ATLANTIS ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION - Space shuttle Atlantis and the STS-122 crew arrived at the International Space Station at 12:17 p.m. EST, delivering the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory and a new crew member to the orbital outpost. The STS-122 astronauts and the station’s Expedition 16 crew will conduct pressure and leak checks before the hatches between the spacecraft open. After the crews greet each other, they will begin joint operations. More (Source: NASA - Feb 9)
NASA, EUROPEANS DELIGHTED BY ATLANTIS LAUNCH - Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts launched on spectacular plumes of gold-tipped smoke today carrying Europe’s primary contribution to the International Space Station – the Columbus science laboratory. The lab is filled with racks for experiments and research euipment and has fixtures on its exterior to also host research exposed to the vacuum of space. It represents the latest international addition to a facility already made of structures from the United States, Russia and Canada. More (Source: NASA - Feb 7)
COUNTDOWN BEGINS FOR US-EUROPE SPACE MISSION - The crew of the US shuttle Atlantis readied Tuesday for this week's delayed mission to deliver a European space laboratory to the orbiting International Space Station. Lift-off, originally scheduled for December, now is set for Thursday after a two-month delay, while engineers got to the bottom of electrical faults with fuel gauges on the shuttle's external fuel tank. More (Source: AFP - Feb 6)
SHUTTLE LAUNCH PLANNED FOR THIS WEEK - Seven astronauts returned to NASA's launch site Monday to take a new shot at flying space shuttle Atlantis to the international space station. Liftoff is set for Thursday afternoon, with NASA wrapping up a last repair Sunday night involving a radiator hose. The mission was waylaid in December by a different problem, erratic fuel gauges. More (Source: CNN.com - Feb 4)
IRAN TEST LAUNCHES ROCKET DESIGNED TO CARRY HOMEMADE SATELLITE INTO SPACE - Iran has inaugurated its first major space center and launched a new rocket that it says is designed to carry an Iranian-made research satellite into orbit. Iranian state-run television showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad giving the order to launch the rocket, named Explorer-1. More (Source: VOA News - Feb 4)
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST U.S. SATELLITE LAUNCH CELEBRATED - After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the United States gave a 90-day deadline to the Army and a little-known research lab in California to send up its own satellite. Seemingly against all odds, the project was completed in 84 days. On Jan. 31, 1958, a knot of rocket scientists and engineers waited anxiously as the satellite, Explorer 1, blasted into orbit, launching the U.S. into the space race. More (Source: San Francisco Chronicle - Jan 31)
NEW RUSSIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE REACHES ORBIT - Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC) expects to begin commercial operations of its new Express-AM33 telecommunications satellite by early March following a successful Jan. 28 launch by a Russian Proton-M rocket from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, RSCC said. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 29)
SATELLITE UNLIKELY TO POSE DANGER TO HUMANS - A disabled U.S. spy satellite is likely to break into small pieces when it falls to Earth within weeks, posing little danger to humans, U.S. government officials and space experts said on Monday. Most, if any, debris that survives the intense heat of re-entry would likely fall into the oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the Earth, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. More (Source: Reuters - Jan 29)
US SPY SATELLITE SET TO HIT EARTH BY EARLY MARCH: PENTAGON - An out-of-control US spy satellite is expected to crash to Earth in late February or early March, the Pentagon said Monday without specifying where it might land. Department of Defense spokesman Bryan Whitman said the satellite, which has lost power, would land "over the next several weeks ... late February, early March time-frame." "We are aware of it, we are monitoring it," he told reporters, declining to give any more details about the satellite or say where it might strike. More (Source: AFP - Jan 29)
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