OBAMA VOWS NASA SUPPORT DURING VISIT TO FLORIDA - Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, held a town hall meeting near the Kennedy Space Center today and vowed strong support for NASA, saying he favors at least one shuttle flight beyond the 10 missions left on the agency's manifest. Obama also said he would work to close the gap between the end of shuttle operations in 2010 and the debut of the Orion spacecraft that will replace it and said earlier reports that he would divert money from NASA's next manned spacecraft to education were unfounded. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Aug 4)
RUSSIAN CARRIER ROCKET SENDS MILITARY SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - A modernized Soyuz-2 carrier rocket sent a Kosmos military satellite into orbit from Russia's northern Plesetsk spaceport on Saturday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The rocket launched at 22:31 Moscow time (1831 GMT), a spokesman for the cosmodrome said. More (Source: Xinhua - Jul 27)
DISH GETS HD BOOST WITH SUCCESSFUL SATELLITE LAUNCH - A new satellite for Dish Network Corp. was successfully launched from an seagoing rocket pad positioned in the equatorial Pacific, Sea Launch Co. said. The Zenit-3SL rocket carrying the EchoStar XI satellite lifted off at 10:21 p.m. PDT Tuesday from Sea Launch Co.'s Odyssey platform. More (Source: Reuters - Jul 16)
NASA DETAILS SHUTTLE’S RETIREMENT - Nasa has announced that it intends to officially retire the aging space shuttle fleet by 2010, four years before it has a replacement craft ready. The space shuttle fleet will make ten more flights, mainly to add modules to the International Space Station and carry out repairs and upgrades to the Hubble orbital telescope. More (Source: ITNews.com - Jul 11)
TWO SATELLITES IN ORBIT AFTER GOOD RIDE FROM ARIANE 5 - An Ariane 5 rocket roared out of its jungle launch base Monday to put Arab and Asian commercial communications satellites into space, marking yet another successful ascent for the heavy-duty booster. Riding the combined power of twin solid rockets and a hydrogen-fueled main engine, the Ariane 5 lifted off at 2147 GMT (5:47 p.m. EDT) from the Guiana Space Center on the northeastern shore of South America. More (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com - Jul 8)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES MILITARY SATELLITE - Russia has successfully launched a new military satellite into orbit, officials said. The Kosmos-series satellite was launched by a heavy Proton-K booster rocket, which blasted off from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian Space Forces spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin said. The Interfax news agency quoted Defence Ministry spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov as saying the satellite will be part of Russia's early missile warning system. More (Source: The Press Association - Jun 27)
NEW SATELLITE WILL IMPROVE WEATHER, CLIMATE, OCEAN FORECASTS - A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite was lofted into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday morning on a three year mission to record sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission is expected to return a vast amount of new data that will allow greater precision in weather, climate and ocean forecasts. More (Source: Environment News Service - Jun 24)
NASA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE TO MAP RISING SEAS - The U.S.-European Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite was launched successfully June 20 aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a five-year mission to continue the uninterrupted study of ocean levels and currents that was begun in the early 1990s in a U.S.-French partnership. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 22)
DATA RELAY SATELLITE CLUSTER LAUNCHED FOR ORBCOMM - Six new communications relay satellites were launched into orbit Thursday to rejuvenate a space-based messaging service operated by ORBCOMM Inc. The six spacecraft were hauled into orbit by a Kosmos 3M rocket launched from the Kapustin Yar space base in southwestern Russia. Liftoff was at 0636 GMT (2:36 a.m. EDT). The two-stage booster was aiming for an orbit with an altitude of about 415 miles and an inclination of 48.5 degrees. ORBCOMM officials announced the launch was a success. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Jun 21)
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