LAUNCH OF SOYUZ 2.1A WITH PROGRESS MS-07 SCRUBBED SECONDS BEFORE LIFTOFF - Less than a minute before it was to take to the skies to deliver the Progress MS-07 cargo freighter to the International Space Station, an unknown issue with the Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle prompted a rare scrub for the Russian space agency’s workhorse rocket. Liftoff was expected at 5:32 a.m. EDT (09:32 GMT) Oct. 12, 2017, from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Oct 13)

SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS 15TH MISSION OF THE YEAR - Maintaining a brisk flight rate three days after its last launch, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 booster powered by a reused first stage into orbit Wednesday evening from Florida with an Airbus-built communications satellite for SES and EchoStar. The successful launch placed the 5.7-ton (5.2-metric ton) satellite in a “supersynchronous” orbit arcing thousands of miles above Earth, and the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to landing on a football field-sized barge holding position around 200 miles (300 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 13)

SENTINEL-5P POISED FOR LIFTOFF - With four days to liftoff, the next Sentinel satellite is now on the launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The rocket will be fuelled two days before launch, set for Friday at 09:27 GMT (11:27 CEST). The Sentinel-5P satellite has been at the cosmodrome since early September going through a series of tests and being readied for the big day. After being sealed from view in the rocket fairing last week, it was rolled out to the launch pad on Saturday.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Oct 12)

WATCH RUSSIA LAUNCH ITS FASTEST SPACE STATION CARGO FLIGHT YET ON THURSDAY! - The Russian space agency Roscosmos is about to make history with its fastest cargo flight ever to the International Space Station, launching early Thursday (Oct. 12), and you can watch it live online. Roscosmos will launch a Souyuz rocket carrying the robotic cargo ship Progress 38 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kasakhstan at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT). The cargo ship's superfast trip will bring it to the orbiting lab at 8:56 a.m. EDT (1256 GMT). Total elapsed time from launch to docking will be 3 hours, 24 minutes. You can watch the launch live on NASA TV, courtesy of NASA, beginning at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT).    More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 12)

SPACEX LAUNCHES, LANDS RECYCLED ROCKET - SpaceX on Wednesday launched a rocket that had already flown to space and landed it successfully on an ocean platform, as part of its ongoing effort to recycle costly rocket components. On a clear autumn evening at 6.53pm (2253 GMT), the tall, white Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying the Echostar 105/SES-11 satellite. “Couldn’t be more perfect weather for a launch,” said a commentator on SpaceX’s live webcast. The satellite aims to provide television coverage and communications capabilities to North America, Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean.   More
(Source: New Straits Times Online - Oct 12)

RUSSIAN PROGRESS SUPPLY SHIP POISED FOR SWIFT TRIP TO SPACE STATION - Russian ground crews are readying a robotic Progress cargo freighter for launch Thursday on an expedited trek to the International Space Station that should take less than three-and-a-half hours from liftoff to docking, cutting in half the normal transit time. The Progress MS-07 supply ship is loaded with several tons of food, spare parts, fuel, water and breathing air for the space station’s six-person crew.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 11)

SPACE STATION ASTRONAUTS TAKING SPACEWALK TODAY: WATCH IT LIVE - Two NASA astronauts will head outside of the International Space Station today (Oct. 10) for the second of three planned spacewalks this month. Expedition 53 commander Randy Bresnik and flight engineer Mark Vande Hei, who took a spacewalk together last Thursday (Oct. 5), will spend another 6.5 hours working outside the orbiting laboratory today. They'll continue working on the Latching End Effector (LEE), a "hand" at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which they replaced last week, and install some new high-definition cameras outside the space station.    More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 11)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH SES-11 SATELLITE WEDNESDAY - Less than 60 hours after a Falcon 9 rocket launched 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into space from the West Coast, on the other side of the continent SpaceX is set to send the SES-11 spacecraft into orbit for a scheduled liftoff at 6:53 p.m. EDT (22:53 GMT) Oct. 11, 2017, from Launch Complex 39A. Launching atop a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket, SES-11 will be SpaceX’s 15th mission in 2017, continuing a very busy year for the company. The particular first stage used for this mission, core 1031, was first flown during CRS-10 in February 2017.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Oct 11)

HOUSE-SIZED ASTEROID WILL PASS BY EARTH AT JUST ABOVE SATELLITE ALTITUDE - A house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss on Thursday, giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat as it passes inside the moon’s orbit. Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000km (27,300 miles) – just above the 36,000km plane at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth. That represents about an eighth of the distance between the Earth and the moon.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Oct 11)

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