SPACE STATION CREW MEMBERS SET FOR RETURN TO EARTH AFTER LENGTHY MISSION - A cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts finished packing up their Soyuz ferry ship Wednesday and prepared to undock from the International Space Station early Thursday for a fiery descent to touch down on the steppe of Kazakhstan. The trip closes out a 197-day mission that included four spacewalks, a full slate of research and an emergency leak repair. With commander Oleg Artemyev at the controls, flanked on the left by flight engineer Drew Feustel and on the right by Ricky Arnold, the Soyuz MS-08/54S spacecraft was scheduled to detach from the station's space-facing Poisk module at 3:57 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) to kick off a three-hour, 48-minute trip home to Earth.   More
(Source: CBS News - Oct 5)

SMALL SATELLITE CONSTELLATION AIMS TO GIVE GROUND TROOPS SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AT AFFORDABLE PRICE - DARPA's SeeMe program is designed to show that small satellites can be built affordably to give small squads timely tactical imagery directly from a small satellite. A future constellation of small satellites would deliver high-resolution images of precise locations of interest to the soldier's handheld device. DARPA will integrate the Raytheon-built SeeMe satellite onto a Spaceflight Industries payload that will be launched into low-earth orbit on a SpaceX rocket later this year. Military users will have an opportunity to evaluate the satellite's performance during missions in early 2019.   More
(Source: Military Embedded Systems - Oct 4)

A COLOSSAL ELEVATOR TO SPACE COULD BE GOING UP SOONER THAN YOU EVER IMAGINED - For more than half a century, rockets have been the only way to go to space. But in the not-too-distant future, we may have another option for sending up people and payloads: a colossal elevator extending from Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 22,000 miles, where geosynchronous satellites orbit. NASA says the basic concept of a space elevator is sound, and researchers around the world are optimistic that one can be built. The Obayashi Corp., a global construction firm based in Tokyo, has said it will build one by 2050, and China wants to build one as soon as 2045.   More
(Source: NBC News - Oct 3)

NASA TESTS A TINY SATELLITE TO TRACK EXTREME WEATHER AND STORMS - Weather tracking is difficult work, and has historically relied on satellites that are large and cost millions of dollars to launch into space. And with the threat of climate change making things like tropical storms, tornadoes and other weather events more violent around the world today, people are increasingly reliant on early warnings and real-time monitoring. However, NASA is looking to change that by deploying a new breed of weather satellite that takes advantage of recent advances in miniaturization.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Oct 3)

ASTRANIS TO FUND LAUNCH OF STUDENT-BUILT SATELLITE - A startup developing small communications satellites will fund the launch of a student-built satellite selected through a competition. Astranis Space Technologies announced Oct. 1 that it will work with NanoRacks to fund a future launch of a university-built 1U cubesat. The satellite will be selected through a competition run by a student space organization, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), among its U.S.-based chapters. The announcement of the competition was linked to the start of the 69th International Astronautical Congress here.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 2)

WILL CHINA’S NEW LASER SATELLITE BECOME THE ‘DEATH STAR’ FOR SUBMARINES? - China is developing a satellite with a powerful laser for anti-submarine warfare that researchers hope will be able to pinpoint a target as far as 500 metres below the surface. It is the latest addition to the country’s expanding deep-sea surveillance programme, and aside from targeting submarines – most operate at a depth of less than 500 metres – it could also be used to collect data on the world’s oceans.   More
(Source: South China Morning Post - Oct 1)

CHINA LAUNCHES CENTISPACE-1-S1 SATELLITE - China launched its Centispace-1-s1 satellite on a Kuaizhou-1A rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 12:13 p.m. Saturday, Xinhua reported. This is the second commercial launch by the Kuaizhou-1A rocket. The first launch in January 2017 sent three satellites into space.   More
(Source: Trend News Agency - Oct 1)

KUAIZHOU-1A ROCKET CARRIES EXPERIMENTAL NAVIGATION ENHANCEMENT SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Commercial space company Expace sent a small, experimental satellite into orbit with a Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle on Saturday, marking China's 26th orbital launch of 2018. The Kuaizhou-1A solid-fuelled rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert at 04:13 universal time (12:13 local), with authorities declaring success within the hour. The 20-metre-tall, 1.4-meter-diameter Kuaizhou-1A solid-fuelled rocket has a liftoff mass of around 30 metric tonnes and is capable of lifting 200 kg of payload to a 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit.   More
(Source: GBTIMES - Sep 30)

SEND UP A SATELLITE TO ZAP SPACE JUNK IF YOU WANT EARTH'S ORBIT TO BE CLEAN, SAY BOFFINS - A group of scientists have proposed a new method to clear up space junk using a satellite that shoots out powerful beams of plasma. Researchers from the Tohoku University, Japan, and The Australian National University, think that potential debris disasters might be averted by sending up a cleaning probe. The satellite works by blasting two plasma beams in opposite directions. The idea is that the particles in the gas exert enough force to slow down the cosmic trash down and knock it out orbit, where it proceeds to fall into Earth’s atmosphere and is naturally destroyed by burning up.   More
(Source: The Register - Sep 30)

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