SPACEX MAKES ANOTHER SPACE STATION CARGO DELIVERY - A commercial supply ship owned and operated by SpaceX arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, delivering a pair of NASA experiments to demonstrate satellite refueling techniques and monitor changes in Earth’s forests, along with a special holiday menu of turkey, candied yams, cranberry sauce and shortbread cookies. The arrival of the Dragon cargo capsule Saturday marked another event in a busy schedule for the space station’s six-person crew, following the docking of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three fresh residents Dec. 3, and ahead of a spacewalk Tuesday to inspect the exterior of a different Soyuz capsule that developed a pressure leak in August.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 11)

RUSSIANS PREPARE FOR SPACEWALK, AIMING TO SOLVE A SPACE STATION MYSTERY - The two men will spend six hours examining and repairing a tiny hole that roiled space relations between the United States and Russia. On Tuesday, Russian astronauts hope to gather clues in a whodunit at the International Space Station. The astronauts, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev, are to conduct a spacewalk to examine the outside of a Soyuz capsule currently docked at the space station and used for transporting astronauts. They, as well as officials at NASA and the Russian space agency, want to know why there is a hole in the Soyuz. That small cavity roiled space relations between the United States and Russia this summer, leading to speculation in Russian media about an act of sabotage aboard the station.   More
(Source: New York Times - Dec 11)

RAAF FUNDS SATELLITE MISSIONS WITH SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN MIND - If all goes to plan, Mission 1 (M1), the first of two Royal Australian Air Force-funded small satellite efforts, will soon be placed into space by a US launch vehicle. The M1 and later M2 missions are being funded by the air force and conducted in partnership with the University of NSW Canberra, with the aims of developing a cadre of expertise in satellite capabilities and demonstrating innovative space technologies and rapid small-satellite development.   More
(Source: The Australian - Dec 10)

ISRO TO LAUNCH DEDICATED SATELLITE FOR IAF IN 3RD WEEK OF DECEMBER - After the heaviest satellite Gsat-11 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up to launch a dedicated communication satellite for the Indian Air Force. Talking to TOI, Isro chairman K Sivan said, “Isro will launch a communication satellite Gsat-7A dedicated for the IAF in the third week of this month. In January, there will be a PSLV launch and then communication satellite Gsat-31 will be launched from French Guiana that will replace INSAT 4CR, whose end of life is expected soon. And then we have the Chandrayaan-2 mission in January, whose launch window is from January 3 to February 13.”   More
(Source: Times of India - Dec 10)

RUSSIA'S CRUMBLING BAIKONUR SPACEPORT IS EARTH'S ONLY LAUNCH PAD FOR MANNED FLIGHTS - The landscape approaching Russia’s spaceport in Baikonur is otherworldly. The yellow steppe of southern Kazakhstan where it is located is effectively desert, unbroken flatlands for hundreds of miles covered by a layer of scrub. In December, the freezing winds that blow across it encase the scrub plants in ice, making them look like silver coral sprouting out of the sand. Established at the dawn of the Cold War space race in the 1950s, Baikonur is Russia’s chief spaceport and, for now, the only launchpad in the world sending manned flights into space. Since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, Russia’s Soyuz rockets -- launched from Baikonur -- are the only option for astronauts headed to the International Space Station.    More
(Source: ABC News - Dec 10)

DELTA 4-HEAVY COUNTDOWN ABORTED MOMENTS BEFORE LAUNCH - A dramatic automatic abort 7.5 seconds before the planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket Saturday night kept the towering launcher on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with a top secret spy payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The 233-foot-tall (71-meter) rocket was counting down to launch at 8:15 p.m. PST Saturday (11:15 p.m. PST; 0415 GMT Sunday), but an automated sequencer detected a technical issue and triggered an abort.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 9)

ULA DELTA IV-HEAVY LAUNCH WITH NROL-71 SCRUBBED - United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket will try again on Saturday to launch the mysterious NROL-71 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Ahead of Friday’s launch window – that was to open at 20:19 Pacific Time (04:19 UTC on Saturday) – ULA noted an issue with the holdfire circuitry required further work, scrubbing the launch attemot. The launch – after a 24 hour recycle – will take place from Space Launch Complex 6 at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. Like most activities conducted by the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), specifics of the NRO Launch 71 (NROL-71) mission are classified. The NRO is the organization that operates America’s fleet of reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering satellites, using a variety of spacecraft types and surveillance techniques to support national defense and security.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 8)

CHINA LAUNCHES SATELLITES FOR SAUDI ARABIA - Two Saudi Arabian Earth observation satellites and 10 small secondary payloads rode a Long March 2D rocket into orbit Friday from the Jiuquan space base in China’s northwestern Inner Mongolia region, hours before the launch of a Chinese lunar probe targeting the first soft landing on the far side of the moon. The Long March 2D rocket lifted off at 0412 GMT Friday (11:12 p.m. EST Thursday) from Jiuquan, carrying the 12 satellites into a low Earth orbit a few hundred miles above the planet.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 7)

TINY SATELLITES POSE A SWARM OF OPPORTUNITIES — AND THREATS - Spaceflight favors big rockets and small technology — but when technology gets small enough, it may act very differently from traditional satellites and spacecraft. And that tipping point may not be all that far away, with engineers having already flown tiny satellites that stretch just 1.3 inches (3.5 centimeters) across. With these tiny satellites come the potential opportunity to produce hordes of them, turning one large device into a host of smaller, cheaper ones.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 7)

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