SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP PREPPED FOR FLIGHT - Orbital ATK engineers are readying an upgraded Antares rocket for a sub-freezing launch from the Virginia coast early Saturday to boost a Cygnus cargo ship into orbit loaded with 7,400 pounds of equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station. Liftoff from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia, flight facility is targeted for 7:37:25 a.m. EST (GMT-5), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch site into the plane of the space station's orbit -- a requirement for rendezvous missions.   More
(Source: CBS News - Nov 11)

RUNAWAY CHINESE SPACE STATION COULD SMASH INTO A MAJOR CITY NEXT YEAR - An out of control Chinese space station could smash into a major world city at the beginning of 2018. The European Space Agency said the 8.5-tonne Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace”, satellite could hit "any spot" between two latitude lines in the northern and southern hemispheres. ESA experts said the 12-metre long craft would crash into Earth's atmosphere at some point between January and March 2018.   More
(Source: Fox News - Nov 10)

READY TO BOOK YOUR SATELLITE LAUNCH ONLINE? THE ROCKET INDUSTRY LOOKS TO RUN MORE LIKE AN AIRLINE. - After decades of building commercial airliners, Boeing is now developing something that looks like a plane and sometimes acts like a plane — but is not a plane. The company’s latest invention is instead a spaceplane. The Phantom Express, as it is known, would perform like one of the many jets in Boeing’s vast fleet, landing on a runway with a 737-like wingspan, able to take off quickly on demand — just fuel up and go. But instead of carrying passengers, it would launch satellites into orbit. And if all goes to plan, soon it would be able to fly to the stratosphere or beyond 10 times in 10 days under a test program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).   More
(Source: Washington Post - Nov 10)

MOROCCO’S FIRST HIGH-RESOLUTION SURVEILLANCE SATELLITE LAUNCHED ABOARD VEGA ROCKET - A reconnaissance satellite built in secrecy in France for the Moroccan government launched Tuesday on top of a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in South America. The Mohammed VI-A optical imaging craft, named for the Moroccan king, lifted off at 8:42:31 p.m. EST Tuesday (01:42:31 GMT Wednesday) from the European-run spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The high-resolution surveillance satellite rode a 98-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket into a roughly 385-mile-high (620-kilometer) polar orbit following the late night liftoff at 10:42 p.m. local time in French Guiana.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 9)

RADFXSAT (FOX-1B) LAUNCH DELAYED; AMSAT ASKS FOR PATIENCE DURING COMMISSIONING - The launch of the Delta II vehicle carrying RadFxSat (Fox-1B) and other payloads has been delayed, due to a faulty battery on the booster, United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced on November 6. The launch now is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, November 14. RadFxSat is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA ELaNa XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 mission, which will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. RadFxSat is a partnership with Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) and hosts four payloads for the study of radiation effects on commercial off-the-shelf components. It will carry a Fox-1 style FM U/V repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on 145.960 MHz.    More
(Source: ARRL - Nov 9)

CHINA'S FUTURE SATELLITE NAVIGATION WILL BE MILLIMETER ACCURATE - On Sept. 29, China launched two Beidou 3 satellites from a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. Another two Beidou 3 satellites will launch before the end of 2017, part of a network of 20 Beidou 3 and 10 older Beidou 2 satellites set to go up by 2020. Civilian GPS receivers generally achieve higher accuracy by combining signals of several satellites, and indeed the completed Beidou Navigation Satellite System is expected to provide global coverage, with millimeter-level accuracy.   More
(Source: Popular Science - Nov 8)

EAGLE-EYED JPSS-1 WEATHER SATELLITE TO LAUNCH NOV. 14 AFTER DELAY - After more than a year of preparations for liftoff, NASA will launch the first of four brand-new weather satellites next week after a four-day delay due to a battery glitch. The Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) will launch no earlier than Nov. 14 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The mission, part of the space agency's collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was initially scheduled to launch Friday, Nov. 10. But NOAA officials announced yesterday (Nov. 6) that a faulty battery on the Delta II booster prompted the delay.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 8)

CHINESE SPACECRAFT MAY FALL DOWN ON SEVERAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AT ONCE - According to Holger Krag, the chief of the ESA's Space Debris Office, the geometry of the station's orbit suggests that fragments of the Tiangong-1 spaceship will fall over any spot further north than 43ºN or further south than 43ºS. The official thus meant such countries as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria and Greece. The fragments of the Chinese spacecraft may fall anywhere between those latitudes, including on the territory of several European countries at once.    More
(Source: Pravda - Nov 8)

NASA TV COVERAGE OF NEXT RESUPPLY MISSION TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is scheduled to launch its eighth mission to the International Space Station at 7:37 a.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 11 NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Live launch coverage will begin at 7 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website. NASA TV also will air two prelaunch briefings Friday, Nov. 10. At 11 a.m. mission managers will provide an overview and status of launch operations, and at 3 p.m. scientists and researchers will discuss some of the investigations and technology demonstrations to be delivered to the station.    More
(Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Nov 8)

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