HUGE HURRICANE FLORENCE LOOMS LARGE IN NEW VIEWS FROM SPACE (VIDEO) - As Hurricane Florence intensified into a major, Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean today (Sept. 10), astronauts and satellites have spotted the enormous weather system from space. NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold shared views from the International Space Station, which orbits around 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. "A few moments later, #Isaac & the outer bands of #Helene were also visible," Arnold tweeted, referring to two other hurricanes swirling to the east of Hurricane Florence. Last Thursday (Sept. 6), Arnold shared his first photos of Hurricane Florence, taken when it was still a Category 2 storm.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 11)

NEW SPACE ROBOTS WILL FIX SATELLITES, OR MAYBE DESTROY THEM - People in the satellite industry are fond of automobile analogies. Like this one: Imagine that you buy a car and need it to run for 15 years, but you can’t change the oil or replace the alternator, let alone refuel it. That, they say, is the state of satellites. Once they’ve slipped the surly bonds of Earth, satellites pretty much just have to work, from the time they unfurl from their rocket fairing to the day they shut down for good. But engineers now want to make satellites actually like cars: fixable, updatable, soup-up-able. To do that, you need another satellite, a robot that can play doctor, gas station attendant, and person in the parking lot who agrees to give your dead car a push.   More
(Source: WIRED - Sep 11)

SPACEX, TELESAT ACHIEVE REPEAT SUCCESS WITH MIDNIGHT-HOUR LAUNCH - For the second time in seven weeks, SpaceX, Telesat and SSL teamed up for a commercial satellite launch from Cape Canaveral early Monday, this time successfully deploying into orbit a high-power telecom payload developed in a joint venture with a Hong Kong-based company. The Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite, also known as APSTAR 5C, was released into orbit by the Falcon 9’s second stage around 32 minutes after liftoff, which occurred at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) Monday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 11)

JAXA POSTPONES STATION CARGO LAUNCH AS TYPHOON THREATENS GUAM TRACKING SITE - A typhoon forecast to move near a ground station in Guam on Monday has forced officials to postpone the launch of a Japanese HTV cargo ship loaded with more than 13,000 pounds of supplies, experiments and a replacement set of batteries for the International Space Station. Forecasters are monitoring Typhoon Mangkhut as it churns across the Pacific Ocean toward Guam and neighboring islands. A tracking station needed to receive data from the H-2B rocket carrying Japan’s HTV cargo ship into orbit is located in Guam, and officials announced Sunday that the mission would be postponed to wait for the storm to move away from the area.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 10)

SPACEX WILL LAUNCH TELSTAR COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE TONIGHT: HOW TO WATCH LIVE - SpaceX is prepared to loft a hefty communications satellite into orbit tonight (Sept. 9) and then attempt to land a rocket's first stage on a drone ship at sea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite, also known as Apstar 5C, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, during a launch window that starts at 11:28 p.m. EDT (0328 GMT on Sept. 10). You can watch it online here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX. In case of delays, the launch window stretches for 4 hours.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 10)

CHINA LAUNCHES SATELLITE TO MONITOR WORLD’S OCEANS - A Chinese marine observation satellite designed to monitor ocean pollution, measure sea temperatures and track ship movements successfully launched Friday on top of a Long March 2C rocket. The Haiyang 1C spacecraft lifted off at 0315 GMT Friday (11:15 p.m. EDT Thursday) from the Taiyuan space center in Shanxi province, located in northeastern China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Chinese officials declared the Long March 2C flight a success, marking the country’s 24th space launch of 2018, and extending the record for the highest number of Chinese launches in a year.   More
(Source: SpacdeFlight Now - Sep 10)

AIR FORCE RELEASES NEW TARGET DATES FOR UPCOMING MILITARY LAUNCHES - Managers have pushed back the next flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket from a launch pad in California until no sooner than early December, and the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for the U.S. Air Force has likely been delayed to some time early next year, officials said this week. Those missions using the heavy-lift rockets from the two top U.S. launch companies are set to take off amid a series of spacecraft deployments to upgrade the Air Force’s GPS navigation network, expand the military’s secure global communications capabilities, serve commercial customers, and test flights of new U.S.-built crew capsules.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 8)

JAPAN IS GO FOR MONDAY CARGO LAUNCH TO STATION - Japan’s seventh cargo mission (HTV-7) to the International Space Station is in the final stages of preparation for launch on Monday at 7:32 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers are monitoring the weather at the Tanegashima Space Center launch site while the Expedition 56 crew is preparing for its arrival early Friday. JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-7 is delivering a wide variety of science gear to support new research aboard the orbital lab. The new facilities will enable astronauts to observe physical processes at high temperatures, protein crystal growth and genetic alterations as well as a variety of other important space phenomena.   More
(Source: NASA - Sep 8)

HURRICANE FLORENCE LOOKS LIKE A GIANT COTTON BALL IN THIS ASTRONAUT PHOTO FROM SPACE - Hurricane Florence looks like a giant cotton ball in new photos snapped from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold. "#HurricaneFlorence strengthens in the early morning hours over the Atlantic," Arnold wrote on Twitter yesterday (Sept. 6) in a description of the two images. Florence is currently a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of around 105 mph (169 km/h), according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).    More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 8)

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