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

CHEOPS exoplanet probe lifts off this week

Orbital News
16 Dec 2019 0722 UT – Xichang CZ-3B 2x Beidou
17 Dec 2019 0010 UT – Canaveral Falcon 9 JCSAT-18 Kacific-1
17 Dec 2019 0354 UT – Kourou Soyuz-ST-A Cosmo-SkyMed CHEOPS

Regional News
13 Dec 2019 – Chance Beaty (Carthage College) WiSGC feature
16 Dec 2019 – FCC gives ViaSat 18.4 M$ for MT, WI, WY rural broadband
16 Dec 2019 – Ethan Och (U of Minnesota – Twin Cities) MnSGC feature
17 Dec 2019 – Sioux City IA airport fined $150k for safety violations
17 Dec 2019 – Minnesota discussion on the science of Star Wars
18 Dec 2019 – Canadian tech company buys European satcom firm
19 Dec 2019 – FCC licence issued for 15 EOS sats, to be built in Toronto

Further news
17 Dec 2019 ~ US Congress delays civilian control of space traffic
19 Dec 2019 ~ Vector bankruptcy, safety issues delay Georgia spaceport

Late news
02 Dec 2019 – Sophie Gelhar (U of Wisconsin – Stout) WiSGC feature
05 Dec 2019 – 3 die in St. Cloud, MN helicopter crash
06 Dec 2019 – Taylor Peterson (Carthage College) WiSGC feature
07 Dec 2019 – Omaha rotorcraft destroyed in non-fatal crash

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

KZ-1A flew twice in less than a week

A KZ-1A rocket lifts off from Jiuquan with two commsats from German company KLEO Connect, 1000 UT 17 Nov 2019. (Weibo)

Orbital News
17 Nov 2019 ~1000 UT – KZ-1A KL-Alpha x2

Regional News
Recently – Lance Nichols (Montana State University) featured by Montana Space Grant
11 Nov 2019 – Mary Claire Mancl (University of Wisconsin-Madison) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant
13 Nov 2019 – Kelsey Mueller (Iowa State University) named Iowa EPSCoR coordinator
15 Nov 2019 – Jack Stutler (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) featured by Minnesota Space Grant
15 Nov 2019 – Omaha NOAA WSR-88D Weather Radar refurbished
18 Nov 2019 – Nicholas Hennigan (Milwaukee School of Engineering) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant
19 Nov 2019 – South Dakota Space Grant awardee Brad Goff (Lake Area Technical Institute) featured by KELO-TV
21 Nov 2019 – Skies features Natalie Esser, Albertan kit-plane builder and sport-flyer

Further News
15 Nov 2019 – Structural failure caused SARGE crash
19 Nov 2019 – SNC fêtes ‘Shooting Star’ external cargo module for Dream Chaser
20 Nov 2019 2126 UT – Starship Mk 1 suffers BLEVE during Liquid Nitrogen fill, SpaceX will move on to Mk 3 model

Late News
11 Nov 2019 1456 UT – CCAFS F9 Starlink
13 Nov 2019 0105 UT – Hayabusa2 departs from asteroid Ryugu
13 Nov 2019 0340 UT – Jiuquan KZ-1A Jilin-1 Gaofen-02A
13 Nov 2019 0635 UT – Taiyuan CZ-6 Ningxia-1 x5

Sodak strato-selfies and lunar program plans this week

Wisconsinites earn Level 1 High Power Rocket certifications (Wisconsin Space Grant)

Regional News
26 Oct 2019 – 35 km stratospheric selfie stunt sails from South Dakota to Michigan
28 Oct 2019 – Iowa Space Grant names fourteen 2019-2020 fellows
28 Oct 2019 – Nikki Noughani (University of Wisconsin-Madison) featured by Wisconsin Space Grant
29 Oct 2019 – Elise Linna (Augsburg University) featured by Minnesota Space Grant
29 Oct 2019 ~ Wisconsin Space Grant rocket workshop yields 9 new Level 1 Certs

