RUSSIA LAUNCHES NON-TERRIFYING SATELLITE THAT FOCUSES SUN'S SOLAR RAYS ONTO EARTH - Skywatchers are going to see a new light in the heavens this week after the successful launch of the Russian satellite Mayak this past weekend. Mayak, the Russian word for "beacon," is a standard tiny CubeSat probe. It will deploy 170 square feet (16 square metres) of reflective Mylar material in a pyramid shape that will reflect the Sun's light as it tumbles through its orbit. The satellite will be brighter in the sky than the International Space Station (ISS) and may even appear brighter than Venus or Jupiter. Basically, a sorta crap version of the Icarus space laser in James Bond low-point Die Another Day.   More
(Source: The Register - Jul 18)

NASA COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE DAMAGED 3 WEEKS BEFORE LAUNCH - NASA’s newest, slickest communications satellite has been damaged, just three weeks before its planned August launch. NASA said Monday that one of the antennas on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, or TDRS-M was damaged last Friday. The accident occurred inside a payload processing building near Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the satellite was being packed for launch.   More
(Source: WMFE - Jul 18)

MEET THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION’S ADORABLE CAMERA DRONE - Astronauts on board the International Space Station have a new robotic companion to play around with. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the first images shot by the "Int-Ball," a spherical camera that floats around alongside the rest of the crew. With its monochrome paint job and blue, circular eyes, it looks a little like Wall-E's Eve — or at least her head, in some kind of prototype form. Notably, the Int-Ball can move around autonomously or be controlled by operators back on Earth. The images are transferred in near real-time allowing JAXA staff to quickly evaluate problems and offer possible solutions to ISS residents.   More
(Source: Engadget - Jul 18)

COMPANY TO TEST SPACE-DEBRIS-RETRIEVAL SATELLITE IN 2019, AIM TO COMMERCIALIZE BY 2020 - A Singapore-based venture company aspiring to enter the space business unveiled a life-sized model of a satellite that would retrieve space debris, with which the company plans to conduct a test run in orbit in 2019 and to make commercially viable by 2020. "Space is filled with trash, and if things continue as they have, space exploration will no longer be sustainable. There definitely is demand (for the craft)," Mitsunobu Okada, the 44-year-old founder and CEO of Astroscale, said. Okada also revealed that his company has just accepted a 2.8 billion yen (about $2 million) investment from ANA Holdings Co. and other investors.    More
(Source: The Mainichi - Jul 16)

FIRST TAIWAN-DEVELOPED SATELLITE TO LAUNCH ON AUGUST 25 - FORMOSAT-5, the first entirely domestically developed satellite operated by Taiwan’s National Space Organization was packaged and shipped to the U.S. Saturday for the launch by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket August 25 (Taiwan Time) in California, reports said. FORMOSAT-5 is the first remote sensing satellite designed, manufactured, and controlled by the NSPO and domestic teams. Succeeding FORMOSAT-2, which was decommissioned in 2016, FORMOSAT-5 will embark on a five-year mission, orbiting around the globe to conduct earth observation, according to the NSPO.   More
(Source: Taiwan News - Jul 16)

BRIGHTEST 'STAR' IN THE SKY MAY SOON BE THIS RUSSIAN SATELLITE - Soon, there may be a new human-made “star” gliding across the heavens that will be brighter than both the International Space Station and the planet Venus. Mayak, the Russian word for “beacon,” is a pyramid-shaped satellite that is the brainchild of a group of students at the Moscow State University of Mechanical Engineering (MSUME), who successfully crowdfunded the money to build and launch the probe. Their 3U CubeSat is part of a flotilla of 73 satellites hitching a ride aboard a Soyuz rocket scheduled to launch on June 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   More
(Source: National Geographic - Jul 15)

A RUSSIAN SOYUZ ROCKET PROVIDED A RIDE SHARE TO SPACE FOR MORE THAN 70 SATELLITES THIS MORNING - A Russian Soyuz rocket launched a whopping 73 satellites into space this morning, sending the spacecraft into three different orbits around Earth. The satellites — ranging from tiny probes the size of a shoebox to a half-ton satellite the size of a car — rode together into space, arranged in a tall tower stacked on top of the rocket. It’s the most amount of satellites a Soyuz has ever put into space at one time. This mission was essentially a rocket ride share, as the satellites belong to various companies and universities.    More
(Source: The Verge - Jul 15)

SOYUZ ROLLED OUT FOR LAUNCH OF MULTINATIONAL SATELLITE CLUSTER - A Soyuz rocket arrived at a launch pad Tuesday in Kazakhstan for liftoff later this week with a satellite to monitor natural disasters and track forest fires from orbit and 72 secondary payloads from Russia, the United States, Germany, Norway and Japan. The Russian launcher’s blastoff is timed for 0636:49 GMT (2:36:49 a.m. EDT; 12:36:49 p.m. Kazakh time) Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 14)

NASA’S TDRS-M SATELLITE BEING READIED FOR UPCOMING LAUNCH - With the Atlas 5 rocket that will boost it into space now assembled and waiting, a $408 million NASA communications satellite is in final preparations for its science data relay mission. The Tracking and Data Relay satellite-M, or TDRS-M, will be carried aloft by United Launch Alliance on Aug. 3 from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. A 40-minute morning launch window opens at 9:02 a.m. EDT (1302 GMT).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 14)

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