THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION HAS BEEN ORBITING FOR 7,000 DAYS - The International Space Station is a large spacecraft that orbits Earth's atmosphere about 220 miles above the planet's surface. Friday marks the ISS's 7,000th day in orbit. In those 7,000 days, the outpost has seen its ups and downs; here’s a run-through of some of the biggest highlights. 1998: The construction of the ISS began on November 20, 1998, and was a result of international efforts involving 16 countries, the BBC reported. More (Source: Newsweek - Jan 20)
JAPANESE EPSILON ROCKET SENDS ASNARO-2 RADAR SATELLITE TO ORBIT - A Japanese Epsilon rocket successfully delivered the ASNARO-2 radar Earth observation satellite to orbit this afternoon. The Epsilon rocket launched from Uchinoura Space Center at 6:06 Japan Standard Time, or (21:06 UTC on Wednesday). The Advanced New Satellite with New System Architecture for Observation (ASNARO) series of satellites are spacecraft created for the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) by the Japan Space Systems company. More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Jan 19)
ATLAS 5 TEAM SCRUBS LAUNCH TO STUDY TROUBLESOME VALVE - Launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. Air Force infrared surveillance satellite was scrubbed Thursday evening after engineers encountered a balky valve associated with the first stage’s liquid oxygen system. United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, said the problem was narrowed to a ground system at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad. The countdown was paused to allow members of the Atlas 5 launch team to study a stuck fill-and-drain valve needed to fill the rocket’s first stage with liquid oxygen. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 19)
DEVELOPMENT: CHINA TO LAUNCH FIRST STUDENT SATELLITE FOR SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION - China’s first nano-satellite with primary and middle school students involved in the development and building process will be launched into space Friday. The satellite, named after late Premier Zhou Enlai, was sent from its production base in Huai’an Youth Comprehensive Development Base in east China’s Jiangsu Province to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China’s Gansu Province, where a “CZ-11” solid fuel rocket is scheduled to put it into orbit Friday. More (Source: Vanguard - Jan 18)
NEW U.S. MISSILE-WARNING SATELLITE SET FOR LAUNCH AT CAPE CANAVERAL - The U.S. military's newest missile-warning satellite is set to lift off later this week just as tensions continue to mount over North Korea's ICBM program. Crews at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, are preparing to launch the SBIRS GEO Flight-4 satellite on Thursday (Jan. 18) from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. "Everything is progressing toward the ULA Atlas V launch carrying the Space Based Infrared System GEO Flight 4 mission for the U.S. Air Force," ULA announced on Monday. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 18)
ISS ORBIT RAISED BY 400 METERS - The medium height of the International Space Station’s (ISS) flight orbit was raised by 400 meters with the help of the engines of the Zvezda module on Wednesday, Russia’s Mission Control told TASS. "The propulsion system of the Zvezda module has worked for 16 seconds. According to preliminary calculated data, the maneuver has increased the medium height of the ISS’s flight orbit by 0.4 kilometer to 404.3 km," Mission Control said. The engines of the ISS module were switched on at 23.15 Moscow time. The adjustment aimed to create ballistic conditions for bringing a Progress-MS-08 resupply ship into orbit. The space freighter’s launch is scheduled for 11 February 2018. More (Source: TASS - Jan 18)
A SPACE STATION IS FALLING TO EARTH. HERE'S WHERE IT COULD LAND - A defunct Chinese space station is expected to plunge to Earth from its orbital perch in late March. The Tiangong-1 station will mostly burn up as it plummets through Earth’s atmosphere. Some fragments could survive the fiery reentry, but experts say the risk to humans on the ground is small. “I personally wouldn’t be fearful at all about being struck by space debris,” said Dr. Andrew Abraham, a senior member of the technical staff at the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research organization based in El Segundo, California, that has been modeling the 18,000-pound station's reentry path. More (Source: NBC News - Jan 18)
FOR THE FIRST TIME, A NASA MISSION TO STUDY SPACE WEATHER WILL LIVE ON A COMMERCIAL SATELLITE - At the end of this month, NASA is launching a new mission to space to better understand how energetic particles mingle in the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere in what’s known as space weather. And for the first time, the mission won’t rely on a full satellite to gather data from orbit, but on a single scientific instrument that will live on a commercial satellite. The host probe is SES-14, a satellite built and controlled by Luxembourg-based operator SES. When it launches at the end of January on a European Ariane 5 rocket, SES-14 will eventually climb to an orbit about 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface, with the NASA instrument positioned toward our planet. More (Source: The Verge - Jan 17)
JAXA POSTPONES LAUNCH OF SATELLITE DUE TO LIGHTNING - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Monday it will postpone the Wednesday launch of its third Epsilon solid-fuel rocket due to expected bad weather. The space agency now aims to launch the three-stage, 26-meter rocket from Uchinoura Space Center in the town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Thursday morning, at the earliest. More (Source: The Japan Times - Jan 16)
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