SA SENDS AFRICA'S MOST ADVANCED SATELLITE TO SPACE - A 10kg satellite designed by South African engineers is floating in space, watching over the country’s coastline and sending home real-time information about impending natural disasters. The ZACube-2, worth R16.5million, is the first of a “constellation of satellites” that the Department of Science and Technology is planning to send to space to collect data. The satellite was launched in Russia this week, as part of the Russian Soyuz Kanopus mission and is the most advanced satellite in Africa.   More
(Source: Independent Online - Dec 31)

CHINA DEBUTS NEW UPPER STAGE IN FINAL LAUNCH OF THE YEAR - A Chinese Long March 2D booster climbed into orbit from the Jiuquan space base in the northwest of the country Saturday, delivering seven small satellites to space on communications and weather research missions with the help of a new upper stage capable of firing more than 20 times over two days. With more than 650,000 pounds of thrust, the liquid-fueled Long March 2D rocket took off at 0800 GMT (3 a.m. EST; 4 p.m. Beijing time) Saturday from Jiuquan, a remote military base in the Gobi Desert. Heading toward the southeast, the Long March 2D’s two main stages fired before giving way to a new upper stage to maneuver the mission’s six payloads into two distinct orbits.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 31)

DELTA 4-HEAVY LAUNCH WITH SPY SATELLITE PUSHED BACK TO JANUARY - After unusual concentrations of hydrogen around the rocket foiled a launch attempt Dec. 19, United Launch Alliance said Friday that the company’s powerful Delta 4-Heavy launcher and a U.S. government spy satellite will remain grounded in California until at least Jan. 6 as engineers troubleshoot a small fuel leak. ULA has tried to send the Delta 4-Heavy skyward four times since Dec. 7, but technical problems and unfavorable weather have kept the rocket on its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 29)

CHINA’S BEIDOU NAVIGATION SATELLITE, RIVAL TO US GPS, STARTS GLOBAL SERVICES - China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), touted as a rival to the widely-used American GPS, has started providing global services. The construction of the BDS-3 primary system had been completed, BDS spokesperson Ran Chengqi said Thursday. “This signifies that BDS has officially entered the global era as the BDS expands from a regional system to a global navigation system. From now on, no matter where you go, BDS will always be with you,” Ran said at a media conference here said.   More
(Source: Livemint - Dec 28)

CHINA TO LAUNCH FIRST SATELLITE FOR HONGYAN GLOBAL INTERNET SATELLITE CONSTELLATION ON SATURDAY - China's main space contractor is set to carry out its first launch for a 300-plus satellite communications constellation to provide global internet from low Earth orbit on Saturday. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is set to launch Hongyan-1 on a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert around 08:00 UTC Saturday (03:00 Eastern, 16:00 Beijing time) according to airspace closure notices.   More
(Source: GBTIMES - Dec 28)

SATELLITE SHOWS COLLAPSE OF INDONESIAN VOLCANO - Radar data from satellites, converted into images, shows Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa island volcano is dramatically smaller following a weekend eruption that triggered a deadly tsunami. Satellite photos aren’t available because of cloud cover, but radar images from a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency satellite taken before and after the eruption show the volcano’s southwestern flank has disappeared.   More
(Source: Voice of America - Dec 28)

SOYUZ LAUNCHES CLUSTER OF 28 SATELLITES - A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East at 0207 GMT Thursday (9:07 p.m. EST Wednesday) carrying 28 satellites, including a pair of Russian mapping satellites and secondary payloads from Germany, Japan, Spain South Africa, and a dozen Earth-observing CubeSats and eight commercial weather payloads for Planet and Spire. The Kanopus-V 5 and 6 Earth observation satellites will assist the Russian government in disaster response, mapping and forest fire detection. They were the biggest payloads on the Soyuz-2.1a booster, and were be joined by 26 other spacecraft under a rideshare arrangement booked by Glavkosmos, a company that sells Russian launch services on the global commercial market.   More
(Source: SpacaFlight Now - Dec 27)

USAF'S NEXT-GEN GPS SATELLITES WILL BE A HUGE UPGRADE...EVENTUALLY - Of all the modern miracles enabled by spaceflight, global positioning satellites are among the most useful and ubiquitous. Military and civilian users across the globe depend on the 31 satellites, in six different orbital planes above Earth, to provide continual navigation signals. And the newest member of this constellation, a spacecraft called called GPS III, is the next generation of these vital navigation satellites. Launched on December 23 by a SpaceX rocket, GPS III is now in the hands of ground control crews at Lockheed Martin who are maneuvering the GPS satellite into its final orbit, a task that will be wrap up sometime next week.   More
(Source: Popular Mechanics - Dec 27)

AIR FORCE TO ACCELERATE DEPLOYMENT OF ANTI-JAM SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT - The Air Force is cyber hardening military satellite communications equipment amid worries that foreign hackers could infiltrate U.S. networks. “Adversaries are getting better and more able to penetrate our unclassified or barely protected systems,” said Col. Tim Mckenzie chief of the advanced development division for military satellite communications at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 27)

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