Hopeful end to week of mixed news

Orbital News
21 Mar 2020 1706 UT – Baikonur Soyuz OneWeb x34
24 Mar 2020 0343 UT – Xichang CZ-2C Yaogan-30 x3
24 Mar 2020 ~ Venezuelan commsat’s less than perfect end of life
26 Mar 2020 2018 UT – Canaveral Atlas V AEHF-6


Biomedical research of COVID-19
23 Mar 2020 – Chloroquine risks too great for 85% of cases
26 Mar 2020 – VIDO-Intervac tests COVID jab on animals

Regional News
18 Mar 2020 – Al Worden, Apollo 15 astronaut, Michigander, dead at 88
20 Mar 2020 – WiSGC guide to meeting grant requirements in adversity
22 Mar 2020 – Aviation scholarship offered by Connell Aviation Group
23 Mar 2020 – WiSGC links to STEM education resources
23 Mar 2020 – Canadian space stuff for times at home
23 Mar 2020 – Minnesota Science Museum closes due to COVID
24 Mar 2020 – DiaSorin Molecular (Stillwater MN) makes COVID testkits
24 Mar 2020 – U North Dakota Aerospace grounded, online only
24 Mar 2020 – Massive layoffs at Calgary-based WestJet
24 Mar 2020 – Kenora firms making hand sanitizer
25 Mar 2020 ~ Minnesota drone competition for schools
25 Mar 2020 – Winnipeg firms building ventilators, PPE

Further News
19 Mar 2020 – Cyberattacks, the second epidemic of COVID
19 Mar 2020 – ANDESITE cubesat team sprints to deliver payload
19 Mar 2020 – SLS and Orion work halted
20 Mar 2020 – JWST work halted
20 Mar 2020 – Map of Bennu now available
20 Mar 2020 – NASA prioritizes Artemis landing over Lunar Gateway
20 Mar 2020 – Sinclair Interplanetary to stay in Toronto after buyout
21 Mar 2020 – Virgin Orbit gets California quarantine exemption
23 Mar 2020 – FCC approves SpaceX Starlink modems
23 Mar 2020 – Bigelow Aerospace lays off everyone
23 Mar 2020 – Astra Rocket 3 damaged on pad during prelaunch tests
23 Mar 2020 – OneWeb announces layoffs, almost bankrupt
24 Mar 2020 – OSIRIS-REX will add self-driving tech to get rock sample
24 Mar 2020 – Discussion of possibility of life on Mercury
24 Mar 2020 – NASA to scrutinize F9 engine flub for DM-2 safety
24 Mar 2020 – Helicopter abort in key test may delay Crew Dragon DM-2
25 Mar 2020 – Starliner to blame for comm problem, not TDRS
25 Mar 2020 – SpaceX, Argentina delay SAOCOM 1B launch
25 Mar 2020 – Rocket Lab changes plan, cancels 30 Mar 2020 launch
25 Mar 2020 – NASA may help with tech for COVID
25 Mar 2020 – SpaceX takes welder hiring spree public
26 Mar 2020 – ESA #SpaceConnectsUs event cheers up webstreamers

Nebulous plans
20 Mar 2020 – Ceres-1 rocket due in June, launches 4 M$ each
23 Mar 2020 – Aerojet recommends hydrazine, EOR for Artemis
24 Mar 2020 – Firefly Alpha due Summer 2020
25 Mar 2020 – China readies HX-1 Mars lander for July launch
26 Mar 2020 – H3 still may fly this year, Kounotori 9 will be last HTV

Late News
13 Feb 2020 – Mary Ann Tuchscherer (Fox Valley TC) featured by WiSGC
24 Feb 2020 – D’Amoure Washburn (Milwaukee SOE) featured by WiSGC
02 Mar 2020 – Megan Kocher (U Wisconsin-Milwaukee) featured by WiSGC
09 Mar 2020 – Rene Chavez (U Wisconsin-Milwaukee) featured by WiSGC

Fourth Starlink flight launched this week

60 satellites of the Starlink communications constellation are carried from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 rocket on 29 January 2020 at 1406 UT. (SpaceX)

