HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION! - The International Space Station is, as its name implies, a common ground for astronauts from many different countries, but that doesn’t stop them from having a little bit of festive fun on the Fourth of July. There is currently a trio of American astronauts aboard the space station, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to do a little bit of red, white, and blue redecorating. In honor of Independence Day, the Advanced Plant Habitat on the space station has been given a bit of a makeover, with an LED lighting array switched over from its usual hues to an American flag pattern. It looks pretty darn cool. More (Source: BGR - Jul 5)
AIRBUS: ESA PLANETARY RESEARCH SATELLITE ON TRACK FOR LAUNCH - Airbus completed construction and integration of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) at its Madrid-Barajas facility in Spain, putting the satellite on track for its scheduled launch on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket later this year. CHEOPS will now be sent to France, Switzerland and The Netherlands for a comprehensive test campaign that will start July 9 and include a complete set of functional and environmental tests to ensure that the spacecraft is fit for launch. More (Source: Via Satellite - Jul 4)
RUSSIA TO LAUNCH NEXT-GENERATION SATELLITE - Russia plans to launch the next-generation Glonass-K2 satellite aboard a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk spaceport in the country’s north or aboard an Angara rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East in 2022, Information Satellite Systems CEO Nikolai Testoyedov told TASS on Monday. Information Satellite Systems is the producer of Glonass satellites. Chief Designer of Russia’s Glonass global satellite navigation system Sergei Karutin earlier said that the designing of the Glonass-K2 satellite had been completed. More (Source: TASS - Jul 3)
DRAGON CAPSULE REACHES SPACE STATION WITH THREE TONS OF CARGO - A commercial cargo carrier owned and operated by SpaceX pulled into port at the International Space Station on Monday, three days after launching from Cape Canaveral with a NASA Earth science instrument, a spare hand for the lab’s Canadian robotic arm, and an AI-powered helper bot for the research lab’s six-person crew. Completing a high-flying cargo delivery with a leisurely laser-guided final approach, the Dragon spacecraft arrived at the space station at 6:54 a.m. EDT (1054 GMT) Monday as the lab’s robotic arm grasped the supply ship. More (Source: SoaceFlight Now - Jul 3)
NEW SATELLITE LAUNCH TO HELP FAST-TRACK DIGITAL INDIA, SAYS EXPERT - The launch of a new mega satellite providing coverage over Asia will help fast-track Digital India and financial inclusion initiatives, according to a leading satellite industry expert. Deepak Mathur, Executive Vice-President, Global Sales at SES Video, said the successful launch of SES-12 recently would help support India's growing direct-to-home (DTH) TV market, as more and more consumers in rural India embrace the medium. "The satellite will be able to help accelerate the country's push towards a Digital India, the government's vision to digitally empower India and transform connectivity in the country," said Mathur. More (Source: Times of India - Jul 2)
EUROPEAN FIRM ARIANESPACE TO MISS 2018 SATELLITE LAUNCH TARGET - Arianespace expects its satellite launches in 2018 to fall short of a record target, hobbled partly by a data glitch that sent a rocket off course earlier this year, the chief executive of the European company told Reuters on Wednesday. The firm’s plans for record 14 launches suffered a setback when its Ariane 5 rocket deposited two satellites in the wrong orbit in January after being fed with incorrect data and an issue with satellite availability postponed a May takeoff. More (Source: Reuters - Jun 30)
SPACEX LAUNCHES AI-ENABLED ROBOT COMPANION, VEGETATION MONITOR TO SPACE STATION - A commercial SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule packed with a robot assistant for the International Space Station’s crew, pouches of extra strong coffee, and a NASA science instrument designed to track the health of plants on Earth left Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Friday on a three-day pursuit of the orbiting research lab. Riding a plume of orange rocket exhaust, the Falcon 9 launcher climbed into a clear pre-sunrise sky after liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 5:42:42 a.m. EDT (0942:42 GMT), roughly the moment Earth’s rotation carried the spaceport under the International Space Station’s orbital track. More (Source: SpaceFlight Noow - Jun 30)
CHINA LAUNCHES TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION SATELLITES ATOP LONG MARCH 2C – SPENT STAGE FALLS ON TOWN - China launched a Long March 2C rocket carrying two technology demonstration satellites designated XJSW A and XJSW B on Wednesday, June 27. The mission took to the skies at 3:30 GMT (11:30 p.m. EDT on June 26) from the Launch Complex 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) in China’s Sichuan Province. Mission success was confirmed by the state-run Xinhua press agency some two hours after liftoff had taken place. “China successfully launched new-tech experiment twin satellites on the Long March-2C rocket from southwest China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center Wednesday morning. The twin satellites were launched at 11:30 a.m., [local time] and entered their intended orbit,” Xinhua informed. More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Jun 29)
COMMERCIAL SPACEX CARGO CAPSULE READIED FOR LAUNCH FRIDAY - A Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon supply ship, primarily using previously-flown hardware, are scheduled for liftoff before dawn Friday at Cape Canaveral on SpaceX’s 15th cargo launch to the International Space Station under contract to NASA. The 213-foot-tall (65-meter) liquid-fueled rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 5:42:42 a.m. EDT (0942:42 GMT), around 45 minutes before sunrise on Florida’s Space Coast. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 29)
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