2 EXTERNAL INSTRUMENTS INSTALLED ON ISS OVER NEW YEAR’S HOLIDAY - While many around the world celebrated the arrival of 2018 with champagne, fireworks and social gatherings, robotics operators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center rang in the New Year by working to remotely install new external instruments recently brought to International Space Station inside the trunk of SpaceX’s CRS-13 Dragon cargo spacecraft. On Dec. 28, 2017, robotic operators worked to extract the first of two external instruments from Dragon’s trunk: the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1).    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Jan 4)

THESE NASA ROBOTS ARE HEADING TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Inside NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley is a test environment that simulates the International Space Station's pressurized capsules. Here, aerospace engineers test the new Astrobee intra vehicular activity (IVA) robots, which will be heading to the ISS in the spring. These robots are 1-by-1-foot cubes, with an array of LED communication lights. They can function autonomously or be remotely controlled from Houston. While on the ISS, Astrobees will carry out routine maintenance tasks, like checking inventory with an RFID scanner and using a sensor-array to record air quality levels, CO2, and radiation.    More
(Source: Fox News - Jan 3)

LIVE COVERAGE: SPACEX’S FIRST LAUNCH OF 2018 SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY NIGHT - Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster with a secretive U.S. government payload named Zuma is scheduled for Friday night from Cape Canaveral during a two-hour launch window opening at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT Saturday), one day later than previously planned after a delay from mid-November to complete technical reviews on the rocket. Little is known about the Zuma payload, other than Northrop Grumman was tapped by the U.S. government to procure commercial launch services for the mission. Northrop Grumman selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 for the job.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 3)

WHY THE US SHOULD NOTIFY THE PUBLIC OF ALL SATELLITE REENTRIES - In January 2017, a retired satellite reentered the atmosphere—an old soldier that undoubtedly had provided many years of good service. Hopefully, in some secure vault somewhere, the organization that flew it had a ceremony where they honored the memory of their departed friend. This was certainly a US satellite that had been tracked and monitored up until the end, but this one was an “off the books” satellite.    More
(Source: The Space Review - Jan 2)

ROCKET LAUNCHES AND TRIPS TO THE MOON WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2018 - If you love space and astronomy, 2018 will be an exciting year. NASA has announced windows of time for sending spacecraft to Mars and the sun. Japanese and American probes already in space are set to enter orbit around two near-Earth asteroids. And a variety of eclipses and meteor showers offer ample opportunities for skygazing. We’ve put dates for these events and more on The Times’s Astronomy and Space Calendar. But while some dates are certain or proximate, there’s a lot to be unsure about down here on Earth.   More
(Source: New York Times - Jan 2)

ROGUE CHINESE SPACE STATION EXPECTED TO HURTLE TOWARD EARTH IN 2018, RESEARCHERS SAY - The new year could bring a major scare: the expected crash of an 18,740-pound Chinese space station headed toward Planet Earth. And researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly when and where this event will likely happen. Tiangong-1, a Chinese space station that launched into Earth’s orbit in September 2011, was predicted in essence to fall out of space around January 2018, according to an October forecast by researchers at The Aerospace Corporation.   More
(Source: Fox News - Jan 1)

ASTRONAUTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION HINT AT NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATION - As cities around the world hold out in anticipation to welcome in the New Year, astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) have a different plan. We’re still not exactly sure what this plan is, but in a recent video the team shared their past New Years celebrations and hinted at what this year may hold. Exactly when New Year's Day begins on the ISS is difficult to define, as the spaceship isn’t confined to one specific time zone. The ship travels at 17,500 mph which means it makes a complete orbit around Earth every 92 minutes, Space.com reported.    More
(Source: Newsweek - Jan 1)

THE BIGGEST ROCKET LAUNCHES AND SPACE MISSIONS WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2018 - Next year is already overflowing with exciting missions to space. NASA is launching a new lander to Mars, as well as a spacecraft that will get closer to the Sun than ever before. And two of NASA’s vehicles already in space will finally arrive at their intended targets: one will rendezvous with a nearby asteroid, while another will pass by a distant space rock billions of miles from Earth. But it’s not just NASA that has a busy year ahead; the commercial space industry has a number of significant test flights planned, and the launch of one of the world’s most anticipated rockets, the Falcon Heavy, is slated for early 2018.    More
(Source: The Verge - Dec 30)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TEAM TO EXPERIENCE NEW YEAR'S EVE 16 TIMES - Six astronauts boarding the International Space Station (ISS) will experience New Year's eve 16 times as they orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes, NASA said. That is 16 sunrise and sunsets 402 kilometers above Earth, the US space agency said in a blog post. Three US astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and a Japanese astronaut will go into the last weekend of 2017 with light duty and family conferences before taking New Year's Day off.    More
(Source: Times of India - Dec 30)

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