Orbital News
25 Jan 2020 – ISS EVA 227 (Parmitano, Morgan) fixes Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
29 Jan 2020 1406 UT – Canaveral Falcon 9 Starlink 4
29 Jan 2020 2339 UT – Satellite collision avoided by just 47 meters
30 Jan 2020 – Spitzer Space Telescope end of mission

Regional News
24 Jan 2020 – Calgary Airport hit hard by MAX 8 ground stop due to Air Canada, WestJet fleets
27 Jan 2020 – Ellsworth AFB officer dies in E-11A crash
27 Jan 2020 – Jon Christopherson and Shankar Ramaseri of USGS EROS lecture at U North Dakota (Video)
27 Jan 2020 – Benjamin Fitzgerald (U Wisconsin – Whitewater) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant

Further news
24 Jan 2020 – Prototype spacecraft arrives at Wenchang ahead of CZ-5B demo launch
29 Jan 2020 – Boeing will pay to redo Starliner uncrewed test

New ISS batteries top a suborbital week

ISS EVA 226 wrapped up after astronauts attached the last of the uninstalled Nickel-Hydrogen batteries to an inactive storage site on the exterior of the International Space Station, 20 January 2020. (NASA TV)

Orbital and Suborbital News
19 Jan 2020 – Canaveral Falcon 9 Crew Dragon Launch Escape System test
20 Jan 2020 – ISS EVA 226 (Koch, Meir) completes battery replacements

Regional News
17 Jan 2020 – Rachel Senft (U Wisconsin – La Crosse) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant
17 Jan 2020 – 2 hurt in Cessna 172 N96145 at Big Timber MT
17 Jan 2020 – None hurt in Delta A319 runway slide in Kansas City
18 Jan 2020 – Shawna Pandya of Edmonton returns to Mars Desert Research Station
19 Jan 2020 – None hurt in Fairchild Metro III runway slide in Shamattawa MB
19 Jan 2020 – Shamattawa residents decry airline monopoly, CAD 900 ticket price
20 Jan 2020 – Labs in Winnipeg and Saskatoon ready to fight 2019-nCoV Wuhan coronavirus
20 Jan 2020 – U of North Dakota will make oil safety report system inspired by aviation standards
20 Jan 2020 – CGAS Traverse City explains “low-vis” flight campaign
21 Jan 2020 – Amy Reines (Montana State U) announces results of black hole research
21 Jan 2020 – Mae Jemison speaks at U Wisconsin – Madison
21 Jan 2020 – Amazon Prime Air takes over Pinnacle Logistics base at Rockford airport
21 Jan 2020 – Rocket-powered sled will try to break speed record at Bear Lake WI, 16 Feb 2020
23 Jan 2020 – Montana pilot killed in C-130 crash amid Australian wildfires
23 Jan 2020 – Fire at Churchill MB airport destroys warehouse leased to Calm Air

Further News
17 Jan 2020 – Canso NS spaceport breaks ground soon, signs research deal with St. Francis Xavier U
20 Jan 2020 – Diplomats negotiating first NASA-CNSA summit since 2017
21 Jan 2020 – Tethers Unlimited deorbit ribbons working well in orbital tests
23 Jan 2020 – Firefly Aerospace puts out fire on test stand for Alpha rocket
23 Jan 2020 – JAXA continues EOS work with UN FAO, signs agreement focused on forestry

Late News
16 Jan 2020 ~ Historian William E. Dubois retro-flies between Omaha, Cheyenne, and Salt Lake City
17 Jan 2020 ~ Dunn Mountain crash killed support group
17 Jan 2020 ~ Details of 2018 location shoot for Lost in Space in the Drumheller badlands
23 Jan 2020 ~ JPL features 2018 work at Palomar by North Dakotan Michelle Creech-Eakman

Ariane 5 ends the week

Orbital news
15 Jan 2020 0253 UT – Taiyuan CZ-2D ÑuSat x2 Jilin-1 Tianqi-5
15 Jan 2020 – ISS EVA225 (Koch, Meir) fixes battery system
16 Jan 2020 0302 UT – Jiuquan KZ-1A Yinhe-1
16 Jan 2020 2105 UT – Kourou Ariane 5 KONNECT GSAT-30

