NORTHROP GRUMMAN CARGO SHIP LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION DELAYED TO NOVEMBER - A Northrop Grumman Innovations Systems launch of a commercial cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA on Oct. 21 will now liftoff on Nov. 2, NASA officials said. The NG-12 Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard an Antares rocket (also built by Northrop Grumman) on Nov. 2 at 9:59 a.m. EDT (1359 GMT) from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, according to a NASA update. The mission, called CRS-12, will fly under Northrop Grumman's Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 11)

LAUNCH OF SATELLITE ABOARD AIRBORNE ROCKET PUSHED BACK - The launch of a satellite from a rocket dropped from the underbelly of an airplane off the coast of Florida has been delayed a day. Northrop Grumman had planned to launch the rocket Wednesday night but pushed it back to Thursday night because of poor weather conditions. The company says it will try again at 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday.   More
(Source: News 13 - Oct 10)

ROCKET LAB SWAPS SATELLITE CUSTOMERS FOR ELECTRON LAUNCH NEXT WEEK - The private spaceflight company Rocket Lab will loft a small satellite for the California-based firm Astro Digital from New Zealand next week in a last-minute mission swap for the commercial launch company A Rocket Lab Electron booster will launch no earlier than Monday (Oct. 14, October 15 NZDT) from the company's Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula. The flight, Rocket Lab's fifth of 2019, will carry a satellite for Astro Digital's Corvus Platform.   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 10)

NORTHROP GRUMMAN’S SATELLITE SERVICER MEV-1, EUTELSAT SATELLITE, LAUNCH ON ILS PROTON - An International Launch Services Proton rocket carried Northrop Grumman’s first satellite-servicing spacecraft and a Eutelsat communications satellite to orbit Oct. 9. Proton lifted off at 6:18 a.m. Eastern from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Its two passengers are scheduled to separate from the rocket almost 16 hours later in a supersynchronous transfer orbit. The launch is ILS’s first mission since 2017 and the first time the company has carried two commercial satellite on a single Proton.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 9)

NASA SMALL SATELLITES CAN AID HURRICANE FORECASTS WITH GPS - Eight briefcase-size satellites flying in a row may be key to improving forecasts of a hurricane's wind speed—detecting whether it will make landfall as a Category 1 or a Category 5. NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) fleet, launched in 2016, was designed to show whether the same GPS signals your phone uses for navigation can be used to measure winds deep within a hurricane or typhoon. The answer appears to be a resounding yes.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Oct 9)

NASA’S ICON SATELLITE TO LAUNCH ON WEDNESDAY - NASA will launch its Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite on Wednesday, October 9, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:30 p.m. EDT. The new satellite will orbit Earth, studying what happens when space weather and Earth weather interact in Earth’s ionosphere, the atmosphere level populated by ions and free electrons.    More
(Source: Astronomy Magazine - Oct 9)

SATELLITE INDUSTRY’S FIRST ROBOTIC SERVICING MISSION READY FOR LAUNCH - A pioneering Northrop Grumman-built satellite designed to dock with an aging spacecraft more than 22,000 miles above Earth, then extend its life with the aid of solar-electric thrusters, is set for launch Wednesday from Kazakhstan aboard a Proton rocket. The first Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV 1, will link up with an 18-year-old Intelsat communications satellite early next year. Once docked, the MEV 1 spacecraft will take over propulsion for the Intelsat 901 satellite, which is running low on fuel.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 9)

ASTRONAUTS WILL SPEND MUCH OF OCTOBER OUTSIDE THE SPACE STATION - October is spacewalk month for astronauts aboard the space station. By the end of the month, crew members will have completed a total of five spacewalks. Most of their time outside will be spent making upgrades to the space station's power system. The first of the five trips occurred over the weekend. Expedition 61 flight engineers Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan spent more than seven hours outside the International Space Station on Sunday.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Oct 9)

KEPLER BOOKS SOYUZ FOR FIRST TWO OPERATIONAL SATELLITES - As it explores changes to its constellation orbit and spacecraft design, Kepler Communications on Oct. 7 said it nonetheless secured launch slots for its first two fully commercial satellites. Kepler will launch the two six-unit cubesats on a Russian Soyuz rocket operated by GK Launch Services in mid-2020. Kepler arranged the launch through Innovative Space Logistics, the Dutch launch broker that arranged for Keplers first two prototypes to launch in 2018 on a Chinese Long March 11 and Indian PSLV.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 8)

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