SENTINEL SATELLITE CAPTURES BIRTH OF BEHEMOTH ICEBERG - Over the last few months, a chunk of Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf has been hanging on precariously as a deep crack cut across the ice. Witnessed by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, a lump of ice more than twice the size of Luxembourg has now broken off, spawning one of the largest icebergs on record and changing the outline of the Antarctic Peninsula forever. The fissure first appeared several years ago, but seemed relatively stable until January 2016, when it began to lengthen. In January 2017 alone it travelled 20 km, reaching a total length of about 175 km.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Jul 13)

SMALL SATELLITES DRIVING SPACE INDUSTRY GROWTH: REPORT - Small satellites used for observing conditions on the earth are the fastest growing segment of the $260.5 billion global satellite industry, the Satellite Industries Association said in an annual report released on Tuesday. Small satellites, some no bigger than a shoe box, generated an 11 percent jump in annual revenue for Earth imagery in 2016 and a growing share of the 1,459 operating spacecraft that circled the planet at the end of the year, the report said.    More
(Source: Reuters - Jul 12)

ARISS TO CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH SSTV EVENT - The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program is planning a slow-scan television (SSTV) event starting on Thursday, July 20, and continuing for 2 days, to commemorate its 20th anniversary. Transmissions, set to get under way around 2125 UTC, will feature 12 images from past and present ARISS activities. The SSTV signal should be available nearly anywhere on the globe at some point during the event. “Starting with our first meeting in November 1996, our joint operations on Mir, becoming the first operational payload on ISS in November 2000, to our [more than 1,100] school contact (so far), ARISS’s accomplishments have been tremendous,” ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said, in first announcing the SSTV event last.    More
(Source: ARRL - Jul 12)

THE FIRST SLOVAK SATELLITE REPORTS PROBLEMS - The first Slovak satellite, skCUBE, orbited the Earth without any significant problems for only 15 days. During the night of Friday, July 7 to Saturday, July 8, the first error occurred – the satellite stopped sending all data. Only data packets from the COM communication system are now being received while data from other systems on board and from the sensors are missing. “Our last connections with the satellite only some hours before, showed all systems were fully functional and there was no indication of any impending problems,” ...   More
(Source: The Slovak Spectator - Jul 11)

IN BEIJING, CHINA ROLLS OUT THE RED CARPET — AND A COMPREHENSIVE SPACE PLAN - Beijing this month hosted the Global Space Exploration Conference, GLEX 2017, an occasion which China used effectively to declare its goals for space and call for further engagement with the space community. Hosted by the International Astronautical Federation and Chinese Society of Astronautics , the event was the perfect setting, with around 1,000 participants, including heads of agencies, industry representatives, scientists and policy makers in attendance.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 11)

SPECTACULAR IMAGES SHOW HURRICANE EUGENE BECOME FIRST MAJOR HURRICANE OBSERVED BY GOES-16 - NOAA's new GOES-16 satellite observed its first major hurricane on Sunday when Hurricane Eugene rapidly intensified into a Category 3 in the eastern Pacific Ocean well to the west of Mexico's Pacific coastline. Major hurricanes are Category 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and in general, make for some of the most spectacular satellite imagery given their extreme intensity. GOES-16 has been in testing mode since the beginning of the year and has seen a number of storms both over the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific Oceans.    More
(Source: The Weather Channel - Jul 10)

BIRDS-1 CONSTELLATION OF FIVE CUBESATS DEPLOYED - On Friday, July 7, 2017 five CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads were deployed from the Japanese Kibo module on the International Space Station. ISS astronaut Jack Fischer KG5FYH @Astro2fish tweeted: Another great example of International Cooperation today on @Space_Station –launched 5 micro-satellites from 5 countries off the JAXA arm! The BIRDS-1 constellation consists of five 1U CubeSats (BIRD-B, BIRD-J, BIRD-G, BIRD-M and BIRD-N). They launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-11 on June 3, 2017. The satellites are made of the exactly same design and use the same amateur radio frequency.   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Jul 8)

JAXA, NASA APPROVE REPLACEMENT FOR FAILED HITOMI ASTRONOMY SATELLITE - The Japanese space agency is moving ahead with a smaller-scale X-ray astronomy satellite to replace the failed Hitomi observatory, which spun out of control about a month-and-a-half after its launch last year. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission, or XARM, could launch as soon as March 2021, filling a potential gap in astronomers’ X-ray vision of the universe, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 8)

GHANA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST SATELLITE INTO SPACE - GhanaSat-1, which was developed by students at All Nations University in Koforidua, was sent into orbit from the International Space Centre. Cheers erupted as 400 people, including the engineers, gathered in the southern Ghanaian city to watch live pictures of the launch. The first signal was received shortly afterwards. It is the culmination of a two-year project, costing $50,000 (£40,000). It received support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The satellite will be used to monitor Ghana's coastline for mapping purposes, and to build capacity in space science and technology.    More
(Source: BBC News - Jul 8)

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