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An illustration of the two Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) program satellites on orbit. Illustration: Northrop Grumman SpaceX completed its second launch of the weekend with a mission for Space Norway. The company launched its Falcon 9 rocket for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). The satellites, called ASBM-1 and ASBM-2, are designed to provide both military satellite communications as well as commercial broadband connectivity in the northern polar region. Liftoff happened at 7:02 p.m. PDT (10:02 p.m. EDT 0202 UTC). The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting the mission, B1061 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 22nd time, tying it with B1062 for the most flights of a first stage booster. B1061 previously launched the Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronaut missions; two Trans...

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module. Dragon Freedom carried four Axiom Mission-2 astronauts to the orbital lab on May 22, 2023, including Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. Image: NASA The full crew of the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station was announced on Monday as they officially began training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The mission, dubbed Ax-4, will include a pilot from India and mission specialists from Poland and Hungary. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will once again sit in the commander seat, leading her second mission as part of Axiom Space’s astronaut corp...