DARPA AND NASA TEAM UP TO DESIGN REFUELING SATELLITES - The Department of Defense’s research and development arm is teaming up with NASA to create a new generation of satellites whose job will be to maintain existing ones. The new satellites, called “service stations in orbit” by The Washington Post, could extend the lives of billion-dollar satellites and fix minor maintenance issues, problems that are currently not possible. Such “service stations” however could also interfere with the satellites of adversaries. More (Source: Popular Mechanics - Dec 28)
RUSSIA LOSES CONTACT WITH ANGOLAN SATELLITE - Russia has lost contact with Angola’s first national telecoms satellite launched from the Baikonur space pad, its maker said Wednesday — a fresh embarrassment for Moscow’s once proud space industry. The incident involving the Russian-made Angosat-1 followed a similar one in November when Russia lost contact with a weather satellite launched from a new cosmodrome in the country’s far east. Energia, Russia’s top spacecraft maker which produced the satellite for Angola, said it had reached orbit and established communication according to plan but “after a while it had stopped sending telemetry” data. More (Source: Mail & Guardian - Dec 28)
RUSSIAN SATELLITE LOST AFTER BEING SET TO LAUNCH FROM WRONG SPACEPORT - Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday the loss of a 2.6bn-rouble ($45m) satellite launched last month was due to an embarrassing programming error. Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the country’s far east. More (Source: The Guardian - Dec 28)
UNEASINESS AS N. KOREA PLANS 'SATELLITE' LAUNCH FOR SPACE PROGRAM - North Korea’s regime is planning to launch a satellite that observers warn could be a Trojan horse for more weapons tests, a South Korean newspaper reports. North Korea is being sanctioned by the United Nations over its nuclear and missile launches and is currently not allowed to carry out any launches using ballistic missile technology, which includes satellites. “Through various channels, we've recently learned that the North has completed a new satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-5,” the Joongang Ilbo daily reported, quoting a South Korean government source. More (Source: Fox News - Dec 27)
ANGOLA’S FIRST COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LIFTS OFF FROM KAZAKHSTAN - A Ukrainian-built Zenit booster and a Russian-made Fregat upper stage launched with an Angolan communications satellite Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, heading for an orbital perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth. A nearly 20-story-tall Zenit rocket lifted off with the Angosat 1 spacecraft at 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) Tuesday from Site 45 at the historic spaceport in Kazakhstan, where launch occurred at 1 a.m. Wednesday local time. More (Source: SpasceFlight Now - Dec 27)
A TRIUMPHANT YEAR FOR SPACEX - The year 2017 has turned out to be a good one for rocket science in the United States. American companies made 29 successful rocket launches into orbit, the highest figure since 1999, which saw 31 launches, according to a comprehensive database maintained by Gunter Krebs, a spaceflight historian in Germany. The final launch of the year, by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a cache of commercial communications satellites, took place Friday night at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. More (Source: The Atlantic - Dec 27)
ANGOLA’S FIRST COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH TUESDAY - A Ukrainian-built Zenit booster and a Russian-made Fregat upper stage are set to launch an Angolan communications satellite Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to an orbital perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth. A nearly 20-story-tall Zenit rocket is set for liftoff with the Angosat 1 spacecraft at 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) Tuesday from Site 45 at the historic spaceport in Kazakhstan, where launch is scheduled for 1 a.m. Wednesday local time. Russia’s space agency plans to webcast the launch live. More (Source: - Dec 26)
N. KOREA PREPARING TO LAUNCH SATELLITE: REPORT - North Korea is preparing to launch a satellite, a Seoul newspaper said Tuesday, as outside observers warn that the nuclear-armed regime's space programme is a fig leaf for weapons tests. Pyongyang is under multiple UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests and is prohibited from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology including satellites. "Through various channels, we've recently learned that the North has completed a new satellite and named it Kwangmyongsong-5", the Joongang Ilbo daily reported, quoting a South Korean government source. More (Source: Yahoo Singapore News - Dec 26)
CHRISTMAS AT THE SPACE STATION: ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE WITH NEW TREE, GIFTS FROM EARTH - As millions of people on Earth celebrate Christmas with their families and friends today (Dec. 25), exchanging gifts and sharing elaborate meals, astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) will do much of the same — while floating weightlessly some 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. The three NASA astronauts currently aboard the ISS (Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle) will have the day off this Christmas, NASA spokesman Dan Huot told Space.com. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 26)
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