CHINA CELEBRATES AS SPACE HEROES RETURN TO EARTH - Awkwardly, his huge white space boots fumbling for gravity on the steppes of Inner Mongolia, the first Chinese taikonaut to walk in space returned to Earth today in a picture-perfect voyage hailed by the Communist Party as a triumph for the nation. Zhai Zhigang, commander of the Shenzhou VII – or Divine Vessel – spaceship and China’s first man to step out into space, emerged from the heat-charred craft after 68 hours spinning around the globe.    More
(Source: TimesOnline - Sep 28)

CHINA SPACE WALK: TAIKONAUT'S 'SMALL STEP' HAILED AS GIANT LEAP FOR THE COUNTRY - Waving a red national flag at the cameras, a People's Liberation Army colonel stepped out of his orbiter 213 miles above the earth and into the hearts of his nation, becoming the first Chinese man to take a walk into space. It was "a small step by Col. Zhai Zhigang, but a historical leap in China's space dreams," the official commentary said, in a deliberate echo of Neil Armstrong's words as he became the first man to set foot on the Moon.    More
(Source: New York Times - Sep 28)

CHINA'S MANNED SPACECRAFT SHENZHOU-7 BLASTS OFF ON SPACE WALK MISSION - China launched its third manned spacecraft on Thursday with three astronauts on board to attempt the country's first-ever space walk. The spaceship Shenzhou-7 blasted off on a Long March II-F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gansu Province at 9:10 p.m. after a breathtaking countdown to another milestone on China's space journey.    More
(Source: Xinhuanet - Sep 25)

CHINA TO LAUNCH SHENZHOU-7 SPACECRAFT ON THURSDAY - China will launch its third manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province in the northwest on Thursday, a spokesperson with China's manned space program said on Wednesday. The spacecraft, carrying taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, was to blast off between 9:07 p.m. to 10:27 p.m.(Beijing Time), said Wang Zhaoyao. One of the major tasks of the mission would be extravehicular activity (EVA), or known as space walk, the first of its kind attempted by Chinese astronauts, Wang said.    More
(Source: Xinhuanet - Sep 25)

US TELECOMS SATELLITE PUT INTO ORBIT - The Russo-Ukrainian rocket Zenit on Wednesday put the US telecommunications satellite Galaxy-19 in orbit, Russia's space flights regulator said. "The Galaxy-19 satellite was launched at 0928 GMT and successfully put into orbit," the agency's spokesman Valeri Lyndine told AFP. The satellite, manufactured by the California-based firm of Space Systems/Loral, has a wide footprint covering the United States, the Caribbean region as well as Canada and Mexico, he said.   More
(Source: SpaceDaily - Sep 25)

SPACE SHUTTLE READIED AS RESCUE SHIP - The space shuttle Endeavour rolled out to a Florida launching pad early Friday to serve as a rescue craft for its sister ship Atlantis in what is expected to be the last time in history that NASA has two orbiters in launch position at the same time. Riding atop NASA's Apollo-era crawler carrier vehicle, Endeavour completed the 4.2-mile (5.6-kilometer) trek to the seaside Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at about 7 a.m. ET after a nearly eight-hour journey from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building.   More
(Source: MSNBC - Sep 20)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES CANADIAN TELECOM SATELLITE: REPORT - A Proton-M rocket carrying a Canadian telecommunications satellite took off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported. "The launch was made as scheduled at 01:48 am Moscow time (2148 GMT)," an official of Russia's Khrunichev space centre was quoted as saying.   More
(Source: AFP - Sep 20)

PROGRESS DOCKS TO ISS - A Russian Progress cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday, after being delayed by Hurricane Ike. The ISS Progress 30 docked on time at 2:43 p.m. EDT Wednesday, to the aft docking port of the International Space Station's Zvezda Service Module. Docking occurred one week after Progress launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.    More
(Source: Southgate ARC - Sep 18)

ATLANTIS ASTRONAUTS GEAR UP FOR RISKY HUBBLE MISSION - Seven NASA astronauts are gearing up to tackle a risky shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Commanded by veteran astronaut Scott Altman, the STS-125 astronaut crew and NASA's space shuttle Atlantis are set to launch on Oct. 10 and soar 350 miles (563 km) above Earth to reach Hubble, which would leave the crew without the safety net of the International Space Station to fall back on in case of emergency. But the crew's three veterans of previous Hubble servicing flight are confident of mission success.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 10)

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