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)
NASA MAY NEED MORE RUSSIAN RIDES TO KEEP AMERICANS ON SPACE STATION - A complicated set of challenges with its commercial crew program may require NASA to buy more rides from Russia to keep American astronauts on the International Space Station after 2018, NASA auditors said Monday. Part of the problem is challenges Boeing and SpaceX found in designing their crew capsules, according to a report by the NASA Office of Inspector General. The other part is the result of NASA delays in reviewing changes they've made in their spacecraft. More (Source: AL.com - Nov 8)
BATTERY CHANGEOUT DELAYS WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCH FROM CALIFORNIA - The launch of a new U.S. weather satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has been delayed at least four days to Nov. 14, allowing time for technicians to remove and replace a faulty battery on the payload’s Delta 2 rocket, United Launch Alliance said Monday. The satellite is set to head into an orbit circling over Earth’s poles, replenishing NOAA’s fleet of space-based meteorological sentinels and inaugurating a new generation of weather observatories to collect images of clouds and measurements of atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 7)
CHINA LAUNCHES TWO BEIDOU SATELLITES IN RETURN TO FLIGHT FOR LONG MARCH 3B ROCKET - China on Sunday added two more satellites to its Beidou navigation and positioning system following the launch of a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang launch centre. The launch vehicle lifted off from Xichang in the hills of southwestern Sichuan Province at 11:45 UTC (19:45 Beijing time), with the satellites inserted into preset medium Earth orbits by a Yuanzheng-1 upper stage. With no launch coverage, the first indications of liftoff came from Chinese social media channels, including amateur footage. More (Source: GBTIMES - Nov 6)
ARIANESPACE POISED TO LAUNCH VEGA WITH MOHAMMED VI–A SATELLITE - Arianespace is ready to launch the MOHAMMED VI–A satellite on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco on November 7, 2017, at 10:42 p.m. local time (01:42 GMT). The spacecraft is slated to lift off from the Guiana Space Centre’s Vega Launch Complex (SLV) and will mark the 10th flight of the year for the Courcouronnes, Essonne, France-based firm. If everything goes according to plan, Tuesday’s launch will be the 11th for Vega since the rocket first took to the skies in 2012 (and the eighth time that Vega has been tapped to launch an Earth-observation payload). Vega has been tasked with placing the satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit. More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Nov 6)
CHINA AIMS TO LAUNCH REUSABLE SPACE PLANE BY 2020 - China plans to launch a homegrown, reusable space plane for the first time in 2020, according to Chinese media reports. "The spacecraft can transport people or payload into the orbit and return to Earth," China's state-run outlet Xinhua reported last week. Xinhua cited a statement by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), as well as Chen Hongbo, a researcher at the corporation: "Chen said that the spacecraft will be easier to maintain and can improve the frequency of launches at lower cost, bringing new opportunities for more people to travel into space." More (Source: Space.com - Nov 4)
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