SHUTTLE WILL UNDERGO MINOR REPAIR - A dropped tool during payload loading operations last week will require a repair to shuttle Atlantis after all, NASA says. The patch to a radiator panel inside the orbiter's left payload bay door is not expected to impact a targeted May 11 launch to the Hubble Space Telescope, said KSC spokesman Allard Beutel. The repair, which must carefully avoid potential contamination of Hubble's highly sensitive payload, is precautionary to ensure that launch vibrations don't worsen the crack, he said. More (Source: USA Today - Apr 30)
FIRST PHARMA SATELLITE GOING TO SPACE - NASA is about to launch the first pharmacology dedicated research satellite into a low Earth orbit on May 5 aboard the Minotaur 1 rocket. As part of NASA's small satellite program, the PharmaSat nanosatellite weighs only ten pounds and is the size of a loaf of bread. Aboard is a colony of yeast cells continuously monitored by a bunch of sensors while undergoing pharmacological antifungal treatment to study how it is affected by working in space. More (Source: Medgadget.com - Apr 30)
SHUTTLE ATLANTIS MIGHT BEGIN HUBBLE MISSION ONE DAY EARLIER - The U.S. space agency might try to launch space shuttle Atlantis on May 11, a day earlier than scheduled, administrators announced Thursday in Houston. Moving the launch forward would give NASA three possible launch days, said the deputy manager of the shuttle program, Leroy Cain. A decision will be made next week, he said, adding, "we are doing everything we can to make the May 11 launch." More (Source: CNN - Apr 23)
ANUSAT LAUNCHED - The student-built 40-kg micro educational satellite ANUSAT carrying an Amateur Radio payload was launched on Monday April 20 from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satish Dhawan space centre. The launch vehicle was ISRO's PSLV-C12, which as well as ANUSAT also carried RISAT-2, a 300-kg radar imaging satellite. More (Source: The Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Apr 23)
OBSERVATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO ORBIT BY CHINA - China sent into orbit a clandestine remote sensing satellite Wednesday during a launch that was announced less than a day in advance. A Long March 2C rocket blasted off at 0255 GMT Wednesday from the Taiyuan space base in northern China's Shanxi province. The two-stage booster, propelled by a noxious mix of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, deftly guided the secret Yaogan 6 satellite into orbit, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Tracking data indicate the rocket achieved a sun-synchronous orbit with an average altitude of about 300 miles. More (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com - Apr 23)
NATO SATELLITE LAUNCHED ON RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN ROCKET - A NATO communications satellite was launched into orbit Monday aboard a Russian-Ukrainian rocket from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, space officials said. "The SICRAL 1B satellite was launched at 0816 GMT and successfully placed into orbit," a spokeswoman for the Russian mission control centre outside Moscow, Irina Manshilina, told AFP More (Source: Space Daily - Apr 21)
INDIA LAUNCHES KEY SPY SATELLITE - India says it has successfully launched a spy satellite that will be able to track movement on its borders. The Israeli-built Radar Imaging Satellite was launched from the space centre at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state. The satellite was carried on the Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV-C12 rocket. India has an ambitious space programme that last October saw its first unmanned mission to the Moon. More (Source: BBC News - Apr 20)
PSLV-C-12 TO PUT TWO SATELLITES IN ORBIT - The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C-12) carrying two satellites will soar into the sky at 6.45 a.m. on Monday from the spaceport at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It will put in orbit a radar imaging satellite called RISAT-2 and Anusat, a 38-kg. experimental mini communication satellite built by Anna University, Chennai. S. Satish, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said the 48-hour countdown for the lift-off began at 6.45 a.m. on Saturday and filling the fourth stage of the vehicle with liquid propellants was under way. “Everything is proceeding smoothly,” he said. More (Source: The Hindu - Apr 19)
NAVIGATION SATELLITE DEPLOYED IN CHINESE LAUNCH - China launched a new member of its budding satellite navigation system Tuesday, the first of up to 10 such spacecraft scheduled to be added by the end of next year. The Compass G2 satellite blasted off at 1616 GMT (12:16 p.m. EDT) from the Xichang launch base in southwestern China's Sichuan province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. A Long March 3C booster deployed the navigation satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit with a high point of about 22,250 miles, a low point of about 125 miles and an inclination of 20.5 degrees, according to tracking data. More (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com - Apr 15)
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