ESA TO INVESTIGATE LINKS BETWEEN DEBRIS REMOVAL AND SATELLITE SERVICING - The European Space Agency is no longer proceeding full speed ahead with its campaign to send a 1,600-kilogram satellite into low Earth orbit to grab its defunct Earth observing Envisat and bring it back into the atmosphere around 2023. Instead, the agency has revised its e.Deorbit program plan to study the synergies between the mission and satellite servicing vehicles. “What we are implementing at the moment is a study to find out whether we should modify the mission design to make the vehicle more flexible and able to perform a variety of servicing missions including removing objects from orbit,” said Luisa Innocenti, head of EASA’s Clean Space Office.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 22)

NASA’S ON-AGAIN, OFF-AGAIN SATELLITE - A satellite lost 13 years ago was just, briefly, found. Now a group of optimistic technicians may have a chance to bring it back into the fold. In January, amateur astronomer Scott Tilley of British Columbia sat in his home, scanning radio frequencies for the U.S. Air Force satellite lost after a January 7 SpaceX launch. Tilley indeed found a lost satellite, but not the one he intended. Using a satellite catalog, he looked up its transmitter frequency and spin rate, and realized he had to alert NASA.    More
(Source: Air & Space Magazine - Mar 22)

RUSSIAN SOYUZ SET TO CARRY CREW TO SPACE STATION - Engineers readied a Russian Soyuz rocket for launch Wednesday to ferry a veteran cosmonaut and two NASA shuttle fliers to the International Space Station for a five-month stay. Soyuz commander Oleg Artemyev, flight engineer Andrew "Drew" Feustel and Richard "Ricky" Arnold are scheduled for launch aboard the Soyuz MS-08/54S spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 11:44 p.m. local time).   More
(Source: CBS News - Mar 21)

THE CONTROVERSIAL ‘HUMANITY STAR’ IS COMING BACK TO EARTH EARLY - Humanity will come crashing down earlier than expected. The Humanity Star, a satellite launched into space in January, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate sometime this week, according to websites that track the movement of objects in orbit around the planet. The satellite was always going to come back down. But it was supposed to remain in orbit for nine months, according to Rocket Lab, the U.S. spaceflight company, based in New Zealand, that built the satellite.   More
(Source: The Atlantic - Mar 21)

VERNAL EQUINOX 2018: SATELLITE SEES FIRST DAY OF SPRING - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) celebrated a crisp start to spring today (March 20) in the Northern Hemisphere with a stunning view of Earth from sunset to sunrise. NOAA officials tweeted the view of sunset on March 19 through sunrise March 20, taken with the agency's GOES-East weather satellite. "Happy Spring #Equinox and happy #firstdayofspring!" NOAA officials wrote. "Today the length of night and day are nearly equal. The days will now become longer at the higher latitudes because it takes the sun longer to rise and set."   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 21)

SPACE AGENCY PROVIDES UPDATE ON WHERE, WHEN SPACE STATION WILL FALL TO EARTH - Thanks to the European Space Agency, we have a slightly better idea of where and when China's 8.5-ton falling space station will re-enter the atmosphere and crash into Earth. Although the agency clarifies that "at no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible" it provides a new estimated timeline and location Tiangong-1 will return to Earth. The ESA's timeline -- posted Thursday, March 15 -- puts the space station's return between March 30 and April 6, and between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south.   More
(Source: MLive.com - Mar 20)

NASA FIGURES OUT A NEW WAY TO BRING SATELLITE DATA BACK DOWN TO EARTH - NASA may be one of the best at launching all sorts of aircraft into space but bringing the data they gather back down to Earth for analysis can be surprisingly tricky. Currently, a satellite would have to move to be within the range of a dedicated station on the ground to transmit data or simply come back down to Earth. That may change, the space agency announced Wednesday it is beginning testing a portable space communications system from ATLAS Space Operations.   More
(Source: Nextgov - Mar 20)

GOVSAT-1 SATELLITE GOES OPERATIONAL - GovSat-1 enters operational service today, to provide secure communications to governmental and institutional users. GovSat-1 is the first satellite of GovSat, a public private partnership between the Government of Luxembourg and the world-leading satellite operator SES. The satellite was launched into space on 31 January on board a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and has since undergone extensive testing.    More
(Source: Business Wire - Mar 20)

AIRBUS WANTS TO BRING DOWN A DEFUNCT SPACE STATION WITH A GIANT HARPOON - Junk in orbit around the Earth is becoming a bigger problem every year. Space agencies are tracking some 7,000 tons of debris, adding up to more than 20,000 pieces larger than 10 centimeters. European space agencies and private companies, in a joint effort called RemoveDebris, plan to test a variety of different possible solutions next month with a satellite launched aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station. “The problem with so much junk up there now is it is actually starting to prove a real issue, and the chance of collisions is increasing all the time,” Jason Forshaw of RemoveDebris told The Guardian.   More
(Source: Digital Trends - Mar 19)

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