WHY DOES BELGIUM SHINE SO BRIGHTLY? - Belgium's penchant for extravagant motorway lighting is suddenly in the spotlight thanks to pictures posted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The images of Europe taken from the International Space Station (ISS) have notched up tens of thousands of reactions on Facebook. Belgium can be seen glowing more brightly than its neighbours. The country's dense road network enjoys near-total streetlight coverage, with lights kept on throughout the night. More (Source: BBC News - May 14)
QB50 CUBESATS TO DEPLOY FROM ISS - The first phase of QB50 CubeSats should be deployed from the International Space Station over three days May 16-18, 2017. Built by university students and research organisations from 23 countries around the world, the QB50 constellation aims to study the lower thermosphere 200-380 km above the Earth. There are 28 QB50 CubeSats on the ISS awaiting deployment and it is understood that 11 will be deployed in this first phase. The beacons should be activated about 30 minutes after deployment. More (Source: AMSAT UK - May 13)
ARIANESPACE WILL ORBIT SES 15 ON SOYUZ FOR VS17 MISSION - For its fifth launch of the year, Arianespace will use a Soyuz launcher to orbit SES 15 — the first all-electric Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite for the European operator SES. This will mark Soyuz’ second mission in 2017 to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) from the Guiana Space Center. VS17 will launch from the Soyuz Launch Complex (ELS) in Sinnamary, French Guiana. According to Arianespace, the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) will take place on Wednesday, May 17, in Korou, to authorize the start of operations for the final countdown. More (Source: Satellite Today - May 13)
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SENDS SATELLITE INTO SPACE - Orbiting 250 miles above the Earth is the International Space Station, and now, a little piece of Michigan is up there with it. "Most satellites are not this small, most satellites are gigantic," Aaron Ridley, professor at the University of Michigan, says. But good things come in small packages, and when it comes to learning about the weather in the least explored layer of the atmosphere, small is all you need. More (Source: Fox 2 Detroit - May 13)
RUSSIA MAY DELIVER RESEARCH MODULE TO SPACE STATION IN 2018 - Russia’s Nauka multi-functional lab module plagued by the contamination problem in its fuel tanks will be delivered to the International Space Station no sooner than August next year, a source in the rocket and space industry told TASS on Friday. "Today, specialists of the Khrunichev Space Center and the Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation will hold a meeting to approve a new schedule for eliminating faults and preparing the module for the launch. According to the most optimistic forecasts, the module can be launched no sooner than August next year," the source said. More (Source: TASS - May 13)
ASTRONAUTS COMPLETE SHORTENED SPACEWALK OUTSIDE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer put on spacesuits Friday and headed outside the International Space Station for several repair and maintenance tasks, but the duo only completed part of their originally planned work after a leaky cooling umbilical delayed the start of their spacewalk. Mission control in Houston marked the official start of the spacewalk at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT), when the atmospheric pressure inside the station’s Quest airlock passed below 1 pound per square inch. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 13)
NORTH KOREA BOASTS OF SPYING CAPABILITIES BY AIRING SATELLITE IMAGES OF THAAD MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM - North Korea has boasted of its own spying capabilities by airing what it claims is satellite images of a missile defence system on a South Korean golf course. A sophisticated US missile defence system called THAAD was deployed in the South last month amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. This morning Kim Jong-un's state-run Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station unveiled what it claimed to be overhead images of the advanced military equipment. More (Source: Daily Mail - May 12)
AFTER STATIC FIRE, FALCON 9 PREPARES TO MEET INMARSAT PAYLOAD - Ten days after the last liftoff from historic launch pad 39A in Florida, another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its Merlin main engines for several seconds in a hold-down firing Thursday ahead of a planned expendable flight next week with an Inmarsat communications satellite. The two-stage rocket was filled with super-chilled, densified RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants in a mock countdown Thursday. SpaceX engineers monitored the computer-controlled countdown as the rocket’s engines were primed and fuel tanks pressurized for ignition. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 12)
WATCH: ASTRONAUT SPACEWALK AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - On Tuesday, NASA released breathtaking views of the Earth during a spacewalk by two astronauts at the International Space Station. The video was taken by astronaut Peggy Whitson on a helmet cam. Whitson and fellow astronaut Shane Kimbrough were performing maintenance on the spacecraft when they captured the stunning shots. During the spacewalk, NASA says, “the two spacewalkers reconnected cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 at its new home on top of the Harmony module. More (Source: WKRG - May 11)
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