VIASAT-2: SATELLITE GOLIATH GOES INTO ORBIT - The most powerful commercial broadband satellite ever built has just gone into orbit on an Ariane rocket. ViaSat-2, which is to be stationed above the Americas, has a total throughput capacity of about 300 gigabits per second. The spacecraft was part of a dual payload on the Ariane flight. It was joined by Eutelsat 172B, a UK/French-built platform to go over the Pacific. Both satellites will be chasing the rampant market for wi-fi on aeroplanes. Airlines are currently in a headlong rush to equip their fleets with connections that will allow passengers to use their mobile devices in mid-air. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 2)
STORMS DELAY LAUNCH OF "USED" SPACEX CARGO SHIP - Stormy afternoon weather and a nearby lightning strike grounded a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, forcing a two-day delay for launch of a space station-bound Dragon cargo ship loaded with 6,000 pounds of supplies and equipment. The scrub was a disappointment to researchers awaiting the Dragon's arrival at the station to kick off a wide variety of experiments, including one to study fast-spinning neutron stars, or pulsars, to find out if they can be used as ultra-precise navigation beacons for future deep space missions. More (Source: CNS News - Jun 2)
JAPAN LAUNCHES ROCKET WITH SATELLITE TO BUILD ITS OWN GPS - Japan is building its own GPS in hopes of reducing location errors for drivers, drone operators and other users. A rocket launched Thursday from southern Japan is carrying a satellite that will form part of a Japanese GPS. An initial satellite was launched in 2010, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plan to launch two more satellites by next spring to complete the "Michibiki" system. Michibiki is the Japanese word for guidance. More (Source: ABC News - Jun 1)
SCIENTISTS MEET IN CANBERRA TO PREVENT ‘CATASTROPHIC’ SPACE JUNK COLLISION WIPING OUT VITAL SATELLIT - A potentially disastrous collision in space that could render the edge of Earth’s upper atmosphere unusable has been foreshadowed by global scientists. It’s a matter of when, not if, such a calamitous event will take place, they say. Space has become so crowded with old defunct satellites, spent rocket parts and other man made waste that a disastrous collision that damages valuable infrastructure is fast becoming inevitable. More (Source: NEWS.com.au - Jun 1)
DRAGON SPACECRAFT PREPARED TO RESUPPLY INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - he International Space Station brings together science, technology and human innovation, demonstrating new technologies and research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. A resupply line of unpiloted spacecraft keeps this work going, supporting efforts to enable human and robotic exploration of destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit. The next mission to the Earth-orbiting laboratory will be the eleventh commercial resupply services flight for SpaceX. Liftoff is targeted for 5:55 p.m. EDT on June 1, 2017, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. More (Source: Space Daily - Jun 1)
SATELLITE NETWORK WILL CAPTURE HD VIDEO OF EARTH - A network of space satellites capable of tracking the movement of cars from space will be launched later this year. British space company Earth-i will launch a constellation of satellites that will record high-resolution images and video of the planet's surface, it was revealed today. The satellites will rapidly stream video in full colour and will be able to identify features as small as just a metre (three ft) across, according to the company. More (Source: Daily Mail - May 31)
STATION DUO READY TO DEPART STATION BEFORE DRAGON’S ARRIVAL - The International Space Station is preparing this week for the departure of two Expedition 51 crew members and the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon. Expedition 52 will begin Friday morning when two Expedition 51 crew members depart the station inside the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft. Cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and astronaut Thomas Pesquet will return to Earth and parachute to landing in Kazakhstan after a 196-day mission in space. NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer along with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin will continue their stay aboard the orbital complex. More (Source: NASA - May 31)
SPY SATELLITE SPACEX LAUNCHED MIGHT BUZZ THE SPACE STATION - The secret spy satellite that SpaceX launched May 1 is currently on a curious trajectory, according to the calculations of an amateur spy satellite tracker. It appears it might pass near the International Space Station right around the time a SpaceX Dragon capsule will be preparing to dock with the ISS this weekend. Amateur spy satellite tracker Marco Langbroek shared the above predictive model showing the satellite, which launched as NROL-76 and is now known as USA 276, could pass within as little as 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of the ISS. More (Source: CNET - May 31)
NASA'S NEW ISS EXPERIMENT WILL STUDY MYSTERIOUS PULSARS - The first space-based experiment devoted to studying some of the most mysterious objects in the universe—neutron stars and pulsars—is about to launch to the International Space Station on Thursday, June 1, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. NICER, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, will be mounted externally on the ISS, and the X-ray spectrometer will tell us more about the gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclear physics of neutron stars than we have ever known. More (Source: Popular Mechanics - May 30)
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