THE AURORA STATION WILL BE THE FIRST LUXURY HOTEL IN SPACE - Are you ready for a luxury hotel in space? We all knew it was coming, even though it seems impossibly futuristic. But this time it’s not just science fiction; somebody actually has a plan. The space hotel will be called “Aurora Station” and the company behind it is Orion Span, a Silicon Valley and Houston-based firm. Orion Span aims to deliver the astronaut experience to people, by delivering the people into space. The catch?   More
(Source: Universe Today - Apr 18)

AFRICA'S MOST ADVANCED CUBE SATELLITE TO BE UNVEILED IN SA AHEAD OF LAUNCH - Science and Technology Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane will unveil South Africa's most sophisticated satellite on Tuesday ahead of its launch in India in July. The nanosatellite, dubbed ZACUBE-2, was developed by Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the French South African Institute of Technology as a follow-up to the previous nanosatellite, ZACUBE-1, which was launched from Yasny Launch Base in Russia.   More
(Source: HuffPost South Africa - Apr 18)

BRITISH STARTUP EARTH-I SHARES FIRST COLOR VIDEO FROM ITS VIVIDX2 SATELLITE - British startup Earth-i unveiled the first color video captured by its VividX2 satellite, a prototype for its future Earth imagery constellation, April 16 at the 34th Space Symposium here. The videos show cars in Nashville, Tennessee, airports in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and city life in New Orleans, Louisiana, San Diego, California, and Sydney, Australia. In January, Earth-i launched VividX2, a 100-kilogram satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd. (SSTL) and previously called Carbonite-2, aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle into sun synchronous orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 17)

SPACEX SCRUBS FIRST ATTEMPT TO LAUNCH TESS ON A MISSION TO SEARCH FOR NEAR-EARTH EXOPLANETS - NASA and SpaceX scrubbed the initial launch attempt for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The planet-hunting observatory will be launched by a brand new Block 4 Falcon 9 rocket from SLC-40 into an orbital resonance with the moon that will allow it to perform a near all-sky survey to find and categorize the number and types of exoplanets within 300 light years of Earth. The next attempt will take place on Wednesday during a 30 second window that opens at 18:51 EDT (22:51 UTC)   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 17)

THE US GOVERNMENT LOGGED 308,984 POTENTIAL SPACE-JUNK COLLISIONS IN 2017 - China's Tiangong-1 space station fell to Earth on April 2, raining debris over a patch of Pacific Ocean some 2,500 miles south of Hawaii. But Tiangong-1 is just the tip of the space-junk iceberg. There are about 23,000 satellites, rocket bodies, and other human-made objects larger than a softball in orbit. There may also be some 650,000 softball-to-fingernail-size objects and 170 million bits of debris smaller than the tip of a pen — stuff like flecks of paint and fragments of explosive bolts.    More
(Source: Business Insider - Apr 16)

MULTI-SATELLITE PAYLOAD HOISTED INTO HIGH-ALTITUDE ORBIT BY ATLAS 5 ROCKET - A package of communications and tech demo satellites for the U.S. Air Force rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket into an orbit more than 20,000 miles over the equator after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Saturday evening. The dual-payload mission required the most capable version of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, a hot-rod launcher with five solid-fueled strap-on motors to add an extra boost during the fiery liftoff at 7:13 p.m. EDT (2313 GMT) from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 16)

SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW CRATERS AT ALLEGED SYRIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS FACILITIES - The Syrians say some targeted sites didn't receive any damage. Satellite images given to CNN appear to show the contrary -- extensive damage. The US Department of Defense early Saturday released a map that it says shows their three Syrian airstrike targets. CNN provided that map to two satellite imagery companies, DigitalGlobe and Planet.com. Satellite images from those companies appear to show extensive airstrike damage to facilities allegedly involved with Syria's chemical weapons program.   More
(Source: CNN - Apr 15)

NASA MAY EXTEND SPACE STATION MISSIONS TO ADDRESS POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL CREW DELAYS - NASA is in discussions with its Russian counterparts about extending some upcoming space station missions as a way to buy more time for development of commercial crew vehicles. During an April 12 hearing by the commerce, justice and science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on the agency’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said longer “increments” of crews on the ISS could be one way to provide more schedule margin in the event of additional delays by Boeing and SpaceX in the development of their crewed spacecraft.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 14)

ATLAS 5 ROCKET READIED FOR HIGH-ALTITUDE MULTI-SATELLITE FLIGHT SATURDAY - United Launch Alliance crews at Cape Canaveral are finishing final preparations for an Atlas 5 rocket launch Saturday evening to dispatch three U.S. military satellites directly to an orbital perch more than 20,000 miles over the equator. Set for blastoff at 7:13 p.m. EDT (2313 GMT) Saturday, the Atlas 5 rocket will fly in its most powerful configuration, helped off Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad with five Aerojet Rocketdyne-built solid rocket boosters and a Russian-made RD-180 main engine producing a combined 2.6 million pounds of thrust.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 14)

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