WHAT IT FELT LIKE TO BE ABOARD THE FAILED ROCKET LAUNCH TO THE SPACE STATION - Everything was going smoothly — until NASA astronaut Nick Hague felt a sudden tremor. "The first thing I really noticed was being shaken pretty violently side to side," he said during his first publicly broadcast interviews since his Soyuz rocket failed shortly after liftoff on Oct. 11. The rocket was meant to carry Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin to the International Space Station in what would have been the American's first trip to space. Instead, the pair's emergency rescue system kicked into action after a problem during booster separation. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 19)
COUNTDOWN TO EUROPE'S 'NAIL-BITING' FIRST MISSION TO MERCURY - Engineers are carrying out final checks on the Ariane 5 rocket before it launches Europe's most ambitious spacecraft. Flight VA245 is due to lift off from the European Space Agency's (ESA) base in Kourou, French Guiana, in the early hours of Saturday. It will take the BepiColombo spacecraft into orbit around Earth, the first stage of a five billion mile journey to Mercury. The joint European and Japanese mission will study the structure and evolution of the closest planet to the Sun. More (Source: Sky News - Oct 19)
UK-FRANCE SPACE AGREEMENT DELIVERS DEVICE TO OCEAN SATELLITE - A device built in the UK by Honeywell, which will form a vital part of the mission to make the first global survey of the world’s surface waters and oceans, has been delivered to Thales Alenia Space in France. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, mission is led by CNES (the French Space Agency) and NASA with support from the UK Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The UK Space Agency and CNES signed a joint statement in January 2018 during the UK-France Summit in Sandhurst to step up co-operation in space, building on 2014’s Brize-Norton framework arrangement. More (Source: GOV.UK - Oct 18)
JAM-RESISTANT US MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LIFTS OFF IN MIDNIGHT-HOUR LAUNCH - An advanced U.S. military communications satellite soared into space in the midnight hour Wednesday (Oct. 17), lighting up the sky over Florida as it launched into orbit. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket launched the satellite, known as Advanced Extremely High Frequency 4 (AEHF-4), at 12:15 a.m. EDT (0415 GMT) from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. AEHF-4 is an advanced jam-resistant and nuclear-hardened satellite designed "to provide survivable, global, secure, protected and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military forces," according to a U.S. Air force mission description. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
EYEWITNESS OBSERVER OF DRAMATIC SOYUZ LAUNCH ABORT DESCRIBES WHAT HE SAW - An eyewitness at the aborted Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Oct. 11 saw an odd smoke trail emerging from the rocket crew members' craft separated to make a daring landing back on Earth. Philip Grossman, an urban explorer and contributor to the Science Channel, was in the viewing area for the Expedition 57 launch in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The viewing area includes a large platform on which people can watch the launch, roughly 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers) away. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 17)
45TH SPACE WING GEARS UP FOR SURGE IN LAUNCH ACTIVITY - The launch early Wednesday of a U.S. Air Force $1.8 billion communications satellite will be Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess’ first mission as launch decision authority. Schiess was sworn in Aug. 23 as commander of the 45th Space Wing and director of the Eastern Range, headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base. Since then, SpaceX launched a commercial satellite from the range, but the Advanced EHF satellite known as AEHF-4 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will be his first national security mission as the commander of the world’s busiest spaceport. The wing is responsible to ensure public safety during every launch from Cape Canaveral or Kennedy Space Center. More (Source: SpaceNews - Oct 17)
CHINA’S TWO NEW SATELLITES ARE A STEP TOWARDS COMPLETION OF ITS SPACE SILK ROAD - China has successfully launched another two satellites that will be part of its native BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) – the country’s competitor to the American GPS system. The satellites will bolster China’s ambitious Space Silk Road project – the country’s programme to boost its global revenue from positioning and navigation systems. The launch was significant for multiple reasons. First, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System was built with China’s requirements for national security, and socioeconomic development in mind. More (Source: TNW - Oct 16)
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND DEVELOPS METHANE-HUNTING SATELLITE - Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group, intends to launch a new satellite designed to measure methane emissions worldwide. The spacecraft, named MethaneSAT, could offer a substantial help for countries and companies in combating global warming. MethaneSAT project was unveiled by EDF President Fred Krupp on April 11, 2018. He presented the plan of developing a methane-hunting satellite during a TED Talk in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. MethaneSAT was described by Krupp as the newest chapter in EDF's ongoing effort to advance peer-reviewed science focused on oil and gas methane emissions. More (Source: Phys.org - Oct 16)
SOYUZ FAILURE PROBE NARROWS FOCUS ON COLLISION AT BOOSTER SEPARATION - Russian investigators believe a malfunction during separation of the Soyuz rocket’s four liquid-fueled first stage boosters two minutes after liftoff from Kazakhstan led to an emergency landing of a two-man crew heading for the International Space Station, officials said Friday. Speaking to reporters Friday in Moscow, veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, head of the Russian space agency’s human spaceflight program, said the investigation into Thursday’s launch failure has narrowed on a collision between part of the Soyuz rocket’s first stage and the launcher’s second stage. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 15)
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