SPACEFLIGHT ARRANGES LAUNCH OF 12 SATELLITES ABOARD INDIA’S PSLV C43 - Spaceflight, the leading satellite rideshare and mission management provider, today announced it will launch 12 spacecraft in November from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Payloads aboard the mission include Fleet Space Technologies’ Centauri I, Harris Corporation’s HSAT, Spire’s LEMUR satellites, and BlackSky’s Global-1 microsatellite.    More
(Source: Business Wire - Nov 9)

TECHNICAL GLITCH DELAYS LAUNCH OF NASA'S ICON SATELLITE ON PEGASUS ROCKET - A NASA mission to loft a satellite from an airplane to probe Earth's atmosphere at the edge of space has been delayed at least one more day due to a glitch with its rocket that was detected just before launch early Wednesday (Nov. 7). The Stargazer L-1011 carrier plane carrying NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite, or ICON, had already taken off from its staging ground at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station when an issue was detected on the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket that was to have launched the satellite from the air at 3:05 a.m. EST (0705 GMT). The next launch opportunity for ICON is on Thursday (Nov. 8), NASA officials said.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 8)

RUSSIA REPORTS COMPUTER BUG ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Russia's space agency says that one of the International Space Station's computers has malfunctioned, but the glitch doesn't pose any risks to the crew. Roscosmos said Tuesday that one of three computers in the station's Russian module has failed. It said Russian flight controllers plan to reboot it Thursday. The agency emphasized that the computer problem wouldn't affect the station's crew—NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergei Prokopyev and German Alexander Gerst. It said two other computers can maintain the station's operation.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Nov 8)

EUROPE'S METOP-C LAUNCHED - The third MetOp satellite, MetOp-C, has been launched on a Soyuz rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana to continue the provision of data for weather forecasting from polar orbit. Carrying the 4083 kg MetOp-C satellite, the Soyuz rocket lifted off on 7 November at 00:47 GMT (01:47 CET). Some 60 minutes later Soyuz's upper stage delivered MetOp-C into orbit and contact was established through the Yatharagga ground station in Australia.   More
(Source: Spaceref - Nov 8)

CHINA’S ‘HEAVENLY PALACE’ SPACE STATION UNVEILED AT AIRSHOW CHINA 2018 - Alexandra Lozovschi China is pushing ahead with its plans to establish itself as one of the influential space powers in the world. The nation is currently developing its very own space station, and expects to have it completely assembled around 2022. Dubbed Tiangong, which translates as “Heavenly Palace,” this is China’s first project to have a permanently crewed space station in orbit. The project follows the launch of two space labs — Tiangong-1 (pictured above) and Tiangong-2, which took to space in 2011 and 2016, respectively.   More
(Source: Inquisitr - Nov 7)

HOW DO ASTRONAUTS VOTE FROM SPACE? - How do you cast your ballot when you are floating over 200 miles above your polling place? Thanks to a special electronic absentee ballot, astronauts are able to vote from space. This voting process began in 1997—necessitated by the beginning of long-duration spaceflight for American astronauts--when Rule 81.35 passed in the Texas state legislature. This law states that “A person who meets the eligibility requirements of a voter under the Texas Election Code, Chapter 101, but who will be on a space flight during the early-voting period and on Election Day, may vote.” (Why Texas? That’s where NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) is located, so most astronauts live in Houston.)   More
(Source: Smithsonian Institution - Nov 7)

FRANCE TO ADD THIRD SYRACUSE 4 SATELLITE TO FUTURE MILSATCOM FLEET - The French Ministry of Defence will add a third satellite to its next-generation geostationary constellation, an official said Nov. 6. Col. Laurent Jannin, the head of French satcom programs at the French arms-procurement agency, DGA, said Nov. 6 that connectivity demands from drones and military aircraft drove the need for an additional satellite that will be launched by 2030 if not sooner. “This satellite will be different from the other ones we are currently building in order to better address the specific and increasing needs of airborne systems,” Jannin said at the 2018 Global MilSatCom conference here.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 7)

AT SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, FRUSTRATION ABOUT LAGGING EFFORTS TO DEAL WITH SPACE JUNK - A British debris-removal satellite was deployed this summer from the International Space Station to help researchers figure out new techniques to clean up space junk that increasingly is becoming a hazard to the ISS and to other satellites. The experimental RemoveDebris mission in September successfully cast a net to catch a dead satellite in space. Next year it will try to capture the target with a harpoon. A harpoon that grabs orbital debris sounds like a cool idea, but putting up more hardware in space to clean up debris is probably not a sustainable proposition, said Fred Kennedy, the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 6)

SOYUZ ROCKET ROLLS OUT FOR LAUNCH OF EUROPEAN WEATHER SATELLITE - A Russian-built Soyuz booster arrived at its tropical launch pad in South America on Friday and was joined with a European weather satellite for launch Tuesday night. The MetOp-C weather observatory, built by Airbus Defense and Space and owned by the European weather satellite agency Eumetsat, will ride the Soyuz ST-B rocket and a Fregat upper stage into a roughly 504-mile-high (811-kilometer) polar orbit after liftoff from French Guiana at 0047:27 GMT Wednesday (7:47:27 p.m. EST; 9:47:27 p.m. French Guiana time Tuesday).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 6)

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