ATLAS V LAUNCH OF A MISSILE WARNING SATELLITE DELAYED UNTIL FRIDAY - The number of ballistic missiles increased by more than 1,200 over the past five years, according to the Missile Defense Agency, and more than 5,900 are based outside the United States, North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations, Russia and China. United Launch Alliance’s 194-foot Atlas V rocket rolled to its Launch Complex 41 pad Wednesday morning with the third satellite in the Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS. The system is modernizing and replacing the legacy Defense Support Program, which began launching in 1970.   More
(Source: USA Today - Jan 20)

SINGAPORE'S FIRST ISS SATELLITE CAN STAY IN ORBIT FOR TWICE AS LONG AS USUAL - Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has successfully launched a satellite from the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time. The Aoba-Velox III was delivered to ISS by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a resupply rocket from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima Space Centre. It's a nanosatellite that deserves special attention for its new thruster technology. These new micro-thrusters allow the satellite to remain in for space twice as long as other similar satellites, according to the university.   More
(Source: CNET - Jan 20)

GEOSCIENTIST-RICH CREW SLATED FOR SPACE STATION NEXT YEAR - In spring 2018, an extraordinary crew for the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to assemble far above our planet, according to a NASA announcement earlier this month. The crew will include two geophysicists, which will make the group exceptional, said Drew Feustel, a seasoned astronaut with a Ph.D. in geological sciences who will serve as a flight engineer for the station’s Expedition 55 and commander for its Expedition 56. Two geophysicists on one space station crew is hardly the norm. “I believe this will be the first time in history that two geophysicists will be in space together,” Feustel told Eos.   More
(Source: Eos - Jan 20)

TELKOM TO LAUNCH US$199.7M SATELLITE IN FEBRUARY - After a delay last year, the country’s largest telecommunication firm, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), plans to launch a new satellite worth US$199.7 million in February. Called Telkom-3S, the new satellite will be launched from French Guiana in the northern mainland of South America, Telkom chief technology officer Abdus Somad Arief said. "This satellite will be our third and it will support our voice and data services," he said during the 2017 Internet Retailing Expo Jakarta on Wednesday.   More
(Source: Jakarta Post - Jan 19)

NEXT SBIRS MISSILE DETECTION SATELLITE SET FOR LAUNCH - United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to send the third Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO-3) into space for the U.S. military. The $1.2 billion satellite will be part of a system designed to spot missiles threatening the United States or its allies. image: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/718-470x655.jpeg SBIRS GEO-3 encapsulation SBIRS GEO-3 being encapsulated prior to launch. Photo Credit: Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft will ride to space atop an Atlas V 401 rocket, the most basic version of ULA’s workhorse rocket, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. Liftoff will be during a 40-minute window that opens at 7:46 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2017 (00:46 GMT on Jan. 20, 2017). The 45th Weather Squadron at the Cape is predicting an 80 percent chance of acceptable launch conditions with the only concern being cumulus clouds.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Jan 19)

SPACE-WEATHER FORECAST TO IMPROVE WITH EUROPEAN SATELLITE - Excitement is building over European plans to launch a new space-weather satellite that would drastically improve forecasts of how solar storms will affect Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to send the probe to a gravitationally stable point in space known as Lagrange point 5 (L5) by around 2023, where it would provide a unique, side-on view of streams of charged particles heading towards Earth. The strongest of such eruptions, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), can knock out navigation and communications satellites, interfere with aeroplane navigation systems and disrupt power grids.   More
(Source: Nature.com - Jan 19)

NASA LOOKS INTO BUYING MORE RUSSIAN SOYUZ TRIPS TO ORBIT … THROUGH BOEING - NASA is considering a convoluted arrangement to reserve five more seats on Russian Soyuz capsules heading to and from the International Space Station, with the Boeing Co. as the middleman. The plan to reserve more trips to orbit would give NASA additional breathing room as it waits for Boeing and SpaceX to complete the development of their commercial space taxis. The first crewed test flights of those space taxis aren’t scheduled to occur until 2018. And in a procurement notice issued today, NASA acknowledged that they are “not expected to begin fully operational flights to the ISS until 2019.”   More
(Source: Yahoo News - Jan 19)

RADFXSAT (FOX-1B) LAUNCH MOVED TO LATE AUGUST - AMSAT reports that the launch date for RadFxSat (Fox-1B) has been moved to August 29, 2017. RadFxSat is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA ELaNa XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the Joint Polar Satellite System JPSS-1 mission. RadFxSat features the Fox-1 style Amateur Radio FM U/V repeater, with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on 145.960 MHz. Satellite and experiment telemetry will be downlinked via the “DUV” subaudible telemetry stream and can be decoded with the FoxTelem software.   More
(Source: ARRL - Jan 18)

EUGENE CERNAN, LAST MAN ON THE MOON, DIES - Eugene A. Cernan, the last astronaut to leave his footprints on the surface of the moon, has died, NASA said Monday. He was 82. "We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon," the US space agency said on Twitter. Cernan was one of fourteen astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. He served as as spacecraft commander of Apollo 17, the last scheduled manned mission to the moon for the United States.    More
(Source: CNN - Jan 16)

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