ARIANE ROCKET LAUNCHES TWO SATELLITES - An Ariane rocket has launched a satellite that will provide television, internet and data transmissions to New Zealand and Australia. The Ariane-5 rocket took off from a European space base in French Guiana, South America, on Friday. More (Source: Radio New Zealand - Oct 7)
NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY TO MOVE TO LAUNCH PAD - Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 29, as preparations for the STS-120 mission move forward. Discovery is targeted to lift off Oct. 23 on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station. More (Source: NASA - Oct 6)
SPUTNIK'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY RECALLS DAWN OF SPACE AGE - A technology invention the size of a basketball set off fierce competition between the United States and the U.S.S.R. 50 years ago this week, when Sputnik I launched and began the space race. The satellite weighed just under 185 pounds and orbited the Earth in 98 minutes, according to NASA, which came into existence because of Sputnik. More (Source: nformationWeek - Oct 2)
CHINA TO LAUNCH ONE MORE MARITIME SATELLITE IN 2009 - China plans to launch one more maritime satellite in 2009, an official said on Sunday. The project to research and manufacture "Ocean II" maritime satellite was approved by the government in January and the satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2009, said Sun Laiyan, vice-minister in charge of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence. More (Source: The Hindu - Oct 1)
DEBRIS FROM CHINA’S SATELLITE POSE RISK - majority of the 300 communication, remote sensing and scientific spacecraft operating at an altitude of between 700 and 800 km face a substantial risk of being destroyed by the debris created by the break-up of China’s Fengyun 1-C spacecraft. More (Source: Hindu - Sep 28)
SPACE TEST CALLED A SUCCESSFUL FAILURE - A space transportation experiment held on Tuesday from the Russian satellite Foton 3M was curiously described as both successful and unsuccessful. While officials said the space lift failed to deliver its load to Earth, some, including the authors of the project, assert that the results were nevertheless of great value. More (Source: Moscow News - Sep 28)
FOTON CAPSULE LANDS IN KAZAKHSTAN - The European Space Agency said the payload capsule from the Foton-M3 spacecraft successfully landed early Wednesday after 12 days in low-Earth orbit. The capsule from the unmanned Foton spacecraft, which was launched Sept. 14, landed in an uninhabited area about 93 miles south of Kustanay in Kazakhstan, close to the Russian border, the ESA said. More (Source: Science Daily - Sep 27)
THE START OF THE GALILEO TEST SATELLITE DELAYED FURTHER - Europe's Galileo navigation satellite project is struggling with new delays. The second Galileo test satellite will not be starting as planned this year. A spokesperson for Arianespace, the company responsible for the marketing of the rocket, informed the Financial Times Deutschland (Monday Edition) that the start originally planned for December is now expected to take place in March 2008. More (Source: Heise Online - Sep 25)
EUROPEAN POLAR SATELLITE IMPROVING WEATHER PREDICTIONS - The European polar satellite MetOp-A, launched last year, is already improving weather predictions and will soon help global environmental and security monitoring, scientists said here Monday. Scientists from Europe and the United States met in Amsterdam for a joint conference of the European meteorological satellites EUMETSAT and the American Meteorological Society, to discuss their experiences. More (Source: AFP - Sep 25)
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