INDIAN ANTI-SATELLITE TEST PROVES EARLY TEST FOR SPACE FENCE - Still in testing mode, the U.S. Air Force Space Fence on Kwajalein Atoll detected India’s March 27 anti-satellite test and issued a break-up alert. “We happened to be up during an endurance test and we were very excited to see that the system performed nominally,” Matthew Hughes, Lockheed Martin Space Fence and Space Surveillance programs business development manager, told SpaceNews. “Space fence is all about the ability to identify break ups, maneuvers, closely spaced objects, proximity operations, new foreign launches.” More (Source: Space News - Apr 12)
SPACEX FALCON HEAVY STICKS TRIPLE ROCKET LANDING WITH 1ST COMMERCIAL LAUNCH - SpaceX's Falcon Heavy successfully launched its first operational mission today (April 11), sticking a triple-rocket landing more than a year after its demo mission catapulted a cherry-red Tesla and a dummy nicknamed Starman into space. The megarocket, dubbed the most powerful launcher in operation, blasted off at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT). It lifted off here from the same site that once hosted NASA's Apollo moon missions and its fleet of space shuttles: historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. About 34 minutes later, the rocket deployed Arabsat-6A, an advanced communications satellite that will provide internet and communications services to residents of the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 12)
ARISS SSTV TRANSMISSIONS APRIL 11-14 - ARISS Russia is planning Slow Scan Television (SSTV) image transmissions on 145.800 MHz FM from the International Space Station. The transmissions begin Thursday, April 11, 2019 around 18:00 UTC and run continuously until approximately 18:00 UTC on Sunday, April 14, 2019. This event uses a computer in the ISS Russian Segment, which stores images that are then transmitted to Earth using the ARISS amateur radio station located in the Service Module which employs the Kenwood TM D710E transceiver. More (Source: AMSAT-UK - Apr 11)
IRAN SAYS IT WILL PUSH AHEAD WITH SATELLITE LAUNCHES DESPITE US OPPOSITION - Iran said on Tuesday it would press ahead with the launch of three satellites into orbit this year despite a US move to curb Tehran’s ballistic missile program which Washington says has been advanced by the satellite activity. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would name Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, a move partly intended to curb the Islamic Republic’s development of ballistic missiles. More (Source: New York Post - Apr 11)
INTELSAT-29E SATELLITE SUFFERS FUEL LEAK, SPOTTED DRIFTING ALONG GEO ARC - Intelsat’s first Epic-series high-throughput satellite, Intelsat-29e, is drifting in orbit after back-to-back anomalies, forcing the company to shift customers to other spacecraft. Intelsat said April 10 that the propulsion system on the three-year-old satellite “experienced damage” — the cause of which it did not identify — resulting in a fuel leak. While attempting to restore services from the satellite, Intelsat said a second problem surfaced that resulted in a loss of communications with the satellite. More (Source: Space News - Apr 11)
NASA HIGHLIGHTS SCIENCE ON NEXT CYGNUS MISSION TO ISS - NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 10, to discuss select science investigations and technology demonstrations launching on the next Northrop Grumman commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. Northrop Grumman is targeting Wednesday, April 17, for the launch of its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket from pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. More (Source: Space Daily - Apr 11)
SPACEX JUST DELAYED THE FALCON HEAVY ROCKET’S FIRST COMMERCIAL MISSION TO THURSDAY - Update April 10th, 7:30PM ET: SpaceX has delayed the launch to Thursday, April 11th due to high winds. Original: This afternoon, SpaceX’s most powerful rocket — which is also the most powerful rocket in the world at the moment — will take its second flight to space from Florida more than a year after its famous debut mission. It will be the Falcon Heavy’s very first customer launch, sending a communications satellite for Saudi Arabia to a high orbit above Earth. All three cores of the rocket will attempt to land back on Earth after takeoff. More (Source: The Verge - Apr 11)
SPACEX SETS LAUNCH DATE FOR LATEST FALCON 9 RESUPPLY MISSION TO ISS FOR NASA - NASA has a time and date for the next launch of experiments, supplies and other materials to the International Space Station. The early morning SpaceX mission to send a Falcon 9 rocket carrying resupply materials to ISS astronauts will head into space at 5:55 a.m., Friday, April 26. The rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Space Coast. More (Source: Orlando Sentinel - Apr 10)
NEW SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS SWEEPING EUROPE - Climate change is picking up pace in Europe, thrusting farmers and power generators onto the front lines of a battle with nature that threatens to upend the lives of the half billion people who occupy the world’s biggest trading bloc. Last year was the third hottest on record and underlines “the clear warming trend” experienced in the last four decades, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which operates a network of satellites for the European Union that collects weather, soil, air and water data. More (Source: Bloomberg - Apr 10)
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