ENGINE ISSUE DELAYS DELTA IV ROCKET LAUNCH - A concern with a Delta IV rocket engine has pushed back United Launch Alliance's planned Wednesday evening launch of a military communications satellite by at least six days, to no earlier than March 14. "This additional time will allow the ULA team to ensure all systems are operating nominally prior to launch," ULA said in a statement Saturday. "A new launch date will be released once it is established." The company said a "first stage booster issue" was discovered during standard pre-launch inspections at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 37.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Mar 5)

NASA SEEKS PAYLOAD IDEAS FOR MYSTERY SATELLITE - NASA is soliciting concepts for payloads that could fly on a mysterious satellite it is in discussions to inherit from another government agency. NASA issued a request for information (RFI) Feb. 15 for a proposed spacecraft called the NASA Science/Technology Platform Satellite, or NSTP-Sat. The RFI was the first time NASA had publicly discussed such a mission. The RFI, issued by NASA’s science mission directorate, solicits ideas for payloads, including remote sensing instruments and technology demonstrations, which could fly on the spacecraft. The RFI offered few details about the proposed mission, noting NSTP-Sat could fly “to low earth orbit, geostationary equatorial orbit, medium Earth orbit, Earth-Moon L1, or lunar orbit in the 2021 timeframe.”   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 4)

CHINA TO LAUNCH SPACE STATION CORE MODULE IN 2018 - China will launch a space station core module in 2018 as the first step in completing the country's first space outpost, according to a senior engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) on Thursday. The core module of the space station, named "Tianhe-1" according to previous reports, will be launched on board a new-generation Long March-5 heavyweight carrier rocket, said Bao Weimin, director with CASC and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).   More
(Source: Space Daily - Mar 4)

SMALL EXPERIMENTAL SATELLITE LAUNCHED BY NEW CHINESE ROCKET - China debuted a new solid-fueled booster Thursday in an unannounced flight that put a small satellite into polar orbit, adding another rocket to the country’s growing fleet of lightweight launchers. The KT-2 rocket lifted off at 2353 GMT (6:53 p.m. EST) Thursday from the Jiuquan space center, a military-run base in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert, according to a report from the government-owned Xinhua news agency. The secretive launch occurred at 7:53 a.m. Beijing time Friday without an official announcement ahead of time, other than a notice to pilots published two days before the mission warning of drop zones for the KT-2’s spent motor casings.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 4)

VIRGIN GALACTIC UNVEILS SPIN-OFF VIRGIN ORBIT FOR SMALL-SATELLITE LAUNCHES - Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space company is spinning off its LauncherOne rocket program into a separate firm to better position itself to serve the booming small-satellite industry, the company said Thursday (March 2). Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides will hold the same role in the spin-off, called Virgin Orbit, with day-to-day operations now in the hands of Dan Hart, a veteran Boeing executive hired away to become Orbit's president.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 3)

THE US INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE CAN’T BELIEVE INDIA JUST LAUNCHED 104 SATELLITES - The Director of National Intelligence oversees the US intelligence community of 16 different organizations, including the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. A key component of the job involves ensuring that US spy satellite assets remain peerless in their capability to observe activities on Earth. During his confirmation hearing this week, the Trump administration's nominee for this cabinet-level position, former Senator Dan Coats, assured the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he would remain vigilant in keeping the nation's reconnaissance satellites ahead of the global curve. The United States would also speed up the process by which it gets new technologies into space, he said.   More
(Source: Ars Technica - Mar 3)

ATLAS 5 POWERS COVERT RECONNAISSANCE PAYLOAD TO ORBIT ON ITS 70TH MISSION - Performing a successful spacelift mission for the U.S. spy satellite agency, an Atlas 5 rocket delivered a surveillance package into orbit today believed by analysts to be another pair of tandem sleuths to scoop up radio signals from adversarial ships at sea. Liftoff came at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as the 191-foot-tall vehicle headed for space on its 70th mission. The kerosene-fed RD-180 main engine powered the rocket off the pad at Space Launch Complex 3-East on South Vandenberg with 860,000 pounds of thrust.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 2)

NASA BUYS TWO MORE SEATS TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ON RUSSIA’S SOYUZ ROCKET - NASA has agreed to fly at least two more astronauts on upcoming Russian Soyuz missions to the International Space Station, the space agency announced in a press release. The news comes in the wake of delays to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative where two American companies — SpaceX and Boeing — are being paid to create spacecraft that can ferry astronauts to the ISS. Those flights were originally supposed to happen this year, but are now estimated to take place no earlier than 2019.   More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 1)

ULA READIES ATLAS V FOR LAUNCH OF NROL-79 RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE - After enduring several delays – most recently from an issue with the second stage of its Atlas V launch vehicle – United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch the classified NROL-79 mission. Liftoff is planned for Wednesday, March 1, 2017, at about 9:50 a.m. PST (12:50 p.m. EST / 17:50 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. According to Spaceflight Now, the exact duration of the launch window is classified, but the opportunity is expected to close by 10:30 a.m. PST.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Feb 28)

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