THE IMAGES COMING FROM NOAA'S NEW WEATHER SATELLITE ARE STUNNING - Crisp images coming from the newest addition to NOAA's family of weather-observing satellites are a stunning example of the beauty of our world and how far technology has advanced over the past couple of decades. The federal agency launched the 16th member of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) line of satellites in November 2016, and we started getting regular images from the new satellite earlier this year. Two of the most noticeable differences between GOES-16 and its predecessors is how much clearer the pictures are and how much faster we get them compared to the satellites in operational use now. More (Source: Forbes - Apr 2)
PIONEERING EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE RETIRED BY NASA - NASA has decommissioned a long-lived satellite launched in 2000 that demonstrated remote sensing and surveying instruments and techniques common in today’s orbiting Earth observatories. The Earth Observing-1 spacecraft’s orbit has shifted away from its optimal perch, and the satellite does not carry enough propellant to correct its course, NASA said. The satellite tested new Earth-imaging cameras after its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta 2 rocket in November 2000, then the mission became a pioneer in spacecraft autonomy, sometimes making its own decisions about when to take images. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 2)
CHINA SET TO LAUNCH 156 MINI-SATELLITES - This is the first low orbiting, networked satellite project, which will orbit 1,000 km above the ground, state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) said. "The network is a general satellite platform," said Bei Chao, a CASIC engineer. Small satellites are easy to mass produce and upgrade at low cost. The project is part of China's effort to give wider push to commercial space development. Low orbit helps avoid signal delay and satellite communication services with frequencies from 26.5 to 40 hertz improve Internet access. The project plans to send the first satellite before 2018, and launch four more by 2020 to form a constellation. More (Source: Zee News - Apr 1)
ASTRONAUT BREAKS SPACE STATION DURING RECORD SPACEWALK - Spacewalking astronauts carried out an impromptu patch job outside the International Space Station on Thursday, after losing a vital piece of cloth shielding when it floated away. As the drama unfolded, Peggy Whitson set a record for the most spacewalks by a woman (eight) and the most accumulated time spent spacewalking (just over 53 hours). The bundled-up shield somehow came loose as Whitson and Shane Kimbrough worked to install micrometeorite protection over a spot left exposed when a new docking port was relocated. More (Source: New York Post - Apr 1)
SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS LOSE A PIECE OF SHIELD NEEDED FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Spacewalking astronauts lost an important piece of cloth shielding needed for the International Space Station on Thursday when it floated away. Astronaut Peggy Whitson immediately reported the mishap to Mission Control, which tracked the bundle as it drifted off. NASA said it would be monitored to make sure it doesn't come back and hit the station. The shielding protects against micrometeorite debris. It was one of four pieces that Whitson and Shane Kimbrough were installing over the spot left by a relocated docking port. More (Source: Los Angeles Time - Mar 31)
SUCCESS FOR SPACEX 'RE-USABLE ROCKET' - California's SpaceX company has successfully re-flown a segment from one of its Falcon 9 rockets. The first-stage booster, which was previously used on a mission 11 months ago, helped send a telecommunications satellite into orbit from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. It marks an important milestone for SpaceX in its quest for re-usability. Traditionally, rockets are expendable - their various segments are discarded and destroyed during an ascent. The California outfit, in contrast, aims to recover Falcon first-stages and fly them multiple times to try to reduce the cost of its operations. More (Source: BBC News - Mar 31)
FLIGHT-PROVEN’ FALCON 9 SET TO LAUNCH SES-10 SATELLITE - SpaceX is about to fly a milestone mission with the first launch of a “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket. After a successful static fire test, the company is targeting a liftoff at the opening of a 2.5-hour window at 6:27 p.m. EDT (22:27 GMT) Thursday, March 30, 2017. This flight will send the SES-10 communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A. It will be the third time SES, a Luxembourg-based company, has entrusted SpaceX to send one of its spacecraft to orbit. In fact, the SES-8 mission in December 2013 was the first commercial satellite launched by a Falcon 9. More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Mar 30)
SPACE EXPERTS WARN THREATS TO SATELLITES COULD HURT EMERGENCY RESPONSE - When tornadoes and severe storms struck Texas and Louisiana this week, emergency responders were prepared thanks to weather satellite information that gave them a three-day warning. That information might seem routine given the number and sophistication of data-collecting spacecraft orbiting the Earth. But government experts are warning that satellites predicting natural disasters, providing geographic coordinates and allowing cell phone communications are just as vulnerable to foreign threats as military ones. More (Source: USA Today - Mar 30)
LASER WILL SPEED UP COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EARTH AND ISS - The LCRD will beam data between modems on Earth and the satellite in geosynchronous orbit at speeds 10 to 100 times better than current radio-frequency. Credit: NASA To speed up communication between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS), NASA plans to use powerful laser technology that will relay messages between 10 and 100 times faster than broadband does on Earth. Also known as optical communication, laser communication encodes data into light beams, which are then transmitted from Earth to the ISS and back. More (Source: The Space Reporter - Mar 27)
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