A TERRIFYING ALIEN COMES TO 'LIFE' ON THE SPACE STATION...WATCH THE TRAILER! - In the upcoming science-fiction thriller "Life," one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time turns into a catastrophic nightmare that leaves astronauts in the International Space Station fighting for their lives. In the film, six astronauts aboard the space station study a sample collected from Mars that could provide evidence for extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet. The crew determines that the sample contains a large, single-celled organism — the first example of life beyond Earth.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 4)

SSL DELIVERS SKY PERFECT JSAT SATELLITE TO KOUROU - Space Systems Loral (SSL), a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems, has announced that the JCSAT-15 satellite, which it designed and built for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT), has arrived at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be launched aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle by Arianespace. The satellite, which is currently being prepared for launch, will be used to provide broadcasting and communications services in Japan, Oceania, and the Indian Ocean Region.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Nov 3)

CHINA TO DEBUT POWERFUL NEXT-GENERATION LONG MARCH 5 LAUNCHER THURSDAY - China plans to introduce its new next-generation heavy-lift Long March 5 booster on Thursday, Nov. 3. It is expected to be a workhorse for the country’s space program. The launcher’s maiden flight will be carried out from Launch Complex 1 (LC-1) at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. Long March 5 is China’s most powerful launch vehicle with comparable capabilities to Arianespace’s Ariane 5 and United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Delta IV Heavy boosters. The rocket will be used for a wide spectrum of space missions, including launching commercial satellites, space station modules, as well as deep space probes.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider‎ - Nov 3)

JAPANESE WEATHER OBSERVATORY SUCCESSFULLY BOOSTED INTO ORBIT - A nearly four-ton satellite fitted with a modernized camera to collect more timely images of typhoons and severe weather bolted away from a seaside launch pad in southern Japan on Wednesday, riding an H-2A rocket on the way to an orbital perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth. The Himawari 9 satellite, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and owned by the Japan Meteorological Agency, will cover the Japanese islands and a swath of the Asia-Pacific stretching from India in the west, to Australia in the south, and to Hawaii in the east. Meteorologists in Japan, Australia and other nations across the region will rely on Himawari 9 and the sister satellite Himawari 8 launched two years ago for weather imagery through at least the late 2020s.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 3)

H-2A ROCKET ROLLS TO LAUNCH PAD WITH JAPANESE WEATHER SATELLITE - A sophisticated new Japanese weather satellite will ride an H-2A rocket into orbit Wednesday to start a 15-year mission tracking cyclones and helping meteorologists predict storm movements across the Asia-Pacific and Australia. The Himawari 9 weather observatory is set to begin its trek to geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Center, a spaceport nestled on the southern flank of Tanegashima Island in southern Japan. Himawari 9 is the second of two identical weather satellites owned by the Japan Meteorological Agency to offer more detailed and more timely imagery of storms, clouds and other weather systems to forecasters in Japan and across the Western Pacific.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 2)

HAMS IN SPACE PART 2: THE MANNED SPACEFLIGHTS - Whether it’s trying to make contacts across the planet with a transmitter that would have a hard time lighting an LED, or blasting signals into space and bouncing them off the moon, amateur radio operators have always been on the forefront of communications technology. As mankind took to space in the 1950s and 1960s, hams went along for the ride with the first private satellites. But as successful as the OSCAR satellites were, they were still at best only beacons or repeaters in space.    More
(Source: Hackaday - Nov 2)

NASA RELEASES ENTHRALLING 4K FLY-THROUGH OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA has uploaded an Ultra High Definition (4K) video of the International Space Station (ISS) shot with a fisheye lens on YouTube. The video was produced by Harmonic, a video infrastructure provider, for NASA TV. The video explores the various modules that make up the ISS, but is not a single take continuous shot. Equipment and containers are attached to the surfaces in all directions, which shows how claustrophobic the interiors of a space station can get. The video starts and ends at the Cupola, an observation deck with seven windows which offers a spellbinding view of the Earth. The tour then takes viewers through the Unity module, a passive connecting block to which the other modules are attached.    More
(Source: Firstpost - Nov 2)

SWARM REVEALS WHY GPS SATELLITES LOSE TRACK OVER THE EQUATOR BETWEEN AFRICA AND SOUTH AMERICA - Satellite engineers have been puzzling over why GPS navigation systems on low-orbiting satellites like ESA's Swarm sometimes black out when they fly over the equator between Africa and South America. Thanks to Swarm, it appears 'thunderstorms' in the ionosphere are to blame. Launched in 2013, the Swarm trio is measuring and untangling the different magnetic fields that stem from Earth's core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere – an undertaking of at least four years. As with many satellites, ESA's three Swarm satellites carry GPS receivers as part of their positioning system so that operators keep them in the correct orbits. In addition, GPS pinpoints where the satellites are making their scientific measurements.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Nov 1)

THESE NASA PHOTOS OF A SPACE STATION CREW LANDING ARE SIMPLY GORGEOUS - When the Expedition 49 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) came to an end over the weekend, three space travelers returned to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft while a NASA photographer capturing their arrival from the air in some spectacular photos. The crew, consisting of Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, floated back to Earth in the Soyuz MS-01 space capsule, landing in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 9:58 a.m. local time on Sunday, Oct. 30 (11:58 p.m. EDT Oct. 29). NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured gorgeous images of the space capsule's descent, including one breathtaking photo showing the Soyuz passing through serene rays of sunlight beneath a serene cloud layer.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 1)

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