INCREDIBLE FOOTAGE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION REVEALS LIFE INSIDE PYONGYANG THAT IS SO CLE - EERIE video filmed from Earth’s orbit has provided a rare peek into secretive and paranoid North Korea – showing weirdly empty streets. Filmed using an Iris camera from the International Space Station (ISS), it lifts the lid from above on the peculiar capital city, Pyongyang. The video was released by UrtheCast. For a large city - apparently home to 3.2million - hardly anyone seems to be walking or driving about. More (Source: The Sun - Dec 3)
RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP FAILURE WON'T ENDANGER SPACE STATION CREW, NASA SAYS - The six astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be OK despite a Russian cargo ship's failure to make it to orbit Thursday (Dec. 1), NASA officials said. The uncrewed Progress 65 freighter fell back to Earth shortly after liftoff Thursday, apparently doomed by a problem with the third stage of its Soyuz rocket. The spacecraft and its 2.6 tons (2.36 metric tons) of food, equipment and other supplies burned up in the atmosphere over southern Russia, Russian space officials said. But there's no danger that crewmembers of the station's current Expedition 50 will go hungry or thirsty, according to NASA officials. More (Source: Space.com - Dec 3)
TURKEY TO LAUNCH INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE GöKTüRK-1 SATELLITE NEXT WEEK - The Göktürk-1 satellite, which will provide target intelligence satellite imagery for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), will be launched at 4:51 p.m. on Dec. 5. The assembly and integration activities for the satellite, designed to meet the satellite imagery needs for the TSK with regards to target intelligence, are being carried out by the project's main contractor Telespazio (Italy) along with Thales Alenia Space (France) in their facilities located in Cannes. The satellite was subjected to environmental tests at Turkey's first Space Systems Integration and Testing Center (USET) located at the Turkish Aerospace Industries' (TAI) Akıncı Air Base and was later sent to the Kourou Launch Center in French Guiana in preparation for orbit. More (Source: Daily Sabah - Dec 2)
SPACEX COULD RETURN TO FLIGHT DEC. 16, SATELLITE LAUNCH CUSTOMER SAYS - SpaceX could return to flight in about two weeks, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval, after an explosion that destroyed one of its rockets, satellite launch customer Iridium Communications Inc. said Thursday. The tentative date comes three months after one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, destroying a commercial communications satellite that was to be managed by Israeli satellite operator Spacecom. The fiery failure caused delays in SpaceX’s launch schedule and led to criticism from some members of Congress of the company’s role in leading the investigation. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - Dec 2)
RUSSIA CONFIRMS ISS-BOUND PROGRESS SPACESHIP LOST AFTER LAUNCH - Russia’s space agency has confirmed that an unmanned cargo ship launched on Thursday to take supplies to the International Space Station has been lost. Roscosmos said on Twitter that the ship had been destroyed during its launch. It is said to have mainly burnt up in the atmosphere, 190 kilometres above Siberia. Earlier, the space agency said that data transmissions had been cut off nearly six and a half minutes after the launch. More (Source: Euronews - Dec 2)
WHAT CHINA’S LATEST X-RAY POSITIONING SATELLITE MEANS FOR DEEP-SPACE EXPLORATION - ONovember 10, aboard a Long March 11 rocket, China launched a suite of satellites into space. Among them was the innovative X-ray Pulsar Navigation 1 (XPNAV 1) satellite which is equipped with a world’s first instrument that offers X-ray-based navigation. Unlike classical satellites and spacecraft that rely on GPS-like features, the XPNAV 1 uses X-ray sources from space like those emitted by pulsars to triangulate its position. In other words, this tiny satellite is paving the way for a new class of spacecraft that will not only breach the final frontier but also find its way around it. More (Source: ZME Science - Dec 1)
NASA IS OFFERING $30K TO THE PERSON WHO SOLVES ITS SPACE POOP PROBLEM - Space travel presents scientists with seemingly infinite challenges. Aside from the technological feat of getting astronauts off the planet, scientists have to figure out how to keep them healthy with no-gravity exercise, clean air, and nutrition once they’re up in space. But there’s one much-less-glamorous problem space scientists have to solve: How to get rid of astronaut poop on long missions in spacesuits. The question has NASA scientists stumped, and so they’re taking suggestions from the public. More (Source: Quartz - Dec 1)
WAR IN SPACE: KAMIKAZES, KIDNAPPER SATELLITES AND LASERS - It was May 2014 when a small team of American airmen monitoring a Russian satellite launch saw something they had never seen before. An object the team thought was a piece of debris from the launch suddenly came to life. "The one object that we assumed was a piece of debris started to maneuver in close proximity to the (rocket) booster," recalled Lt. Gen. David Buck, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Buck, who oversees US military space forces, said the deliberate maneuvers the mystery object made close to the rocket's booster were a red flag. More (Source: CNN - Nov 30)
JAPAN TO LAUNCH FIRST MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE ON JANUARY 24 - The Japanese Ministry of Defense plans to launch the Kirameki-2 satellite that will be one of three military satellites, which will replace the civil analogues that are currently used for communication between Japan's military units.TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Japanese Ministry of Defense plans to launch its first satellite into orbit on January 24, 2017, to improve military communications infrastructure amid North Korea nuclear and military threats, media reported on Friday, citing a military source. According to the Kyodo news agency, the Kirameki-2 satellite will be one of three military satellites, which will replace the civil analogues that are currently used for communication between Japan's military units. More (Source: Space Daily - Nov 30)
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