HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE HITS ORBIT 100,000 - The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) hit the 100,000-orbit mark today, nearly two decades after it launched into space. The beloved observatory has been faithfully circling Earth since its April 1990 launch, offering us Earthlings glimpses of the cosmos as we've never had before. Now, after travelling around Earth at nearly five miles per second for 100,000 orbits, Hubble's odometer reads about 2.72 billion miles — that's roughly 5,700 round trips to the Moon. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 13)
ASTRONAUTS READY FOR RISKY HUBBLE MISSION - Seven NASA astronauts are eagerly looking forward to a risky, but pivotal, shuttle flight to the Hubble Space Telescope this fall. Veteran shuttle commander Scott Altman and his crew are preparing to launch in early October aboard the Atlantis orbiter on what is expected to be NASA's final service call on the iconic space observatory. The telescope passed its 100,000th orbit around Earth on Monday. More (Source: MSNBC - Aug 13)
U.S. SATELLITE SHOOTDOWN: THE INSIDE STORY - While assessing the hazards of hydrazine reentry from space, a journalist discovers the hazards of media commentary as well. Assessing technological risk is a thorny enough problem here on Earth, even with our experience and our intuition about familiar uncertainties, factors, and processes. More (Source: IEEE Spectrum Online - Aug 11)
ASTRIUM DELIVERS ARABSAT’S BADR-6 SATELLITE IN ORBIT - The BADR-6 satellite built by EADS Astrium has been handed over to ARABSAT as part of the in-orbit delivery contract and has now entered commercial service. BADR-6 is the third spacecraft built by Astrium for ARABSAT, the communications satellite operator based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. More (Source: Space Fellowship - Aug 8)
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)
Previous Next
