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SATELLITE NEWS
US SAYS CHINA TESTED ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE - The U.S. says China has tested a missile designed to destroy satellites and is urging Beijing to refrain from destabilizing actions.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the "non-destructive" test occurred Wednesday. She said a previous destructive test of the system in 2007 created thousands of pieces of dangerous debris in space.
Harf said Friday that the continued development and testing of destructive anti-satellite systems threaten the long-term security and sustainability of the outer-space environment that all nations depend upon. More
(Source: Newsday - Jul 26)
GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT SURVEILLANCE SET TO LAUNCH - Twin inspector spacecraft and a microsatellite testbed will share a Delta 4 rocket ride into space Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral. The 205-foot-tall United Launch Alliance booster rocket is scheduled for liftoff at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) from Complex 37.
The countdown begins with final preparations to retract the 33-story mobile service gantry away from the Delta 4 rocket. Once the tower is pulled back around 11 a.m. EDT, pad configuration steps will be completed before the site is cleared of all workers. More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 25)
RUSSIAN SATELLITE FAIL LEAVES GECKOS AND FRUIT FLIES LOST IN SPACE - Russia's mission control center has lost communications with a research satellite carrying five geckos, fruit flies and plant seeds less than a week after its launch.
The Photon-M craft - which was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 19- continues to transmit "telemetry," or details on the spacecraft's location and performance of its systems, but is not responding to mission control commands, a press release from the Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos, said Thursday. More
(Source: The Moscow Times - Jul 25)
RUSSIAN CARGO CARRIER BEGINS JOURNEY TO SPACE STATION - A Russian Progress supply ship blasted off on top of a Soyuz rocket Wednesday, kicking off an expedited chase of the International Space Station with 5,700 pounds of food, fuel and supplies. Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan occurred at 5:44:44 p.m. EDT (2144:44 GMT) Wednesday, or 3:44 a.m. local time at the Central Asia spaceport.
The Progress M-24M spaceship's Soyuz rocket fired its kerosene-fueled engines and ramped up to full thrust before four hold-down clamps opened to release the powerful launcher, which climbed into a starry sky and turned northeast from Baikonur to begin its high-speed pursuit of the 450-ton research complex.
The space station was flying 260 miles over northeast Kazakhstan at the time of launch, shortening the trip for the Progress resupply ship. More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 23)
NEW LAUNCH DATE SET FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION'S DELIVERY VESSEL - A robot ship will be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, after a five-day delay on July 29 to deliver provisions to the International Space Station, space transport firm Arianespace said Tuesday.
The new date follows "the completion of complimentary verifications and control measures" of the Ariane 5 ES launcher that will bear the vessel aloft, it said in a statement.
The launch will take place at 8:44 pm Kourou time (2344 GMT). The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) dubbed ..
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(Source: Economic Times - Jul 22)
INDIA'S VO-52 SATELLITE GOES DARK - Despite efforts to keep the flagging VUSat OSCAR-52 (VO-52) Amateur Radio satellite in operation for a while longer, ground controllers have yielded to the nearly decade-old spacecraft's failing technology and have permanently taken it out of service. Launched into low Earth orbit in 2005, the VO-52 microsatellite carried two Amateur Radio transponders for SSB and CW. B.A. "Mani" Subramani, VU2WMY/KJ6LRS, of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that VO-52's lithium-ion batteries had failed, and the satellite was officially decommissioned on July 21.
"We all here in ISRO do definitely hope that HAMSAT VO-52 worked tirelessly and was a good friend to the Amateur Radio fraternity around the world," he said. "We are sure that HAMSAT was loved by all who worked through her. Though, we are deeply saddened by the loss of HAMSAT VO-52, she will never be forgotten." More
(Source: ARRL - Jul 22)
GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT SURVEILLANCE SET TO LAUNCH - win inspector spacecraft and a microsatellite testbed will share a Delta 4 rocket ride into space Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral. The 205-foot-tall United Launch Alliance booster rocket is scheduled for liftoff at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) from Complex 37.
The countdown begins with final preparations to retract the 33-story mobile service gantry away from the Delta 4 rocket. Once the tower is pulled back around 11 a.m. EDT, pad configuration steps will be completed before the site is cleared of all workers.
Fueling, which begins in the early afternoon, is a multi-hour process will load the cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks on both stages of the rocket. More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 20)
"DOOMSDAY SPUTNIK": RUSSIA SAID TO LAUNCH NEW MISSILE-ATTACK WARNING SATELLITE - After years of delay, Russia plans to deploy this year the first satellite of its new constellation replacing the space component of the early warning system, Russian media reported. It will also double as an emergency communication satellite.
The satellite was developed for the military, so naturally little is known about it. Identified by disambiguation "product 14F142", it is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Kommersant newspaper.
The spacecraft will be the first in a constellation, aimed to replace the old Oko-1 early warning system, which allows Russia survey countries possessing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and detect possible launches. More
(Source: RT - Jul 20)
MILITARY SATELLITES LIKELY SAW MISSILE STRIKE ON MALAYSIAN AIRLINES FLIGHT - U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the nation today (July 18) to share what his administration knows so far about the attack on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, an "outrage of unspeakable proportions," he said, that killed nearly 300 innocent people.
All evidence so far indicates that the commercial jet, a Boeing 777, was shot down in eastern Ukraine by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area in controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Obama said.
The president offered scant technical details to explain how the government arrived that conclusion. But it's likely that heat from the explosion was detected from space by a network of military satellites. More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 19)
EARLIER LAUNCH POSSIBLE FOR SPACE STATION MODULES - The first of three experimental modules for China's planned space station is expected to be launched in 2018, with the other two set for launch in 2020 and 2022, a leading scientist said.
The modules will help form a 60-ton space station.
"We set the date as a preliminary goal," said Gu Yidong, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a leading research expert in manned space stations.
Previous media reports set the launch date for the modules at around 2020.
"The date might be changed because a number of factors can influence a launch date. This is a common feature in international research," Gu said at a Beijing forum on space research. More
(Source: ecns - Jul 18)
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