HAM RADIO SATELLITE TRANSMITS VICE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - The National newspaper reports a message by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, is being beamed across the world from space as the first to be transmitted by the UAE’s Nayif-1 satellite. The National says: Nayif-1 was launched February 15 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India and is being tracked by a team of scientists at a control centre at American University of Sharjah.   More
(Source: AMSAT-UL - Feb 26)

2020: A SPACE STATION ODYSSEY - Half a century ago it was easy to imagine that a Hilton hotel would soon be orbiting the Earth. The massive floating bagel of a space station in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film made at the height of the first space race, seemed a natural stepping stone to interplanetary travel. That 1960s vision never came to pass. But the race to put a commercial space station into orbit could finally be heading for the launch pad, with two US start-ups competing on the latest frontier for private space development.    More
(Source: Financial Times - Feb 26)

RUSSIAN FREIGHTER LINKS UP WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The International Space Station received its second cargo shipment in less than 24 hours Friday with the automated linkup of a Russian Progress refueling and resupply freighter. The Progress MS-05 spaceship closed in to dock with the space station’s Pirs module at 0830 GMT (3:30 a.m. EST) Friday, two days after blasting off from Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz rocket. The docking occurred as the space station sailed 250 miles (400 kilometers) over the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. The Progress cargo craft’s on-board computer, relying on data fed by a Kurs rendezvous radar, commanded the final phase of the approach.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 25)

EUROPE’S NEXT SENTINEL LAND IMAGING SATELLITE MATED TO ROCKET BOOSTER - Ground crews have mounted the fully-fueled Sentinel 2B spacecraft, the next mission in Europe’s multibillion-dollar Copernicus Earth observation satellite fleet, on top of a Vega rocket inside a protective gantry on its launch pad in French Guiana for blastoff next month. The satellite was encapsulated inside the Vega rocket’s Swiss-made composite nose shroud Feb. 15, then transferred to the Vega launch pad Feb. 18, where the four-stage booster was already assembled and awaiting the arrival of the payload.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 24)

PREFECTURE IN CHINA’S XINJIANG TO TRACK CARS BY SATELLITE - A prefecture in China’s far western Xinjiang region is requiring all vehicles to install satellite tracking systems as part of stepped-up measures against violent attacks. Traffic police in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture announced the regulation on Sunday, shortly after thousands of heavily armed police paraded in the Xinjiang capital and ruling Communist Party officials vowed to ramp up their campaign against separatists and Islamic militants.   More
(Source: Arab News - Feb 23)

SPACEX DRAGON DELIVERS NASA CARGO TO SPACE STATION AFTER 24-HOUR DELAY - A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship filled with more than 2 tons of NASA supplies has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after a one-day delay due to a navigation software glitch. The Dragon space capsule was captured today (Feb. 23) by the station's robotic arm at 5:44 a.m. EST (0944 GMT) by astronauts Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. "With that capture, a Dragon has now officially arrived to ISS," Pesquet radioed to NASA's Mission Control center in Houston after the successful rendezvous.    More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 23)

SOYUZ BLASTS OFF ON RUSSIAN RESUPPLY RUN TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz booster blasted off from a snow-covered launch pad in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with nearly 6,000 pounds of fuel, water and supplies for the International Space Station. The launch occurred just a few hours before a SpaceX supply ship was due to arrive at the orbiting research complex, but the commercial cargo carrier’s rendezvous was aborted and delayed at least a day because of a failure in the craft’s relative GPS navigation system. The back-to-back cargo missions come after Russia’s Progress and SpaceX’s Dragon supply ships were grounded several months following rocket mishaps last year.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 22)

SPACEX CARGO SHIP ABORTS APPROACH TO STATION - A Russian Progress cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was successfully launched from Kazakhstan early Wednesday, but the approach of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center was aborted because of an apparent problem with the spacecraft’s GPS navigation system. SpaceX flight controllers suspect the abort might have been triggered by an incorrect “state vector,” the set of numbers that defines the spacecraft’s orbit and trajectory. If the problem can be resolved, the Dragon, loaded with nearly 5,500 pounds of supplies and equipment, could attempt a re-rendezvous Thursday morning.   More
(Source: CBS News - Feb 22)

NOAA’S GOES-16 WEATHER SATELLITE TO SHOWCASE ITS LIGHTNING DETECTION CAPABILITIES - NOAA’s new highly advanced GOES-16 (formerly known as GOES-R) weather satellite, which has just completed its third month in space, is expected to provide crucial data necessary to detect the presence of lightning earlier and better than before. The satellite’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument will soon deliver first data essential for forecasting intensifying storms and severe weather events.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Feb 22)

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