JAPAN SPACE VENTURE TO LAUNCH SATELLITE FOR ARTIFICIAL METEOR SHOWER - A Japanese space venture said Thursday it will launch a small satellite next month for delivering the world's first artificial meteor shower over Hiroshima and its vicinity in the spring of 2020. Tokyo-based ALE Co., which has been developing the shooting star technology as an entertainment tool, is loading the satellite carrying 400 metal pieces which will replicate meteors on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's rocket slated for launch on Jan. 17, it said.    More
(Source: The Mainichi - Dec 14)

SYRIA WANTS TO LAUNCH FIRST DOMESTICALLY-PRODUCED SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Syrian Minister of Communications and Technology Iyad Khatib stated the need to develop the country's space programme and launch its first satellite into orbit, the ministry said on Tuesday. The minister visited the Syrian space research agency GORS (General Organisation of Remote Sensing) and met with its management and staff, who presented their projects to Khatib.   More
(Source: Sputnik International - Dec 14)

ONEWEB SCALES BACK BASELINE CONSTELLATION BY 300 SATELLITES - Satellite broadband startup OneWeb, now three months from the launch of its first satellites, is reducing the size of its initial low Earth orbit constellation by a third. Greg Wyler, OneWeb’s founder, said the company will need only 600 satellites or so instead of 900 after ground tests of the first satellites demonstrated better than expected performance. “What it does is it lowers the cost structure to reach that first phase of global coverage,” Wyler said in a Dec. 13 interview. “Rarely do you see costs go down, so it’s a pretty big deal.”   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 14)

ROCKET LAB SCRUBS TODAY'S LAUNCH - Rocket Lab has scrubbed today's launch, citing poor weather. "Happy to launch in most weather but got to draw the line at a storm," founder Peter Beck tweeted shortly after 4pm. A launch window had been due to open at 5.07pm. "The current weather has violated FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] flight rules, so this one is kind of out of our hands. Some good weather is on its way soon however," Beck said.   More
(Source: New Zealand Herald - Dec 13)

RUSSIAN SPACEWALKERS CUT INTO SOYUZ SPACESHIP TO INSPECT LEAK REPAIR - Clad in pressurized spacesuits, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev used knives and scissors Tuesday to slice through insulation and a debris shield on a Soyuz spaceship set to return to Earth next week, finally reaching the capsule’s metallic hull to examine the site of an air leak plugged in August. Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, Kononenko and Prokopyev opened the hatch to the Pirs airlock at 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT) to officially begin the unusual excursion, the 213th spacewalk since 1998 in support of space station assembly and maintenance.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 12)

FIRST GPS III SATELLITE ENCAPSULATED FOR DEC. 18 SPACEX LAUNCH - The U.S. Air Force’s first Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellite is now encapsulated for its planned Dec. 18 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. GPS III Space Vehicle 01 (GPS III SV01) underwent pre-launch processing, fueling and encapsulation at Astrotech Space Operations, in Titusville, Florida. During encapsulation, GPS III SV01 was sealed in its launch fairing — an aerodynamic, nose-cone shell that protects the satellite during launch.   More
(Source: GPS World magazine - Dec 12)

IT’S A BRIEFCASE! IT’S A PIZZA BOX! NO, IT’S A MINI SATELLITE - Recently, officials in California announced that the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history, had been fully contained. The achievement was made possible through the hard work of firefighters on the ground, with some help from above: a swarm of tiny, orbiting satellites that represent the next phase of the space age. The satellites are operated by Planet Labs, a company in San Francisco that runs the world’s largest fleet of Earth-observing satellites. Its craft number around 140. All of them carry cameras and telescopes. In size, most rival a loaf of bread.    More
(Source: New York Times - Dec 12)

FOX-1CLIFF/AO-95 RECEIVER SUFFERS APPARENT FAILURE - The receiver on the newly launched Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 CubeSat seems to have suffered a receiver failure that could render the satellite unusable, AMSAT said over the weekend. Efforts continue by AMSAT Engineering to establish the cause of the problem and determine if a fix is possible. AMSAT Vice President-Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, reported over the weekend that the issue cropped up during efforts to commission Fox-1Cliff/AO-95. “After a few days of tests, analysis, and discussion, it appears that Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 Amateur Radio satellite,” Buxton said. Commissioning began on December 4, right after the CubeSat’s successful launch a day earlier.   More
(Source: ARRL - Dec 12)

JORDAN’S FIRST CUBESAT, JY1SAT, IS DESIGNATED AS JO-97 - JY1Sat, launched on December 3 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the SpaceX SSO-A: SmallSat Express launch, has been designated as Jordan OSCAR 97 (JO-97). The 1U CubeSat is a project of the Crown Prince Foundation of Jordan. Telemetry has been received and decoded around the world since the launch.   More
(Source: ARRL - Dec 12)

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