TOKYO, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Tsubame satellite, known for its ultra-low orbiting capabilities, has been recognized in the Guinness World Records as achieving the "lowest altitude by an Earth observation satellite in orbit," Japan's space agency said Monday.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), confirmed that as part of its test mission, Tsubame, from Dec. 23, 2017, to Oct. 1, 2019, flew at an orbital altitude of 167.4 km.
Quite a lot has been going on:
Now Entering Orbit: Tiny Lego-like Modular Satellites | WIRED
Just about a year ago, SpaceX sent the rocketry equivalent of a clown car to space: A rocket crowded with more than 60 small satellites. Inside one of them, Excite, were even more. It was actually a satellite made of other satellites, all clones of each other, all capable of joining together and working together. It was one of the first in-space tests of such a contraption—but in the coming years, this modular approach is likely to show up on more and more missions.
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 27 December 2019 - Celebrating Christina Koch's Record -
NASA astronaut Christina Koch broke a major space record this weekend! On Saturday, Koch spent her 289th day orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, setting a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Congratulations to Christina on reaching new heights! Credit: NASA.
Safety in a spacecraft is crucial for the success of long-term mission to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Combustion research on the station helps scientists understand how a variety of materials burn and how flames expand in weightlessness. NASA Flight Engineer Christina Koch used the Microgravity Science Glovebox today observing how different fabrics burn under controlled conditions. Results could improve fire safety on Earth and in space.
Iridium would pay to deorbit its 30 defunct satellites — for the right price - SpaceNews.com
WASHINGTON — Iridium Communications completed disposal of the last of its 65 working legacy satellites Dec. 28, while leaving open the possibility of paying an active-debris-removal company to deorbit 30 that failed in the decades since the operator deployed its first-generation constellation.
McLean, Virginia-based Iridium started deorbiting its first constellation, built by Motorola and Lockheed Martin, in 2017, as it replaced them with second-generation satellites from Thales Alenia Space.
And here's another article:
China's first solar sail verifies key technologies in orbit - SHINE News
The "SIASAIL-I" solar sail, developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully verified many key technologies in orbit.
The solar sail is a spacecraft powered by the reflected light pressure of the sun on the membrane. It does not consume additional chemical fuel and working medium during navigation, and has the characteristics of small mass, large collection-expansion ratio, low cost, low power consumption and long-range.
Orbit Fun Center responds to large outbreak of fights Saturday night
HUBER HEIGHTS — Police called for all available assistance after responding to the Orbit Fun Center Saturday night to find over 200 juveniles fighting in the parking lot, according to a release.
>> RELATED: Police call for assistance to break up several fights in crowd of ‘over 200 juveniles’
“Gratefully, no one was injured and there wasn’t any property damage,” said Mike Penrod with the Orbit Fun Center.
China's Taiji-1 satellite passes in-orbit tests
Bad Astronomy | The trail of Phaethon
Did you catch any of the Geminid meteors in mid-December? It's one of the best meteor showers of the year, occurring when the Earth plows through a debris trail left behind by the asteroid Phaethon as it orbits the Sun and tiny bits of asteroidal material burn up in our atmosphere. Sadly, this year was seriously hampered by the nearly full Moon, so the show from Earth wasn't as good as it could've been.
But from space, the story is different. Really different: A spacecraft designed to investigate the Sun (which, I'll note, is significantly brighter than your typical meteor) saw the Geminids …. Kinda. Not the meteoroids themselves, but the combined glow of their dust trail orbiting the Sun millions of kilometers away .
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