6C, satellite lost attitude control recently when thrusters malfunctioned. Engineers used "emergency response measures" to bring the spacecraft under control, but it is using more propellant than planned, reducing its lifetime. The company is projecting a loss of $36.4 million from the malfunction and is preparing to file an insurance claim. The Chinese-built spacecraft was launched in 2019 to provide communications services for China and surrounding regions. [South China Morning Post]
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Less than three hours after the X-37B launch, SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:01 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. The gap between the X-37B and Starlink launches is the shortest between two launches at the Cape since 1966, when two launches took place 101 minutes apart. [Spaceflight Now]
Russia has agreed to continue exchanging seats on International Space Station missions through 2025. Roscosmos said Thursday that it and NASA have agreed to extend a cross-flight agreement for transporting crews to the station. That agreement allows American astronauts to fly on Soyuz spacecraft and Russian cosmonauts to fly on commercial crew vehicles. Such seat barters ensure there will be both Americans and Russians on the ISS should either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles become unavailable for any reason. [Interfax]
India is planning to launch 50 satellites for "geo-intelligence gathering" applications. The head of the Indian space agency ISRO, S Somanath, said Thursday those satellites would be launched over the next five years and operate in both low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit. He didn't elaborate on the details of those satellites but noted that the number of satellites India has today for monitoring the Earth is far too small for the country. [PTI]
The president of the Navajo Nation is asking NASA to delay the launch of a commercial lunar lander. Buu Nygren said he recently learned the Peregrine lunar lander from Astrobotic will be carrying payloads from companies that provide memorial services by sending cremated remains to space. Landing human remains on the moon is "tantamount to desecration" for many Native Americans, he said, noting that NASA had promised to coordinate any such activities in the future after the remains of lunar scientist Gene Shoemaker were included on the Lunar Prospector mission in 1998. Peregrine is carrying several NASA payloads in addition to commercial ones. [KNAU-FM Flagstaff, Ariz.]
Note: FIRST UP will not publish on Monday. Happy New Year!
| | Glorious Life
"If we see ozone, chances are pretty high that it's connected to carbon dioxide being consumed by life. And if it's life, it's glorious life. It would not be just a few bacteria. It would be a planetary-scale biomass that's able to process a huge amount of carbon, and interact with it."
– Amaury Triaud of the University of Birmingham in a press release discussing a new approach to detecting life on exoplanets. [MIT]
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