ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE AUTUMN EQUINOX 2017 WITH ONE LAST ALOHA FRIDAY - Today (Sept. 22) is the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but the astronauts on the International Space Station squeezed in one last "Aloha Friday." Randy Bresnik, NASA astronaut and Expedition 53 commander, posted two photographs to Twitter of he and his crewmates wearing space-themed Hawaiian shirts (or Aloha shirts). The brightly colored short-sleeved shirts feature red and yellow planets, blue stars and purple gas clouds. "Our Earth is but an island in the cosmos," Bresnik wrote. "Exp 53 crew is embracing the island lifestyle with our @Space_StationHawaiians on #AlohaFriday!"   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 24)

CHINA’S TIANZHOU 1 SUPPLY VEHICLE RE-ENTERS ATMOSPHERE - The Chinese Tianzhou 1 resupply and refueling freighter re-entered Earth’s atmosphere Friday, burning up as designed after a five-month mission demonstrating servicing techniques for China’s future space station. The nearly 35-foot-long (10.6-meter) robotic cargo carrier fired its thrusters two times to slow down and drop out of orbit, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The ground-commanded deorbit burns guided the Tianzhou 1 spacecraft into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at around 1000 GMT (6 a.m. EDT; 6 p.m. Beijing time) Friday, Chinese space officials said.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 24)

REPLACEMENT SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO RUSSIA’S GLONASS NAVIGATION FLEET - A Soyuz rocket added a new satellite to Russia’s Glonass navigation network Friday with an on-target delivery nearly 12,000 miles above Earth. The fresh Glonass M spacecraft replaces a defunct satellite launched nearly 11 years ago, sustaining the Glonass system’s near-global reach for the Russian military. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off at 0002:32 GMT Friday (8:02:32 p.m. EDT Thursday) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, military spaceport in the Arkhangelsk region about 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Moscow.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 23)

SPACE JUNK: WHAT IS IT, HOW MUCH IS OUT THERE, AND WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH IT? - Australian scientists believe there are millions of artificial objects in orbit around the Earth, and that has huge implications for the safety of our satellites and spacecraft. With a war on galactic waste to be declared at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, we take a look at this enormous mess. What is space junk? It's essentially the debris left behind by human exploration and activity in the Earth's orbit — old satellites, pieces of spent rockets, waste from astronaut suits and other items left behind during space walks.   More
(Source: ABC Online - Sep 23)

OSIRIS-REX ASTEROID MISSION HEADS FOR EARTH FLYBY - NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, en route to asteroid Bennu to retrieve samples and return them to scientists, will slingshot past Earth on Friday, using gravity to change its trajectory for a rendezvous with its target late next year. One year since it launched from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, OSIRIS-REx will return to Earth on Friday with a high-speed encounter taking the probe about 11,000 miles (17,000 kilometers) above Earth. The solar-powered spacecraft will make its closest approach to Earth at 1652 GMT (12:52 p.m. EDT) Friday, passing over Antarctica, just south of Cape Horn, Chile.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 22)

ATLAS V ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VANDENBERG AFB DELAYED - A glitch has delayed Thursday night’s departure of an Atlas V rocket and its top-secret spacecraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Liftoff of the United Launch Alliance rocket from Space Launch Complex-3 on South Base will not occur before Saturday, officials said Thursday afternoon. "The delay allows the team time to replace a faulty battery on the Atlas V booster," ULA officials said in a written statement. "The vehicle and spacecraft remain stable."   More
(Source: Noozhawk - Sep 22)

BT GLOBAL SERVICES: LEO, HTS BOOSTING PERCEPTION OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS - Satellites have been the option of last resort for telecommunication companies and their customers in the past decades, according to Renato Goodfellow, head of global satellite at BT Global Services. However, thanks to the development of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite mega-constellations and high-throughput satellites, the technology has a chance to become a less frowned upon element in the larger telecommunications ecosystem. “Our customers generally loath satellites,” Goodfellow said Sept. 11 at the VSAT Global conference here. “Unless they go to a location in the middle of nowhere, unless they are on the move or in a country whose government might be turning off its telecoms.”   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Sep 22)

RUSSIA WILL TEAM UP WITH NASA TO BUILD A LUNAR SPACE STATION - In a major space policy decision, Russia will promise to join a NASA-led effort to build an international human outpost in the vicinity of the Moon. Russian industry sources told Popular Mechanics that the head of Roscosmos State Corporation, Igor Komarov, is expected to announce the news next week during a meeting with other space agencies at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. NASA and its partner agencies plan to begin the construction of the modular habitat known as the Deep-Space Gateway in orbit around the Moon in the early 2020s. It will become the main destination for astronauts for at least a decade, extending human presence beyond the Earth's orbit for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.   More
(Source: Popular Mechanics - Sep 22)

ECHOSTAR 105/SES-11 SPACECRAFT SHIPS TO FLORIDA FOR UPCOMING SPACEX LAUNCH - It's a good thing that Hurricane Irma is in the past and that Cape Canaveral, Florida is ready to receive this satellite to arrive from Europe. The EchoStar 105/SES-11 spacecraft, built by Airbus Defence and Space for EchoStar, has been shipped from the Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its forthcoming launch by SpaceX in October.   More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Sep 21)

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