NASA READIES SHUTTLE DISCOVERY FOR FINAL MISSION - The countdown is on: NASA has only two shuttle launches left. The U.S. space agency is retiring its shuttle fleet next year and encouraging the development of commercial human spaceflight vehicles. Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch November 1 Last week, engineers found that Discovery had developed a fuel leak. John Shannon, the space shuttle program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas, says engineers have the situation under control. More (Source: Voice of America - Oct 25)
NASA'S EXTRA SHUTTLE FLIGHT HANGS IN THE BALANCE - Less than two weeks before the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on its last flight, uncertainty still remains as to exactly when NASA's very final orbiter mission will fly, bringing the storied shuttle era to a close next year. NASA has two scheduled shuttle missions, on Discovery and Endeavour, left to fly before retiring its orbiter fleet in 2011. A third, extra shuttle mission has been approved by Congress and President Obama, but still faces review by congressional appropriators later this year. More (Source: MSNBC - Oct 25)
NASA MAKES PLANS TO FIX SHUTTLE FUEL LEAK - The space shuttle Discovery is leaking on the launch pad. If it isn't fixed soon, the small fuel leak could delay Discovery's planned launch on Nov. 1. The flight to the International Space Station is be Discovery's last. Shuttle engineers met Monday afternoon to put together a repair plan. Later this week, technicians will tighten the bolts on the leaking fuel line. If that resolves the problem, Discovery could still launch on time. More (Source: MSNBC - Oct 20)
DISCOVERY'S CARGO ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD FOR FINAL FLIGHT - The cargo for Discovery's last mission to space arrived at the shuttle launch pad just after 2 AM this morning, Thursday, 7 October 2010. Prelaunch preparations for the final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery - STS-133 - are rapidly ramping up to their final phase in anticipation of the launch slated for 1 November 2010 at 4:40 PM EDT from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) , Florida. Discovery's primary cargo is a new module for the International Space Station which will provide much needed storage space for the resident crew of the orbiting outpost. The module -or PMM - will be the last permanent addition to be contributed by the United States to the ISS. The secondary cargo element is the Express Logistics Carrier-4 which will house exterior space parts. More (Source: Space Ref - Oct 18)
RUNAWAY ZOMBIE SATELLITE GALAXY 15 CONTINUES TO POSE INTERFERENCE THREAT - The Intelsat satellite that has remained in switched-on mode while in an uncontrolled drift along an orbital highway, posing broadcast interference threats to other satellites, is now expected to continue to emit signals at least through late November and perhaps until late December, Intelsat officials said. The Galaxy 15 C-band telecommunications satellite, which went out of control in April and has since been drifting eastward along the geostationary arc 36,000 kilometers over the equator, is proving more durable than predicted. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
SIRIUS XM RADIO SATELLITE BEGINS LENGTHY TRIP TO ORBIT - Sirius XM Radio's next broadcasting satellite rocketed away from Earth and into space Thursday, beginning a nine-hour journey to place the craft on track for a 15-year mission serving nearly 20 million subscribers in North America with music, news and variety programming. The company's ninth satellite lifted off at 1853 GMT (2:53 p.m. EDT) from pad 24 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the first commercial Proton rocket launch from that complex in more than five years. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Oct 15)
COUNTING DOWN FOR ESA MAGISSTRA MISSION TO SPACE STATION - In Latin magistra means 'female teacher', and now Europe's third long-duration astronaut mission to the International Space Station will carry almost the same name: MagISStra. When ESA's Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli shares a ride to space with Russia's Dmitri Kondratyev and NASA's Catherine Coleman in December aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft, he will be looking forward to six months full of experiments and hard work. During his MagISStra mission, Paolo will live and work on the International Space Station (ISS) with Kondratyev and Coleman as members of Expeditions 26 and 27. More (Source: Space Daily - Oct 14)
USAF SPY SPACECRAFT CHANGES ORBIT AGAIN - The X-37B prototype space plane that was launched by the United States Air Force (USAF) earlier this year has changed orbit again, forcing amateur astronomers in a frenzy to locate it again. This has been their goal ever since the USAF launched the hush-hush project, details of which are classified. Satellite trackers and backyard astronomers have been scouring the skies for the plane. The Boeing-designed X-37B spacecraft is an unmanned robot, which is capable of remaining in Earth's orbit for prolonged periods of time. It was launched this April 22. More (Source: Softpedia - Oct 13)
JAPAN TO BUILD THIRD SATELLITE - Japan will build a backup satellite to take over if a malfunction occurs in a pair of radar satellites now under construction, officials said. The backup satellite will probably be launched in 2014, and would give Japan three fully operable orbiting radar satellites, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Japan's two intelligence-gathering satellites have broken down, and their replacements won't be orbited until 2011 and 2012, the report said. More (Source: UPI.com - Oct 11)
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