HIGH-TECH WEATHER SATELLITE TO LAUNCH EARLY SATURDAY AFTER DELAYS: WATCH LIVE - MORE Partner Series High-Tech Weather Satellite to Launch Early Saturday After Delays: Watch Live The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Joint Polar Satellite System 1 weather satellite stands atop its launchpad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite will launch Nov. 18, 2017. Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson A next-generation satellite built to make global weather forecasts more accurate than ever will now launch into space no earlier than Saturday (Nov. 18) after two delays earlier this week, NASA officials said. The satellite, called the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1), is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Saturday at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT) atop a Delta II rocket, NASA officials said in an update.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 18)

SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCH TO STUDY DATA FROM RECENT PAYLOAD FAIRING TEST - SpaceX has delayed its next launch from the Kennedy Space Center until at least Friday night, and possibly later, to examine data from a recent payload fairing test for another customer. The company said in a statement Thursday that the launch, originally scheduled for Wednesday night, will not take place until engineers complete their analysis. “We have decided to stand down and take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer,” said John Taylor, a SpaceX spokesperson, in a written statement. “Though we have preserved the range opportunity for tomorrow, we will take the time we need to complete the data review and will then confirm a new launch date.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 17)

RADFXSAT (FOX-1B) LAUNCH SCRUBBED AGAIN, BUT MORE FOXES ARE ON THE WAY! - The launch of the already-delayed United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket that will transport the RadFxSat (Fox-1B) CubeSat carrying an AMSAT Amateur Radio payload and other payloads into orbit was scrubbed on November 14, with just over 15 minutes to liftoff. “The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the JPSS-1 mission for NASA and NOAA was scrubbed today, due to a range safety hold and high upper-level winds,” ULA said in a tweet. “The team is working to establish a new launch opportunity.” ULA said weather balloons found that upper-level wind conditions “are red for the launch window, causing today's attempt to be scrubbed.”   More
(Source: ARRL - Nov 16)

ASGARDIA, THE WORLD'S FIRST 'SPACE NATION', TAKES FLIGHT - The world's first "space nation" has taken flight. On November 12, Asgardia cemented its presence in outer space by launching the Asgardia-1 satellite. The "nanosat" -- it is roughly the size of a loaf of bread -- undertook a two-day journey from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the United States, to the International Space Station (ISS). It contains 0.5 TB of data belonging to 18,000 of Asgardia's citizens, such as family photographs, as well as digital representations of the space nation's flag, coat of arms and constitution.    More
(Source: CNN - Nov 16)

DELTA 2 LAUNCH FROM CALIFORNIA HALTED FOR SECOND DAY IN A ROW - Brisk upper level winds blowing from the west thwarted a second try to launch a new NOAA weather satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket Wednesday, likely postponing the liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California until at least Saturday. High-altitude were measured at more than 110 knots (126 mph) by a weather balloon sent aloft from Vandenberg during Wednesday’s early morning countdown. Safety officials from the U.S. Air Force’s Western Range were concerned the winds might blow debris from the rocket, such as nozzle covers on the Delta 2’s air-lit solid rocket boosters, back over populated areas on land as it climbs south over the Pacific Ocean.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 16)

SPACEX SET TO LAUNCH MYSTERIOUS ZUMA PAYLOAD TOMORROW NIGHT - Tomorrow night, SpaceX will launch perhaps its most secretive payload yet: a classified government satellite built by defense contractor Northrop Grumman. The purpose of the mission, codenamed Zuma, is essentially unknown. It’s unclear what kind of spacecraft is going up, or which government agency the launch is for. All we really know is that Zuma is scheduled to go into lower Earth orbit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Zuma mission only became public in October, when NASASpaceflight.com reported on documents that SpaceX had filed with the Federal Communications Commission, requesting authorization for a mysterious “Mission 1390.”   More
(Source: The Verge - Nov 16)

CHINESE WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO POLAR ORBIT - A Chinese Long March 4C rocket launched Tuesday with a new polar-orbiting weather observatory named Fengyun 3D, replacing an aging satellite for the China Meteorological Administration. The Fengyun 3D satellite lifted off at 1835 GMT (12:35 p.m. EST) Tuesday from the Taiyuan space center in Shanxi province located in northeastern China. A three-stage Long March 4C rocket boosted the approximately 2.5-ton satellite toward the south from Taiyuan, where launch occurred at 2:35 a.m. local time Wednesday.   More
(Source: - Nov 15)

CYGNUS CARGO SHIP DELIVERS HOLIDAY GOODIES AND SCIENCE GEAR TO SPACE STATION - Orbital ATK, a private spaceflight contracted by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS, named this Cygnus spacecraft the S.S. Gene Cernan in honor of the late NASA astronaut and last person to walk on the moon. After launching from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, on an Antares rocket Sunday (Nov. 12), Cygnus spent about 45 hours catching up to the ISS, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h).    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 15)

DELTA 2 ROCKET LAUNCH SCRUBBED - United Launch Alliance called off the launch of a Delta 2 rocket from California’s Central Coast early Tuesday after boats ventured into a restricted safety exclusion zone and engineers ran out of time to resolve a technical problem on the launcher. The Delta 2 rocket had only 66 seconds to take off Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, or else launch another day. Engineers selected the short launch window to allow the mission’s JPSS 1 weather satellite payload to enter an optimal orbit circling over Earth’s poles.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 15)

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