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)

SPACEX RELEASES BLOOPER VIDEO OF ROCKET FAILURES - The private American company SpaceX has been called a pioneer in the space industry. SpaceX was the idea of businessman Elon Musk. He wanted to reduce the cost of space travel by reusing rockets over and over again. At the time, this was a completely new idea. For years, booster rockets that lifted spacecraft into the skies returned to Earth and were discarded at sea. At first, many scientists and people in the aerospace industry did not take Elon Musk and SpaceX seriously. There were many rocket failures in the company’s early days of testing.   More
(Source: Voice of America - Sep 21)

ARISS INVITES PROPOSALS TO HOST AMATEUR RADIO CONTACTS WITH SPACE STATION CREW - The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program is seeking proposals from US schools, museums, science centers, and community youth organizations to host Amateur Radio contacts in 2018 with a crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The deadline to submit proposals is November 15. Contacts would be scheduled between July 1 and December 31, 2018. Each year, ARISS provides tens of thousands of students with opportunities to learn about space technologies and space communication via Amateur Radio. The program provides learning opportunities by connecting students to astronauts aboard the ISS through a partnership that includes NASA, ARRL, AMSAT, and worldwide space agencies.   More
(Source: ARRL - Sep 21)

NASA SMALL SATELLITE PROMISES BIG DISCOVERIES - Small satellites provide a cheap, responsive alternative to larger, more expensive satellites. As demand grows, engineers must adapt these "nanosatellites" to provide greater data returns. NASA, in collaboration with educational partners, targets 2021 for the launch of an innovative CubeSat that addresses these challenges. CubeSats consist of standardized cubed units, or U's, typically up to 12U. A 1U CubeSat is 10 cubic centimeters and can weigh as little as three pounds. They launch as auxiliary payloads on existing missions, providing a cost-effective opportunity for small-scale research projects.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Sep 20)

SATELLITE PHOTOS REVEAL HIDDEN ALPHABET ON EARTH'S SURFACE - It started with a plume of smoke in the shape of a ‘V’ on an image of Earth taken by one of NASA’s satellites. Soon it grew into an addictive hunt for more letters, made out of glaciers, storms, lakes and craters. For years, NASA science writer Adam Voiland has been on the lookout for letter-shaped natural phenomena, combing through thousands of satellite images slowly collecting the entire alphabet and chronicling it in an online gallery. It was a hit, and soon Voiland was back for a second round, collecting another entire alphabet, this one all capitals, for a new children’s book, ABCs from Space.   More
(Source: National Geographic - Sep 20)

Previous Next