NASA TARGETS FEB. 7 FOR LAUNCH - NASA Friday announced Feb. 7 as the target launch date for shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station and mid-March for the launch of Endeavour on STS-123. Liftoff of Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will be at 2:47 p.m. EST. More (Source: NASA - Jan 12)
SOUTH KOREA TERMINATES FIRST MULTIPURPOSE SATELLITE - South Korea is ending the mission of its first multipurpose satellite, launched in 1999, after losing contact with it at the end of December, its space agency said on Friday. The Arirang satellite had an original mission of three years, mapping the Earth's surface. It continued in operation for several more years after that, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said. More (Source: Reuters UK - Jan 11)
AFRICA: PAN-AFRICAN SATELLITE - FUEL LEAKAGE PARALYSES TAKEOFF - Technicians announce stop-gap measures to save RASCOM-QAF 1, Africa's new found telecommunication device. Whereas the African continent is busy preparing to start enjoying the refined services of the Pan-African Satellite project, RASCOM-QAF 1, technicians of the Thales Alenia Space, the company that built the satellite are announcing very disturbing teething problems with takeoff. More (Source: AllAfrica.com - Jan 10)
ORBITAL-BUILT HORIZONS-2 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED - Orbital Sciences Corporation, the world’s leading manufacturer of smaller-sized geosynchronous (GEO) communications satellites, announced recently that the Horizons-2 satellite was successfully launched into orbit during a mission that took place on Friday, December 21, 2007. More (Source: Aerospace Online - Jan 7)
ISRAELI SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH LIKELY IN FIRST QUARTER - The much-delayed launch of an Israeli spy satellite by an Indian rocket is expected to take place in the first quarter of this year, a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official said here on Saturday. The military satellite TechSAR will be put in orbit by the ISRO's workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. More (Source: The Hindu - Jan 7)
US SHUTTLE ATLANTIS WON'T FLY ON JANUARY 10: NASA - The US space agency said it has once again delayed the launch of the US space shuttle Atlantis that is to carry a European space laboratory to the International Space Station. No new launch date has been set. Faulty fuel gauges on the spacecraft's liquid hydrogen tank has already forced several postponements of the launch that was initially scheduled for December 6. More (Source: AFP - Dec 31)
RUSSIA TO LAUNCH COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE IN JAN. AFTER DELAY - Russia will launch on Jan. 28 a Proton M carrier rocket to orbit a communication satellite after a four-month delay, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Friday. The launch of an Express AM-33 communications satellite had originally been scheduled for September, but was delayed after Thales Alenia Space, a French firm, failed to supply the manufacturer, the Applied Mechanics research-and-production association based in the Moscow Region, with a payload module for the spacecraft, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. More (Source: Xinhua - Dec 29)
FAST FOOD DELIVERY: PROGRESS DOCKS WITH ISS - new Progress cargo carrier docked to the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment early Wednesday, bringing almost 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies to the station and its three-member crew. One of the first items unpacked were fresh tomatoes and lettuce, to be used for an anticipated culinary treat of “space hamburgers” for the crew. More (Source: UniverseToday.com - Dec 27)
ARIANE 5 ROCKETS PUTS AFRICA'S FIRST SATELLITE INTO SPACE - An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off here on Friday to put into orbit the first African telecommunications satellite as well as another made by a US-Japanese joint venture, Arianespace said. The rocket, the 36th launch of an Ariane 5 and the sixth this year, lifted off at 2142 GMT and successfully placed the satellites for the pan-African operator RascomStar-QAF and US-Japanese Horizons 2 Satellite LLC. More (Source: AFP - Dec 22)
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