Further News
26 Oct 2019 – SARGE launched at Spaceport America – crash lands
26 Oct 2019 – InSight “mole” heat probe fails to burrow on second major attempt
27 Oct 2019 – X-37B returns to Earth after two years on orbit
28 Oct 2019 – First polar launch from Florida since 1960 scheduled for March 2020
29 Oct 2019 – NASA gets into practical details of Artemis lunar program
30 Oct 2019 – Starship Mk1 arrives at Boca Chica for 20 km test
31 Oct 2019 – Kepler Communications releases IoT SpaceComm DevKit

Starliner launch date set as IAC headlines the week

Chirstina Koch (red) and Jessica Meir service the Battery Charge Discharge Unit on the International Space Station, 18 Oct 2019. ISS EVA221 was the first spacewalk performed by two women. (NASA TV)

Regional News
18 Oct 2019 – University of Nebraska DC Space Law Conference
20 Oct 2019 – Wisconsin Science Fest ends
23 Oct 2019 – Ryan Bowers (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) featured by Minnesota Space Grant

Further News
18 Oct 2019 – EVA 221: BCDU fixed in 7h17m, 2-woman EVA (Koch, Meir)
18 Oct 2019 – NASA shuts down last operational Van Allen Probe
21 Oct 2019 ~ Rocket Lab Photon offers 30 kg to lunar orbit
21 Oct 2019 – Japan joins Artemis, Russia plans to join Lunar Gateway
21 Oct 2019 ~ Arizona State’s MILO Institute marks first year as it teams up global universities to reach lunar surface and (99942) Apophis
22 Oct 2019 – First tweet sent over SpaceX Starlink network
22 Oct 2019 ~ NASA HLS lunar lander won’t use sea level pressure
22 Oct 2019 ~ UK-built ESA Solar Orbiter must arrive at KSC pre-Brexit
22 Oct 2019 ~ Astra Space left as sole contender for DARPA responsive launch ‘competition’
22 Oct 2019 ~ Maxar, Thales to compete, not cooperate, on Telesat LEO
22 Oct 2019 – ESA launches new online television channel
23 Oct 2019 ~ NanoRacks will reuse spent upper stages on-orbit, signs with Maritime Launch Services
23 Oct 2019 ~ Crew Dragon to test new fuel system, parachutes
23 Oct 2019 ~ Out of 199 smallsat launchers – 40 dead, 41 buried
24 Oct 2019 – Boeing CST-100 Starliner launch planned 17 Dec 2019
24 Oct 2019 ~ Eutelsat 5WB Solar Array half-stuck, may be 173 M€ failure
24 Oct 2019 ~ House Armed Services concerned about sole-source procurement of Minuteman III replacement

Late News
3 Oct 2019 – Four Latin American nations represented in recent University of North Dakota space habitat mission
17 Oct 2019 – Spektr-RG X-Ray instrument acquires first images
10 Oct 2019 – GEM63 SRB completes third and final test in Utah

Electron and Long March end the week

Regional News

11 Oct 2019 South Dakota blizzard claims aviation lives
14 Oct 2019 Wisconsin Space Grant features Katiya Fosdick (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
14 Oct 2019 Minnesota Space Grant features Mike Alves (Augsburg University, University of California-San Diego)
15 Oct 2019 Wyoming Space Grant balloon mission
17 Oct 2019 Wisconsin Science Fest begins – will run through 20 Oct

Orbital News

11 Oct 2019 0159 Cape Canaveral Pegasus ICON
17 Oct 2019 0122 Māhia Electron Palisade
17 Oct 2019 ~1520 Xichang CZ-3B TJSW-4

Further News

11 Oct 2019 – New Mexico EOS operator Descartes Labs raises funds, names new CFO
14 Oct 2019 – SpaceX upgrades vertical test stand for Raptor
15 Oct 2019 – Fault postpones battery swaps on ISS; BCDU repair (Meir, Koch) planned 18 Oct
15 Oct 2019 – Lockheed Martin delivers DreamChaser airframe core to Sierra Nevada Corporation in Colorado
16 Oct 2019 – Satellites arrive at CSG for next Ariane launch
17 Oct 2019 – InSight Mole Heat Probe back in action on Mars
17 Oct 2019 – Boeing CST Starliner readies for test at White Sands