Regional news
10 Jan 2020 – Lucas Bauer (U Wisconsin-Madison) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant
10 Jan 2020 – Space Force commander visits U North Dakota, Cavalier AFS
12 Jan 2020 – Cessna TR182 N736YU crashes near Dunn Mountain, MT, 4 dead
13 Jan 2020 – USGS EROS “Eyes on Earth” Podcast 14 released
13 Jan 2020 – Safe emergency landing in Calmar, AB
14 Jan 2020 – Bismarck Career Academy to buy its own plane
14 Jan 2020 – Allegiant announces seasonal flights
14 Jan 2020 – Iran crash casualites revised, investigators now cooperating
16 Jan 2020 – Joseph B. Habeck (U Minnesota-Twin Cities) featured by Minnesota Space Grant

Further news
10 Jan 2020 – Graduation of NASA Astronaut Group 22, “The Turtles”
12 Jan 2020 – Maesawa puts gameshow in critical path for moon flight
12 Jan 2020 – SLS test article reaches Stennis Space Center

Late news
06 Jan 2020 – 44th Air Race Classic will fly between Grand Forks and Terre Haute June 2020

Allegiant plans 2020 summer flight season

Allegiant Air has issued a press release for its 2020 summer routes. Several Midwest cities are getting extra destinations, specifically:

Nashville to Fargo, Sioux Falls, Bozeman, and Peoria;
Boston and Los Angeles to Grand Rapids;
Chicago-Midway and Memphis to Des Moines;
Austin to Des Moines and Grand Rapids; and
St. Louis-MidAmerica to Savannah.

The seasonal flights start between mid-May and early June and will run through the summer.

Long March 5 success highlights the week

A Long March 5 rocket carried the SJ-20 saellite from Wenchang to orbit, 27 Dec 2019 1245 UT (Weibo)

Orbital News
27 Dec 2019 1245 UT – Wenchang CZ-5 SJ-20 commsat
29 Dec 2019 – Christina Koch sets an orbital endurance record

Regional News
27 Dec 2019 – 12 injured in LN2 breach at Beechcraft plant in Wichita
28 Dec 2019 –

Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg of Winnipeg named to the Order of Canada, for work on genetic disorders.
Also named, three from Ontario and B.C. for aviation matters, and
James Cameron of Saskatoon, for achievements in film.

29 Dec 2019 – Kauaʻi tourist flight crash killed two from Wisconsin
29 Dec 2019 – Starlink satellites spotted over Manitoba
30 Dec 2019 – Bismarck offers $4000 scholarships for new pilots
30 Dec 2019 – MDA splits off from Maxar in 1 G$ CAD deal
30 Dec 2019 – Sun Country Airlines may add Sioux Falls to express bus network
30 Dec 2019 – Honeywell cuts 90 aerospace jobs in Minnesota
31 Dec 2019 –

Colin O’Brady of Jackson Hole,
Andrew Towne of Grand Forks,
and 4 international adventurers,
reached Antarctica after rowing from South America

31 Dec 2019 – Billings adds flights to Dallas, Portland on American, Alaska
31 Dec 2019 – Colorado-based planes to track GHG emissions
02 Jan 2020 – United flight slides off runway at Bismarck Airport
02 Jan 2020 – Unidentified drones fly after sunset in Colorado and Nebraska

Further News
29 Dec 2019 – Boeing updates public on Starliner recovery and checkout
30 Dec 2019 – Iridium wonders aloud about how to deorbit 30 dead commsats
30 Dec 2019 – SLS test slips to perhaps April or later
02 Jan 2020 – Japanese Momo rocket test postponed

Late News
19 Dec 2019 – New (?) spaceport licence sought for the local airport near Cape Canaveral
22 Dec 2019 – Myrtle Cagle, pilot of Mercury 13 fame, dead at 94
23 Dec 2019 – Alaska Airlines upgrades Bozeman to mainline 21 May 2020
23 Dec 2019 – FAA ends untrained ATC quota, U of North Dakota pleased
25 Dec 2019 – Sioux Falls crash revisited one year later

