REAL TIME SATELLITE TRACKING

SPACEX'S DRAGON SPACECRAFT CATCHING UP TO SPACE STATION - SpaceX's unmanned Dragon space capsule is getting ready to rendezvous with the International Space Station for the first time early Thursday. After its launch on Tuesday, Dragon spent Wednesday catching up with the 240-mile-high (386-kilometer-high) orbital laboratory, and plans to fly within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of the station on Thursday. The meeting will be the first approach by a privately built vehicle to the station, a $100 billion collaboration between five international space agencies.    More
(Source: MSNBC)

SPACEX LAUNCHES WITH 15 DREAMS ONBOARD - SpaceX successfully launched the first commercial rocket today. The Falcon 9 rocket along with the Dragon capsule is loaded with the hopes and dreams of hundreds of students around the USA. The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), launched June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC, is an important U.S. national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative that gives students across a community the ability to design and propose real experiments to fly in low Earth orbit, first aboard the final flights of the Space Shuttle, and then on the International Space Station (ISS)—America’s newest National Laboratory.    More
(Source: Forbes.com)

SPACEX 'GO' FOR 2ND LAUNCH TRY OF PRIVATE ROCKET TUESDAY MORNING - The private rocket company SpaceX is officially "go" to make a second try at launching its unmanned Dragon capsule early Tuesday, May 22, from Florida's Space Coast. The spacecraft was due to make its maiden trip to the International Space Station Saturday, May 19, but a rocket engine glitch forced a launch abort at the last second. Over the weekend, SpaceX engineers investigated the problem and discovered a faulty check valve was to blame for the abnormally high chamber pressure in the engine that caused the abort.    More
(Source: Fox News)

ASTEROID SET TO NARROWLY MISS EARTH, MAY SMASH SATELLITES - A newly found 150-foot-wide asteroid may pass so close to the Earth that it might destroy communications satellites, researchers say. Discovered by astronomers at the LaSagra Observatory in Spain, 2012 DA14 is estimated to veer near enough to Earth to potentially disrupt geosynchronous satellites on February 15, 2013, a newspaper reported. While the asteroid is currently a ‘fuzzy little blob’, as seen through telescopes, 2012 DA14 may eventually come to pass 21,000 miles away from the Earth putting synchronous satellites in the firing line.    More
(Source: Zee News)

SPACEX REPLACES FAULTY ROCKET VALVE FOR SPACE STATION FLIGHT - SpaceX engineers have replaced a faulty engine valve on a private rocket carrying the first commercial space capsule bound for the International Space Station following the last-second abort during an attempted liftoff Saturday. The valve replacement came after SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which will loft the firm's unmanned Dragon capsule toward the station, aborted its launch attempt a half-second before liftoff from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.    More
(Source: MSNBC)

SPACEX LAUNCH ABORTED AT LAST SECOND - A private company was on the verge of making history by sending a spacecraft to the International Space Station, but the launch of an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket belonging to SpaceX was aborted in the final second before liftoff early Saturday due to technical difficulties. Another attempt was slated for early next week. The Falcon holds a capsule called Dragon that is loaded with 1,000 pounds of space station provisions.    More
(Source: CBS News)

SPACEX SET FOR HISTORIC COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TO STATION - In what proponents hail as the dawn of a new era, Space Exploration Technologies is in the final stages of prepping a low-cost Falcon 9 rocket for launch Saturday on a long-awaited mission to boost the company's unmanned Dragon cargo ship on an inaugural flight to the International Space Station. The solar-powered capsule is the first of a new breed of private-sector spacecraft built for NASA in a commercial venture to deliver critical supplies to the space station in the wake of the shuttle's retirement and, if the company's founder has his way, to eventually carry astronauts to and from the lab complex.    More
(Source: CNET)

AMATEURS ASKED TO LISTEN FOR HORYU-2 SATELLITE - The Japanese HORYU-2 research satellite was launched May 17 at 1639 UTC as part of a mission that included the JAXA climate observation satellite Shizuku. HORYU-2 was built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) and it carries the call sign JG6YBW. The satellite will conduct a variety of experiments including high-voltage power generation and space debris measurements.    More
(Source: ARRL)

AEHF 2 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE KEEPS ON CLIMBING - Avoiding the perilous past of its forerunner, the U.S. Air Force's newly launched anti-jam communications satellite has successfully fired its main engine three times to maneuver toward the intended operational orbit. The Advanced Extremely High Frequency 2 spacecraft, AEHF 2, was launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on May 4, reaching a supersynchronous transfer orbit stretching from 138 statute miles at its lowest point to over 31,200 statute miles at its highest and inclined 20.6 degrees to the equator.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now)