INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Flying fewer times per year
One change with the agreement is the cadence of Soyuz missions
While Roscosmos had been flying Soyuz missions to the ISS every six months, missions starting with Soyuz MS-27 this April will spend eight
Neither NASA nor Roscosmos offered a reason for the change, which means that Roscosmos will fly one fewer Soyuz mission over a two-year
period: three instead of four
I presume that this is a cost-saving measure
(submitted by EllPeaTea)Falcon 9 sets reuse record
SpaceX notched another new rocket reuse record with its midnight Starlink flight on Sunday night from Florida, Spaceflight Now reports
The Falcon 9 rocket booster with the tail number 1067 launched for a record-setting 27th time, further cementing its position as the flight
It supported the launch of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites heading into low-Earth orbit
The 27th outing for B1067 comes nearly four years after it launched its first mission, CRS-22, on June 3, 2021
The Starlink 6-73 mission was also the 460th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket to date
(submitted by EllPeaTea)The real story behind the Space Shuttle legislation
Last week, two US senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, filed the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" to move Space Shuttle
Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to Houston
After the senators announced their bill, the collective response from the space community was initially shock
This was soon followed by: why? Ars spoke with several people on background, both from the political and space spheres, to get a sense of
what is really happening here.Bill is not going anywhere ..
The short answer is that it is all political, and the timing is due to the reelection campaign for Cornyn, who faces a stiff runoff against
The legislation is, in DC parlance, a "messaging bill." Cornyn is behind this, and Cruz simply agreed to go along
The goal in Cornyn's campaign is to use the bill as a way to show Texans that he is fighting for them in Washington, DC, against the evils
Presumably, he will blame the Obama administration, even though it is quite clear in hindsight that there were no political machinations
behind the decision to not award a space shuttle to Houston
Space Center Houston, which would be responsible for hosting the shuttle, was not even told about the legislation before it was filed.April
18: Long March 4B | Unknown payload | Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China | 22:55 UTCApril 19: Falcon 9 | NROL-145 | Vandenberg Space
Force Base, California | 10:41 UTCApril 21: Falcon 9 | CRS-32 | Cape Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 08:15
UTC7ac754bacc7357f609d9b8456bcd864a