Late News

2 Oct 2019 – JAXA’s Tsubame low-orbit satellite reenters
10 Oct 2019 – Bowersox admits SLS flight slipped to 2021
10 Oct 2019 – NASA needs Soyuz thru 2021Q2, new enabling law from Congress
10 Oct 2019 – George Nield calls for more US spaceports

Jim Peebles shares Nobel Prize in Physics this week

Michelle Brekke of Boeing Crew Space Transportation serves as Grand Marshall of the University of Minnesota homecoming parade (University of Minnesota/GopherSports)

REGIONAL NEWS

04 Oct 2019 – Jim Bridenstein visit to the University of North Dakota in September featured on Space.com

04 Oct 2019 – Michelle Brekke (Boeing CST) serves as Grand Marshall of University of Minnesota homecoming

07 Oct 2019 – Bennett Bartel (Carthage College) featured by WiSGC

08 Oct 2019 – Saskatchewan engineer Doug Campbell ends 6 days underwater

08 Oct 2019 – Nobel Prize in Physics awarded jointly to Manitoba-born James Peebles OM, the originator of modern physical cosmology, elucidating topics like the Cosmic Microwave Background, the kinematics of galaxies, and the expansion of the universe, and to Swiss astrophysicists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, for the discovery of exoplanet 51 Pegasi b in October 1995, using the ELODIE spectrograph on the 1.93m telescope at the Haute-Provence Observatory.

09 Oct 2019 – Breanna Keith (Bemidji State) featured by MnSGC

09 Oct 2019 – University of Minnesota’s SmallSat program (SOCRATES, EXACT) featured by MnSGC
SOCRATES will orbit on 2 Nov 2019 with Cygnus NG-12

ORBITAL EVENTS

The Gaofen-10 Earth observation satellite launches from Taiyuan on a Long March 4C rocket, 4 October 2019 1850 UT (Weibo)

04 Oct 2019 1850 – Taiyuan CZ-4C launch
Gaofen-10 Earth observation satellite

06 Oct 2019 – EVA214 – P6 battery swap

08 Oct 2019 1017 – Baikonur Proton-M launch:
Northrop Grumman MEV-1 on-orbit service drone,
Eutelsat 5 West B commsat

A Proton-M rocket launches from Baikonur 08 October 2019 1017 UT, with Eutelsat 5 West B commsat and the MEV-1 mission extension robot aboard (Credit: Roscosmos)

FURTHER NEWS

04 Oct 2019 – Blue Origin will not fly passengers until 2020

06 Oct 2019 – ESA in talks to put a European astronaut on third flight of the Orion capsule, Worner says in interview with nasaspaceflight.com

07 Oct 2019 ~ 20 new moons of Saturn announced

10 Oct 2019 – Bridenstein-Musk summit: Crew Dragon DM-2 postponed to Q1 2020

Midwest Express takes flight with Milwaukee – Grand Rapids charter

Midwest Express Airlines has returned to service with a flight between Milwaukee and Grand Rapids on 28 Aug 2019.

The inaugural flight departed General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee at 1631 UT and landed at Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids at 1655 UT. The 24-minute flight reached a maximum altitude of 5200m and speed of 222 m/s.

Midwest Express MKE-GRR, 28 Aug 2019 1631 UT (FlightAware)

The plane then returned to Milwaukee in 29 minutes, with takeoff at 1826 UT and landing at 1855 UT, with the same top speed of 222 m/s and a peak altitude of 4875 m.

Midwest Express GRR-MKE, 28 Aug 2019 1826 UT (FlightAware)

For its initial operations, Midwest Express is leasing N96EA, a CRJ200 from charter operator Elite Airways, painted plain white with blue and yellow cheatlines and the old M-E logo on the tailplane.

The new Midwest Express will fly from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, Omaha, and Cincinnati. Reservations are not yet open, though an August 6 press release from the airline stated that revenue service will begin by the end of 2019. In the meantime, Elite Airways has returned the plane to charter flight service.