NEXT SPACE STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH SCHEDULED MAY 20 AT WALLOPS ISLAND - The next mission to resupply the International Space Station is scheduled to launch early on May 20 from a state-owned spaceport at Wallops Island on the Virginia Eastern Shore. The pre-dawn launch would be the sixth from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport by Orbital ATK, the Dulles-based aerospace company that is resupplying the space station under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. “You should be able to see it from the Richmond area,” said Keith Koehler, spokesman for the NASA Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague.   More
(Source: Richmond.com - Apr 26)

EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVER LAUNCHED BY RUSSIAN ROCKET - A new European satellite carrying instruments to track changes in the world’s oceans, measure receding ice sheets and chart vegetation growth climbed into orbit Wednesday on top of a Russian Rockot launcher. The successful launch added the seventh satellite to the Copernicus Earth-observing fleet, a network of environmental observatories funded by the European Union in partnership with the European Space Agency. The Sentinel 3B spacecraft — weighing approximately 2,535 pounds (1,150 kilograms) — lifted off at 1757:51 GMT (1:57:51 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in far northern Russia.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 26)

RUSSIAN ROKOT LAUNCHER TO ORBIT SENTINEL-3B EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE - A Russian Rokot launch vehicle is poised to launch the European Sentinel-3B Earth-observing satellite to orbit at 1:57 p.m. EDT (17:57 GMT) April 25, 2018, from Site 133/3 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The campaign for this mission kicked off on March 17, 2018, when an Antonov aircraft transporting the Sentinel-3B spacecraft from France landed in Archangielsk, Russia. There, it was transported by train to Plesetsk a day later.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Apr 25)

ARIANESPACE CANCELS ARIANE 5 LAUNCH OVER ISRO SATELLITE ISSUE - An Ariane 5 launch has been cancelled after an unexplained problem with an Indian space agency satellite that was supposed to ride on the mission. Evry, France-based Arianespace, operator of the Ariane 5 rocket, said April 24 that the Indian Space Research Organisation recalled its GSAT-11 satellite back to an agency test facility in Bangalore, India for “additional technical checks.” GSAT-11, a hefty 5,870-kilogram satellite designed to provide 12 Gbps of capacity, had arrived at the European spaceport in French Guiana on March 28...   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 25)

UK EXPLORES PRODUCING OWN SATELLITE SYSTEM AFTER EU’S GALILEO SNUB - Britain is exploring plans to launch a satellite navigation system as a rival to the EU’s €10bn Galileo project in an escalating row with Brussels over whether the UK can be trusted with Europe’s most sensitive security information after Brexit. Greg Clark, the UK business secretary, is also taking legal advice on whether Britain can reclaim the €1.4bn it has invested in Galileo since the project’s launch in 2003 after a recent Brussels decision to shut the UK out of secure parts of the project.    More
(Source: Financial Times - Apr 25)

CHINA BEGINS SELECTING NEW GROUP OF 18 ASTRONAUTS FOR SPACE STATION MISSIONS - China has launched a process to select 18 new astronauts for missions to the Chinese Space Station, including men and women from air force, science and engineering backgrounds. "The selection consists of three periods, and we will select not only males but also female candidates for the third batch of astronauts," Yang Liwei, deputy head of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), said in Beijing on April 23. The selected candidates will be trained for missions to the Chinese Space Station (CSS), a project which brings new demands for spaceflight and expertise.   More
(Source: GBTIMES - Apr 24)

BOEING, LOCKHEED, ULA CORNER THE GOVERNMENT-FUNDED SPACE MARKET. SPACEX MOVING UP - Attracting new players to compete for national security and civil space contracts has been a longtime goal of the Congress, the Pentagon and NASA. But as the numbers show, only a handful of contractors command the bulk of federal dollars spent on space programs. The U.S. government invested $83 billion in space platforms and hypersonic technologies between fiscal years 2011 and 2017, according to Govini’s new report, Space Platforms & Hypersonic Technologies Taxonomy. Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing — and Boeing captured more than half of all contract obligations, Govini estimated.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 23)

LAB TESTS AND LIFE SCIENCE AS STATION ORBITS HIGHER TODAY - A docked Russian cargo craft automatically fired its engines this morning boosting the International Space Station’s altitude a little higher. During the rest of the day, the Expedition 55 crew supported life science and swapped out station hardware. Russia’s Progress 69 resupply ship docked to the Zvezda service module fired its thrusters boosting the station’s orbit today. The two-minute, six-second burn establishes the correct orbit when three crew members undock and land in June and a two-orbit rendezvous capability for the Progress 70P resupply craft when it launches in July.   More
(Source: NASA - Apr 21)

ARIANESPACE TO LAUNCH JAPANESE BROADCAST SATELLITE - Arianespace on April 19 announced an agreement with Japan’s Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation and satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral to launch the BSAT-4b satellite on an Ariane 5 rocket in 2020. The agreement follows the launch of BSAT-4a on an Ariane 5 in September 2017. BSAT is building up its satellite infrastructure ahead of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which start in July 2020. Seeking to have BSAT-4b as an in-orbit backup ahead of the games, BSAT picked SSL to build the satellite last month. BSAT-4b will feature an identical co   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 20)

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