NASA ENDS EFFORTS TO REPAIR SPACE STATION EARTH SCIENCE INSTRUMENT - NASA announced Nov. 28 it was formally ending a mission of an instrument on the International Space Station that malfunctioned earlier this year, a setback in the agency’s efforts to use the station as an Earth sciences platform. NASA said it was terminating the ISS Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, instrument, that had been operating on the station since October 2014. The instrument collected wind speed and direction data over the oceans by measuring the scattering of radar waves it transmitted and then received.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 30)

RUSSIA'S SOYUZ SPACECRAFT MARKS 50 YEARS SINCE FIRST FLIGHT - It launched under a different name and was not officially disclosed until almost two decades later, but Russia's first Soyuz spacecraft lifted off into history 50 years ago Monday (Nov. 28). The Soyuz, which became the former Soviet Union's third class of crewed transport spacecraft and is still used today to take cosmonaut and astronaut crews to the International Space Station, first flew under the intentionally nondescript title "Kosmos 133" on Nov. 28, 1966. The less-than-successful, 34-orbit uncrewed maiden mission ended with the Soyuz's descent capsule self-destructing, instead of landing off-course in China. But that was only the last of its problems.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 29)

ATLAS 5 ROCKET TO FINISH YEAR WITH COMMERCIAL BROADBAND SATELLITE LAUNCH - Preparing for its eighth launch of the year, the Atlas 5 rocket program has begun stacking the vehicle that will deploy a commercial satellite to provide Internet connectivity to rural America. The United Launch Alliance rocket will haul the EchoStar 19 spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 on Dec. 16. The two-hour launch window opens at 1:22 p.m. EST (1822 GMT). Stacking started today at the Vertical Integration Facility as the first stage was erected aboard the mobile launch platform. Three side-mounded solid rocket boosters and Centaur upper stage will be added in the coming days before the payload is attached next week.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 29)

NASA TELEVISION TO AIR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP LAUNCH, DOCKING - A Russian cargo spacecraft is set to launch Thursday, Dec. 1, to deliver more than two and a half tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station crew. Coverage on NASA Television and the agency's website begins at 9:30 a.m. EST ahead of the 9:51 a.m. (8:51 p.m. Baikonur time) launch. The unpiloted Russian Progress 65 will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is set to dock to the rear port of the space station's Zvezda Service Module at 11:43 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 11 a.m.    More
(Source: PR Newswire - Nov 29)

TEENAGE GIRLS HAVE BUILT AFRICA'S FIRST-EVER PRIVATE SATELLITE - In May next year, Africa will launch its first-ever private satellite into space, to monitor the continent's shifting weather conditions. Unlike most private satellites out there, this one has mostly been built by 14 South African teenage girls, as part of a high school science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) boot camp. The students have designed and made the payload for the satellite, which will orbit over Earth's poles and scan the surface of the African continent.   More
(Source: ScienceAlert - Nov 28)

LOST AND FOUND: MOST DRAMATIC SPACE MISSIONS OF 2016 - It's been a busy year of transition around the solar system. Some spacecraft crashed on distant planets, while others were found after we thought they were lost. And some cool stuff began to happen with new missions, such as exploring Jupiter and figuring out how useful inflatable structures will be in space. Here are some of the mission transitions of 2016. 2016 has seen some amazing space exploration feats. Here are just a few that have kept us on the edge of our seats.   More
(Source: Seeker - Nov 25)

LONG MARCH 3C LAUNCHES FOURTH TIANLIAN-1 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - China has successfully launched on Tuesday, Nov. 22, a Long March 3C rocket carrying the country’s fourth Tianlian-1 data tracking and relay communications satellite. Liftoff took place at 11:24 p.m. Beijing time (15:24 GMT / 10:24 a.m. EST) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Launch of the mission was originally targeted for Nov. 20 but was postponed two days. However, the cause of this delay has not been revealed by the officials.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Nov 24)

TINY 'BLACK MAGIC' SATELLITE PACKS ORIGAMI-LIKE RADAR DISH - NASA challenged engineers to pack an entire satellite dish into a cereal box with Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube), a technology-demonstration mission scheduled for launch in 2017 that will measure rain and snowfall on Earth from space. Until now, most satellite dishes have been parabolic, which means that bigger dishes led to better radio transmissions. But radio-frequency engineers have been known to call the forces guiding communications over the air "black magic" because of their complicated physics, NASA said in a statement — and new CubeSat technology must fit that magic into a new, tiny package.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 24)

THANKSGIVING IN SPACE: SPACE STATION COMMANDER SHANE KIMBROUGH PLANS FEAST - After a normal workday in orbit Thursday, International Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough plans to host an American Thanksgiving Day dinner of turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes and all the trimmings with his U.S., French and Russian colleagues. “Of course Thanksgiving, in my world, is not complete without some football,” Kimbrough said in a video update from orbit Monday. “So we’re going to have mission control send up some live football games for us to watch to complete the experience of Thanksgiving.    More
(Source: CBS News - Nov 24)

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