SOYUZ MS-06 SPACECRAFT WITH CREW OF THREE LAUNCHED FROM BAIKONUR - The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft carrying three international crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched on Wednesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a TASS correspondent reported. "The launch of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft was performed at 00:17 Moscow time," a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said. The spacecraft, carrying Russia’s Aleksandr Misurkin, and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba, has been successfully put into the designated orbit.    More
(Source: TASS - Sep 13)

THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE THROUGH THE EYE OF A HURRICANE - As Florida struggles with the floods and winds from Hurricane Irma, another big storm in the Atlantic is being closely watched by meteorologists: Hurricane Jose, which is currently considered Category 2, though it is still too early to tell if it will make landfall. To give some sense of scale to what typically appears as a colorful splotch on maps, meteorologist Antti Lipponen used a satellite to peer straight through the eye of the storm. Through the perspective of the European Space Agency’s satellite Sentinel-2A, the Finnish researcher was able to show a turbulent sea beneath Hurricane Jose.   More
(Source: Quartz - Sep 12)

PROTON-M LAUNCHES FROM BAIKONUR WITH AMAZONAS 5 TELECOM SATELLITE - International Launch Services (ILS) has successfully launched into space its Proton-M rocket carrying the Amazonas 5 communications satellite for Spanish operator Hispasat. The launch was conducted on September 11 at 19:23 GMT (3:23 p.m. EDT) from Site 200/39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch campaign for the mission started on August 8 when the Amazonas 5 satellite arrived at Baikonur aboard an Antonov cargo jet. Ten days later, the Proton-M launch vehicle was shipped to Baikonur by rail.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Sep 12)

RUSSIAN PROTON ROCKET SET TO DEPLOY TELECOM SATELLITE FOR HISPASAT - A new communications spacecraft for Hispasat, a Spanish communications satellite operator, will get a boost from a Russian Proton rocket Monday toward an orbital position more than 22,000 miles above Earth. The Amazonas 5 satellite is set for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton launcher at 1923:41 GMT (3:23:41 p.m. EDT) Monday, kicking off a nine-hour ascent toward a geostationary transfer orbit.   More
(Source: SapceFlight Now - Sep 11)

HURRICANE IRMA CAUSES KENNEDY SPACE CENTER TO CLOSE - NASA has closed Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, FL. as the state braces for the impact of Hurricane Irma. Arguably NASA's most important launch site, Kennedy will be closed from Sept. 8 to at least Sept. 11, because of the approaching storm. "The storm currently is expected to make its closest approach to the Kennedy/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station area during the weekend," NASA said in a blog post. "Currently a Category 5 hurricane, Irma could potentially bring heavy rain and strong winds to the spaceport."   More
(Source: Fox News - Sep 11)

ASTRONAUT TWEETS SOBERING PHOTO OF HURRICANE IRMA FROM SPACE - "Too many people in Irma's path," says ISS commander Randy Bresnik as he shares a view of the storm few of us would ever have the chance to see. Viewing Hurricane Irma's immense size on your nightly news weather report is one thing. Seeing it from space, as an enormous white swirl dominating a portion of our fragile planet, is quite another.   More
(Source: CNET - Sep 10)

HURRICANE WATCH: HOW SATELLITES TRACK HUGE STORMS FROM SPACE - Sophisticated satellites are helping scientists monitor the volatility of Hurricanes Irma, Katia and Jose in the Atlantic basin. As the spacecraft capture data on the massive storms, weather agencies can merge the different observations to create accurate forecasts about where the hurricanes are traveling, the strength of their winds and which communities should start emergency preparations. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed satellites through NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) to carry instruments into low-Earth orbit that can make nuanced detections of rainfall, cloud formations and the microphysics of these hurricanes.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 9)

ERRANT ECHOSTAR-3 SATELLITE RETIRED INTO GRAVEYARD ORBIT - An EchoStar satellite that stopped obeying commands this summer has since been boosted into a graveyard orbit 350 kilometers above the geostationary belt, EchoStar said Sept. 6. EchoStar-3, a 20-year-old television broadcast satellite from Lockheed Martin, stopped responding to commands in late July during a relocation maneuver and began drifting around the geostationary arc, triggering warnings to satellite operators with nearby spacecraft.   More
(Source: SpaceNews.com - Sep 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES U.S. MILITARY SPACE PLANE ON SECRET MISSION - SpaceX successfully launched the U.S. Air Force's reusable robotic space plane on its latest secret mission today. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), built by Boeing, is an unmanned spacecraft that has spent up to 700 days orbiting the Earth on previous missions. This is its fifth mission, but the first aboard a SpaceX rocket. The space plane was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center at 10 a.m. ET.   More
(Source: CBC News - Sep 7)

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