Rokot finale ends the week

Regional News
20 Dec 2019 – Midwest Express Airlines misses relaunch schedule, again
20 Dec 2019 – Space Force started – Cavalier AFS may be renamed

Orbital News
20 Dec 2019 1136 UT – Canaveral Atlas V Starliner, mission error
22 Dec 2019 1258 UT – Starliner lands early
24 Dec 2019 1203 UT – Baikonur Proton-M Elektro-L weather satellite
26 Dec 2019 2312 UT – Plesetsk Rokot Gonets x3 (last Rokot flight)

Late News
10 Dec 2019 – JPL gets first 36 M$ for new Near Earth Object mission
11 Dec 2019 – Andrew Jones on what 2020 holds for Chinese launch

North Dakota microbes ride on New Shepard this week

UND’s “Dinonauts” payload readied for the NS-12 suborbital flight. (University of North Dakota)

Regional News

11 Dec 2019 1753 UT – University of North Dakota payload flown on Blue Origin NS-12 suborbital mission
12 Dec 2019 – University of Minnesota Rocket Team wins Bayer Alka-Seltzer rocketry challenge

Orbital News
06 Dec 2019 0818 UT – Māhia Electron ALE-2
07 Dec 2019 0255 UT – Taiyuan KZ-1A Gaofen-2B
07 Dec 2019 0852 UT – Taiyuan KZ-1A HEAD-2A, HEAD-2B
09 Dec 2019 0934 UT – Baikonur Soyuz-2.1a Progress MS-13
11 Dec 2019 0854 UT – Plesetsk Soyuz-2.1b GLONASS
11 Dec 2019 0955 UT – Sriharikota PSLV RISAT-2BR1

Further News
09 Dec 2019 – Updated US space debris standards draw mixed reaction from industry
11 Dec 2019 – Canadian Space Agency tests commercial spacesuit
12 Dec 2019 – Ribbon cutting at Electron launchpad in Virginia

Five launches and a clotheslined Piper this week

Fire response after Piper N3586M became entangled in power transmission lines in Louisville Township, Scott County, Minnesota, 23 November 2019 (Scott County Sheriff)

Regional News
20 Nov 2019 – Wisconsin Space Grant features Katherine Kolman (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
23 Nov 2019 2157 UT – Piper PA-12 N3586M tangled in power lines on approach to Shakopee, MN
26 Nov 2019 – Wyoming Supreme Court rules Jackson Hole Airport Authority can purchase intangible assets as part of FBO acquisition
27 Nov 2019 – FlyTrex drones deliver to Grand Forks golf course, eye new markets
27 Nov 2019 – Fargo-based Elinor to participate in aerospace coatings research
28 Nov 2019 ~ Michael Haubrich of Racine wants to land at every airport in the Midwest

Further News
18 Nov 2019 – ThrustMe completes on-orbit test of I2T5 iodine fuel thruster
27 Nov 2019 ~ ISS Thanksgiving Menu : Forgot the Pumpkin Pie!

Late News
20 Sep 2019 ~ Conference discussion on need for automated orbital collision avoidance
24 Oct 2019 ~ University of Dubuque opens new aviation building

Orbital News
23 Nov 2019 0055 UT – Xichang CZ-3B Beidou (launch destroyed a house)
26 Nov 2019 2123 UT – Kourou Ariane 5 TIBA-1 Inmarsat GX-5
27 Nov 2019 0358 UT – Sriharikota PSLV Cartosat-3
27 Nov 2019 1752 UT – Plesetsk Soyuz-2.1v Russian Military payload
27 Nov 2019 2352 UT – Taiyuan CZ-4C Gaofen-12

Bismarck remembers flight disaster

Hundreds gathered in Bismarck to mark the first anniversary of a fatal aviation incident, according to the Tribune. On 19 November 2018 0330 UT, a Bismarck Air Medical flight departed Bismarck Airport for Williston’s old airport, Sloulin Field. However, at about 0340 UT, the 36-year-old Cessna 441, registration number N441CX, broke apart mid-flight, killing 3 onboard. 20 hectares of rural Morton County were showered with the shattered wreckage. The final NTSB report on the incident is expected early 2020.