INTERNATIONAL CREW RETURNS HOME FROM SPACE STATION SUNDAY: WATCH LIVE - Three spaceflyers are returning to Earth early Sunday morning (June 3), and you can watch their homecoming live. Coverage starts at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT), when NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and Norishige Kanai of Japan say goodbye to their fellow International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers and board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the trip back to terra firma. You can watch this farewell, and all the action to follow, live at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 3)

CHINA SENDS GAOFEN-6 EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE AND CUBESAT INTO ORBIT WITH 16TH LAUNCH OF 2018 - China on Saturday successfully launched the Gaofen-6 Earth observation satellite and the Luojia-1 CubeSat from Jiuquan, marking the country's 16th successful space launch of 2018. The Long March 2D launch vehicle lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert at 12:13 local time (04:13), with only hints that an orbital launch was being readied.    More
(Source: GBTIMES - Jun 3)

NOAA’S MOST ADVANCED WEATHER SATELLITE CAPTURES STUNNING IMAGES - The first imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) has made its public debut. The imagery of the Western Hemisphere was created using two visible bands (blue and red) and one near-infrared “vegetation” band that are functional with the current cooling system performance. This debut comes as experts continue to address an issue with the cooling system of the satellite’s imager. The imagery also incorporates input from one of the ABI’s “longwave” infrared bands that was functional during a portion of the day despite the cooling system issue.   More
(Source: Via Satellite - Jun 2)

RUSSIAN SIRIUSSAT CUBESATS TO BE DEPLOYED DURING SPACEWALK - It is planned that two Russian CubeSats will be deployed from the International Space Station in August during a spacewalk (EVA); SiriusSat-1 (SXC1-181) call sign RS13S beacon 435.570 MHz SiriusSat-2 (SXC1-182) call sign RS14S beacon 435.670 MHz   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Jun 1)

SOLAR ARRAY GLITCH SIDELINES TRANSPONDERS ON APSTAR-6 SATELLITE - APT Satellite turned off several transponders on its 13-year-old Apstar-6 satellite after a malfunctioning solar array caused a drop in power. APT Satellite of Hong Kong is working with the satellite’s manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to understand the power issue, which so far appears not to have affected any other satellite systems. Apstar-6 launched in 2005 on a Long March 3B rocket, and has coverage over the Asia Pacific. The satellite still has two years to fulfill its nominal 15-year design life.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 1)

BAD WEATHER AND 'ADDITIONAL TESTS' DELAY SPACEX SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX has delayed the launch of the latest SES satellite to “run additional tests” on its used Falcon 9 rocket. “Standing down from Friday’s launch attempt to run additional tests on Falcon 9’s second stage. Rocket and payload are in good health. Currently working toward a June 4 launch of SES-12 from Pad 40 in Florida,” the company tweeted. The blast off was originally scheduled for May 31st, but was put off by the company on May 28th until June 1st.    More
(Source: Forbes - Jun 1)

ARISS TO CONDUCT DIGITAL AMATEUR RADIO TV TRANSMITTER TEST ON JUNE 1 - ARISS will conduct a test of the “Ham Video” digital Amateur Radio television transmitter on the Columbus of the International Space Station on Friday, June 1. The transmitter has not been working for several weeks. According to an announcement from ARISS Mentor Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, the transmitter will be powered down, the antenna feed line will be connected to the second S-band antenna, and the transmitter will be powered up.   More
(Source: ARRL - May 31)

RADIO AMATEURS TO SWAP SPOTS ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) CREW - One radio amateur now onboard the International Space Station will be heading home on June 3, while another will take his place on the crew a few days later. Flight Engineer Scott Tingle, KG5NZA, will join Expedition 55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Norishige Kanai in returning to Earth on the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft after 168 days on station. A few days later, another trio of space travelers — Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO, Sergey Prokopyev, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor — will head to the ISS in a Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.   More
(Source: ARRL - May 31)

NOAA DECLARES FIRST JPSS WEATHER SATELLITE OPERATIONAL - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced May 30 that its first next-generation polar-orbiting weather satellite is now fully operational as the government moves to procure additional satellites. NOAA said that the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) weather satellite, renamed NOAA-20 after its Nov. 18 launch, had completed six months of on-orbit checkout and is now fully operational. NOAA-20 is in the same orbit as the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, which had been serving as NOAA’s primary polar-orbiting weather satellite since 2014. While Suomi, launched in late 2011, continues to operate past its planned five-year lifetime, NOAA-20 entering service ends any concerns about a data gap.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - May 31)

Previous Next