ISRO TO LAUNCH STANDBY NAVIGATION SATELLITE TO REPLACE IRNSS-1A - India will launch one of its back up navigation satellites this year as a replacement to IRNSS-1A satellite, whose three atomic clocks have failed, an official of the Indian space agency said on Monday. The official denied the existence of similar problems with the rubidium atomic clocks in another navigation satellite. "The atomic clocks have failed in only one satellite. We will be launching the stand-by satellite this year. More (Source: NDTV - Feb 1)
SPACEX GETS NEW LAUNCH ORDER, TARGETS MID-FEBRUARY FOR NEXT SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX has landed a new order from satellite operator Iridium Communications Inc. to launch five satellites. The Hawthorne space company already had a contract with Iridium for a total of seven launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, one of which took place earlier this month. This additional launch will be Iridium’s eighth with SpaceX. The five satellites are scheduled to launch in early 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, according to a statement Tuesday from Iridium. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - Feb 1)
WHY THE US AND RUSSIA SHOULD WORK TOGETHER TO CLEAN UP ORBITAL DEBRIS - Relations between the United States and Russia have been rough the last few years. Controversies range from US sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and Russian threats in response to suspend exports of RD-180 engines to the US, to accusations that Russia intervened in the US presidential election. Given this darkening picture, is there any way that the new U.S. Administration could possibly reverse the negative geopolitical trend lines? More (Source: The Space Review - Feb 1)
INTELSAT SATELLITE IN SERVICE AFTER OVERCOMING ENGINE TROUBLE - An Intelsat communications satellite launched last August entered service Sunday, about three months later than planned after a main engine problem forced engineers to position the craft in geostationary orbit using backup low-thrust rocket jets. The Intelsat 33e spacecraft ran into the engine glitch soon after its Aug. 24 launch from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, delaying its planned in-service date from around Nov. 1 to this month. Intelsat said Monday that the satellite began commercial operations Sunday after ground controllers finished testing of the platform’s communications payload. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 1)
WIND SATELLITE HEADS FOR FINAL TESTING - The road to realising ESA's Aeolus mission may have been long and bumpy, but developing novel space technology is, by its very nature, challenging. With the satellite now equipped with its revolutionary instrument, the path ahead is much smoother as it heads to France to begin the last round of tests before being shipped to the launch site at the end of the year. More (Source: Phys.Org - Feb 1)
STATION CARGO FLIGHT LEAPFROGS COMMERCIAL SATELLITE LAUNCH ON SPACEX MANIFEST - SpaceX said Sunday that the first Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A, a former shuttle-era complex at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is scheduled to send a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station in mid-February, deferring a mission with an EchoStar communications satellite that was set to take off this month. Ground crews have been readying the seaside launch pad for Falcon 9 flights around-the-clock in recent weeks, and a new rocket transporter was observed vertical at the pad the past several days. The launch targeted for mid-February will carry several tons of supplies and experiments to the space station, including a new instrument to study the ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere from a mounting position outside the orbiting research complex. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 31)
PRIVATE SPACE STATION COMING SOON? COMPANY AIMING FOR 2020 LAUNCH - Work is underway to establish the world’s first private, international commercial space station, a complex that would serve a global community of sovereign and private astronauts. The builders of the Axiom International Commercial Space Station aim to enlarge the landscape of low-Earth orbit, to create what they view as a “historic shift” in human spaceflight. Making a space outpost available to nations, organizations and individuals could help make living and working in Earth orbit commonplace and support the exploration of deep space, Axiom representatives said. More (Source: CBS News - Jan 31)
STATION CARGO FLIGHT LEAPFROGS COMMERCIAL SATELLITE LAUNCH ON SPACEX MANIFEST - SpaceX said Sunday that the first Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A, a former shuttle-era complex at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is scheduled to send a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station in mid-February, deferring a mission with an EchoStar communications satellite that was set to take off this month. Ground crews have been readying the seaside launch pad for Falcon 9 flights around-the-clock in recent weeks, and a new rocket transporter was observed vertical at the pad the past several days. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 30)
RUSSIA GROUNDS PROTON SPACE ROCKETS BECAUSE OF FAULTY ENGINES - Russia has grounded all Proton-M rockets for 3 1/2 months because of flaws in the engines, Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced. Last December, an unmanned Soyuz-U cargo ship carrying supplies for the International Space Station broke up in the atmosphere over Siberia about six minutes after it left the launchpad. Destroyed were 2.6 tons of food, fuel and other supplies. Some important components in the second and third stages of the rocket may have been switched out by workers during the construction process at a plant in Voronezh, which builds the Proton-M and Soyuz rocket engines, according to a report. More (Source: UPI - Jan 30)
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