NASA's scientific balloons return to flight with Spring 2021 campaign
NASA's Scientific Balloon Program is kicking off an ambitious schedule of 18 flights in 2021 with their spring campaign from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, the program's first major flight campaign since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
For this first campaign of 2021, the team is supporting a multitude of science and technology demonstration missions with six balloon flights scheduled from the end of April through mid-June.
"We have a packed scheduled for 2021 as we work to launch science and technology missions postponed due to the pandemic along with other planned missions," said Debbie Fairbrother, Scientific Balloon Program chief at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. "Our team has worked very hard to train and prepare for this surge in flight operations, and we're all excited to return to flight."
One of the missions, scheduled for flight in June, is the second demonstration flight of the Balloon-Borne Cryogenic Telescope Testbed, or BOBCAT. This mission will test technologies to fly a cold observatory telescope on a balloon to near-space altitudes. The technical challenge the mission is trying to address is cooling the telescope's mirrors using cryogen inside a dewar, a large vessel that can hold liquids at low temperatures.
Air Force secretary nominee Kendall well versed in the challenges of space acquisitions
WASHINGTON — President Biden has nominated former top Pentagon acquisition official Frank Kendall to be secretary of the Air Force, the White House announced April 27. If confirmed, he will be the highest ranked civilian leader of both the Air Force and the Space Force.
Eutelsat buys a quarter of OneWeb to get a LEO broadband growth engine
TAMPA, Fla. — French satellite operator Eutelsat is paying $550 million to buy part of OneWeb, the startup deploying a broadband network in low Earth orbit.
The company is buying a 24% stake to give it similar governance rights to the British government and Indian telecom company Bharti Global, which bought OneWeb out of bankruptcy last year.
FCC approves Starlink license modification
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission approved a modification of SpaceX’s license for its Starlink constellation, allowing the company to operate more than 2,800 additional satellites in lower orbits.
In an order and authorization published April 27, the FCC said it will allow SpaceX to move 2,814 satellites from orbits in the range of 1,100 to 1,300 kilometers to 540 to 570 kilometers.
Russia to select actress for Soyuz mission in May
DOUGLAS, U.K. — The Russian actress who will be sent to the International Space Station on the upcoming Soyuz MS-19 spaceflight will be announced from among four finalists on May 15, according to the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin.
Dynetics protests NASA HLS award
WASHINGTON — Dynetics has joined Blue Origin in filing a protest of NASA’s selection of SpaceX for a single Human Landing System award, a move that could force the agency to suspend work on the program.
Germany’s launch startups race to grow their launch manifests
VALLETTA, Malta — Rocket Factory Augsburg has added two more customers to its launch manifest a week after rival German startup Isar Aerospace secured its first.
Of the three German startups vying for ESA funding as they race to launch competing smallsat launchers next year, only HyImpulse Technologies has yet to announce a customer for its rocket.
Hot and cold space radio testing
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Hot and cold space radio testing Long March-6 launches nine commercial satellites
China launched its Long March-6 rocket on Tuesday, sending nine commercial satellites into space.
The rocket blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province at 11:20 a.m. (Beijing Time).
This was the 366th flight mission of the Long March rocket series.
The satellites, including Qilu-1 and Qilu-4, have entered their planned orbits and will Scientists hope Interstellar Probe will reveal secrets of the heliosphere
After almost four years of what NASA calls a "pragmatic concept study," scientists are ready to publicly present the agency's plan for a return to the edge of the solar system.
In recent years, NASA has launched a number of missions aiming at studying the sun and its many mysterious phenomena.
With a new proposed new mission, Scientists hope Interstellar Probe will reveal secrets of 
