POOR WEATHER FORECAST DELAYS JAPANESE SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH - Japanese officials have delayed the launch of a government-owned reconnaissance satellite until at least Friday, local time, because of bad weather predicted over the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. Liftoff of an H-2A rocket with Japan’s sixth radar intelligence-gathering satellite, officially designated IGS Radar 5, is now scheduled for no earlier than Friday at 0120 GMT (9:20 p.m. EDT on Thursday), the Japanese space agency announced Tuesday. The launch window extends for nearly 14 minutes, officials said. It opens at 10:20 a.m. Friday Japan Standard Time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 16)
TECH TALK: ISRAELI SATELLITE TO BE LAUNCHED INTO SPACE - Duchifat-2, a small satellite built at the science center in Herzliya with the active participation of high-school students, will be launched on the morning March 20 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, toward the international space center along with 28 other small satellites from around the world. The aim of the constellation of satellites will be to map the thermosphere, which will help in the transfer of GPS signals. Duchifat-2 is the only satellite built with the participation of students that will be launched into space. More (Source: Jerusalem Post Israel News - Mar 15)
ELON MUSK'S SPACEX HAS LANDED A $96.5 MILLION CONTRACT TO LAUNCH A MILITARY SATELLITE - Elon Musk's SpaceX has a new mission: Launch a military satellite into orbit. The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that it had awarded the company — a relative newcomer to military space launches — a $96.5 million dollar contract to support the launch of a next generation global positioning system satellite called GPS III. SpaceX beat out another contractor for the work, according to a Department of Defense press release, and will provide "launch vehicle production, mission integration, launch operations, spaceflight worthiness and mission unique activities for a GPS III mission." More (Source: CNBC - Mar 15)
HIGH WINDS SCRUB SPACEX LAUNCH FROM FLORIDA; NEXT WINDOW SET FOR THURSDAY - High winds forced SpaceX to cancel this morning’s Falcon 9 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center. “Standing down due to high winds; working toward next available launch opportunity,” the company posted on Twitter. The launch window was scheduled to open at 1:34 a.m., but on Monday the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which is based on the coast, said there was only a 40 percent chance of lift off. A backup window opens at 1:35 a.m. on Thursday. More (Source: Orlando Sentinel - Mar 15)
A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE! ASTRONAUT REUNITED WITH SAXOPHONE IN SPACE - Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a flight engineer on the International Space Station, and a music aficionado, received a surprise birthday gift from his crewmates last month — his beloved old saxophone. Pesquet hoped to bring it along when he launched to the space station on Nov. 17, but to his dismay, the instrument did not make it onto the flight. NASA decided to surprise him by sending it up with a cargo flight. The saxophone arrived on SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft on Feb. 23, and Pesquet's crewmembers hid it until his 39th birthday on Feb. 27. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 15)
ARISS MOVES CLOSER TO LAUNCHING NEW RADIO SYSTEM TO SPACE STATION - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) reports it has met a major milestone and now is “one giant step” closer to flying its new interoperable radio system to the International Space Station. Eventual plans call for installing a new JVC Kenwood TM-D710GA-based radio system on the station as part of an overall approach that will allow greater interoperability between the Columbus module and the Russian Service Module. Lou McFadin, W5DID, and Kerry Banke, N6IZW, travelled to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in mid-February for preliminary testing of Banke’s “breadboard” version of the ARISS multi-voltage power supply that’s essential to the upgrade. More (Source: ARRL - Mar 15)
CAS-4A AND CAS-4B LAUNCH EXPECTED – FREQUENCIES COORDINATED - CAMSAT has worked closely with a Beijing Government aerospace contractor to build two satellites with amateur radio linear transponder payloads. IARU record a launch had been planned for March 31, 2017 from Taiyuan into a 524 km orbit with an inclination of 42 degrees. Both will carry a 435/145 (U/V) 20 dBm (100 milliwatt) SSB/CW linear transponder, a 2m CW 17 dBm (50 mW) telemetry beacon and an AX.25 4.8 kbps GMSK 20 dBm (100 mW) telemetry downlink. More (Source: AMSAT-UK - Mar 14)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH ECHOSTAR 23 SATELLITE EARLY TUESDAY: WATCH IT LIVE - SpaceX plans to launch a commercial communications satellite in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (March 14), and you can watch the liftoff live. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the EchoStar 23 satellite is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida Tuesday during a 2.5-hour window that opens at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT). You can watch the spaceflight action live at http://www.spacex.com/webcast. You can also view the launch here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX. Unlike most of SpaceX's recent launches, Tuesday's liftoff will not feature a landing attempt by the Falcon 9's first stage. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 14)
THE MOST STUNNING SHOTS OF NEW ZEALAND FROM SPACE - Nasa's footage of New Zealand from space is a beautiful thing. Here we recall the best shots of the country from astronauts, satellites and the International Space Station, proving NZ is not only a beautiful country on the ground but it also looks incredible from the sky. More (Source: New Zealand Herald - Mar 14)
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