SPACE STATION LEAK ALL PATCHED UP NOW, NASA SAYS - The repair job astronauts conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday (Aug. 30) appears to be complete. Ground controllers noticed a slight dip in ISS cabin pressure on Wednesday night (Aug. 29). Yesterday, crewmembers traced the leak to a 2-millimeter-wide hole in one of the two Russian Soyuz spacecraft that's currently docked to the orbiting lab. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 2)
IRIDIUM NEXT-8 LAUNCH DATE DEPENDENT ON SATELLITE MANUFACTURING, AVAILABILITY - Iridium Communications is nearing the end of its two-year campaign with SpaceX to place 75 Iridium NEXT communication satellites into orbit. The company has launched 65 of those satellites to date, with the final 10 scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, before the end of the year. The completion of the launch campaign will purposefully leave six NEXT satellites on the ground to serve as launch-replacement spares should they ever be needed over the life of the new constellation. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Sep 1)
OCEAN SATELLITE SENTINEL-6A BEGINNING TO TAKE SHAPE - The integration of Sentinel-6A, the first of two satellites to continue measuring sea levels from 2020, has reached a new milestone and its critical phase: the propulsion module has been "mated" with the main structure of the satellite at Airbus. In a complex operation, the Airbus satellite specialists hoisted the approximately five-metre-high satellite platform with pin-point precision over the drive module, which had already been positioned. The two components were then fixed in place and assembled. More (Source: Space Daily - Sep 1)
THE BEST MOBILE APPS FOR SPOTTING AND IDENTIFYING ORBITING SATELLITES AND IRIDIUM FLARES - If you spend time gazing at the stars on a clear night, you're guaranteed to see a satellite or two passing among them. But how do know whether that's a spent rocket booster, the Hubble Space Telescope or a crewed space station gliding silently overhead? And what was that momentary flash of light? Was it a meteor, or the glint from a shiny satellite? Satellite-focused mobile apps are the best tools for tracking the myriad satellites that are visible with unaided eyes. They can help you tell one satellite from another, as well as alert you when a popular human-made object is about to appear in the night sky and then show you exactly where to look for it. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 1)
NASA ALREADY LOST THE SATELLITE IT JUST FOUND IN JANUARY - In 2000, NASA launched a satellite to study the Earth’s magnetic field from space. TheImager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite spent the next five years uncovering the details of Earth’s magnetic field and the auroras it causes, but in 2005 NASA unexpectedly lost contact. At the time, NASA tried reestablishing contact with IMAGE, but after numerous attempts, the agency declared the satellite lost. More (Source: Popular Mechanics - Aug 31)
THE SATELLITE ON THE EDGE OF SPACE - GOCE (pronounced go-chay), the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, was one of ESA's most remarkable missions. Operating in the lowest-ever orbit of any Earth observation satellite, GOCE was on the edge of space; flying at an altitude of just 224 km. Launched in 2009 on a Rockot launcher from northern Russia, GOCE spent four years mapping Earth's gravity with unrivalled precision, resulting in a unique model of the 'geoid'—the hypothetical shape that the surface of the oceans would take under only the influence of Earth's gravity and rotation, ignoring the influence of winds and tides. More (Source: Phys.Org - Aug 31)
LIVE COVERAGE: SPACE STATION CREW INVESTIGATING TINY PRESSURE LEAK - Crew members on the International Space Station are investigating a tiny pressure leak on the Russian side of the outpost. In a statement released early Thursday, NASA said ground controllers in Houston and Moscow first noticed signs of a "minute leak" on the space station around 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) Wednesday. "As flight controllers monitored their data, the decision was made to allow the Expedition 56 crew to sleep since they were in no danger," NASA said in a statement. "When the crew was awakened at its normal hour this morning, flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston and at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow began working procedures to try to determine the location of the leak." More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 30)
NORTHROP GRUMMAN GETS A START ON NEXT-GEN MISSILE WARNING SATELLITES - The Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a contract worth as much as $47 million for an analysis of system and payload requirements for a new missile warning satellite system in polar orbit. Specifically, the contract will be used for the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar (OPIR) space vehicles 1 and 2. Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, California, and is expected to be completed by June 25, 2020, according to a contract announcement. More (Source: C4ISRNet - Aug 30)
US MILITARY AIMS TO LAUNCH CHEAP NEW 'BLACKJACK' SPY SATELLITES IN 2021 - The U.S. spy-satellite network will get a serious makeover in the next few years, if all goes according to plan. Most U.S. reconnaissance craft are purpose-built monoliths that operate in geostationary orbit, about 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) above Earth. Though these singletons are extremely capable, they're expensive, typically costing $1 billion or more to build, launch and operate. And it takes a decade or so to develop each one, said Paul "Rusty" Thomas, of the Tactical Technology Office at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). More (Source: Space.com - Aug 29)
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