SATELLITE OPERATORS TEAM TO AVOID COLLISIONS - A new cooperative data tool will help keep geostationary commercial communications satellites from colliding or causing signal interference, a service its initiators hope to extend to government spacecraft and satellites in low Earth orbit as well. Spurred in part by the February 2009 collision between an active Iridium spacecraft and a defunct Russian military-communications satellite, the new Space Data Center automatically plots conjunctions in the orbits of satellites owned by participating operators and alerts their control centers to the problem.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Aug 1)

LONG MARCH ROCKET DELIVERS CHINESE SATELLITE TO SPACE - Another Chinese navigation satellite blasted off late Saturday on its way to a 22,000-mile-high perch above Earth to bolster the government-owned fleet of Beidou positioning spacecraft. A three-stage Long March 3A rocket lifted off at 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT) Saturday from the Xichang space base in Sichuan province in southwestern China, where it was 5:30 a.m. Sunday, according to state media reports.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Aug 1)

CHINA TO LAUNCH HIGH RESOLUTION MAPPING SATELLITE - China plans to launch its first high resolution, stereoscopic mapping satellite during the second half of 2011. China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said the ZY-3 will be sent into space by the Long March-4B carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China. The satellite is expected to "provide steady and reliable data sources for surveying and mapping on the scale of 1:50,000," official Xinhua news agency reported.    More
(Source: Economic Times - Jul 31)

UK TO LAUNCH HOMEGROWN MINI-SATELLITE CUBE - The UK Space Agency has announced it will develop and launch a miniature satellite to be used for inexpensive science missions in low-Earth orbit. Shaped like a cube and potentially smaller than a home computer, this type of satellite allows scientists to research cutting-edge space technology quickly and at relatively low cost, UK Space Agency chief executive David Williams said. The UK model will be one of a series of spacecraft called Cubesats, which are simple, tiny and inexpensive. These features make CubeSats capable of deploying on speedy timescales that accommodate numerous missions, agency officials said.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 29)

HUGE SATELLITE POSES 150-YEAR THREAT OF SPACE DEBRIS - In three years, the European Space Agency will become the owner of what is possibly the most dangerous piece of space debris circling the Earth for the next 150 years: the 17,636-pound Envisat Earth observation satellite. The space agency will take control of the Envisat satellite, which has been extended to 2013 and appears to set records wherever it goes. Launched in 2002, Envisat was the biggest non-military Earth observation satellite ever built. At $2.9 billion in today's dollars, it is one of the most expensive. Its mission is viewed as a success by its users, all the more so insofar as the original five-year mission has been stretched to 11 years.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 28)

TROUBLED WEATHER SATELLITE RECEIVES FINAL INSTRUMENT - The last of the NPOESS Preparatory Project's five weather sensors arrived at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in June and was integrated on the satellite July 14, Ball said in a statement. NPP is scheduled to launch in October 2011 to replenish a fleet of polar-orbiting weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jul 26)

DESTROYED CHINESE SATELLITE CLOSE TO ISS: OFFICIAL - Debris from a satellite destroyed in 2007 by a Chinese missile is in the vicinity of the International Space Station and astronauts are ready to take cover if required, a Russian official said Friday. The shooting down of the Chinese weather satellite Feng Yun 1C by a ground missile launched from China at the time sparked international alarm and concern about the creation of dangerous space debris. "If the calculations show that the debris is approaching the station at an unacceptably close range, the six astronauts will receive the order to take shelter in the two Russian Soyuz spacecraft which are docked with the ISS," an official at mission control outside Moscow told the Interfax news agency.    More
(Source: AFP - Jul 25)

BOEING SPACE CAPSULE COULD BE OPERATIONAL BY 2015 - Boeing executives pulled back the curtain on their concept for a commercial human space capsule this week at the Farnborough International Airshow, saying the CST-100 spacecraft could be ready for operational space station flights by 2015 if NASA awards contract money next year. The aerospace giant is teaming with Bigelow Aerospace to develop a market for commercial human space transportation. Boeing's CST-100 capsule could service Bigelow's planned private space stations, but NASA's commitment to commercial crew initiatives "closes the business case" for the transport system, said Roger Krone, president Boeing Network and Space Systems.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jul 23)

RUSSIA TO RETAIN LEADERSHIP IN SPACE – PUTIN - Russia has all it needs to retain its leadership position in space. By 2015, it will possess a six-seater space shuttle for replacing the veteran Soyuz capsule and for carrying manned missions to Mars. By the same year, it also hopes to have won at least 15 percent of the international space launch market. Space officials told this Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday at a meeting with him at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Energia Space Corporation.    More
(Source: The Voice of Russia - Jul 21)

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