HOW TO WATCH SUNDAY'S ANTARES ROCKET LAUNCH IN THE NIGHT SKY - Cygnus, NASA’s cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station, will finally be lifting off on an Antares rocket on Sunday evening, and if you live anywhere on the northeastern coast of the U.S., you should be able to see it blaze its way into space. Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket is set to launch at 8:03 p.m. ET from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast, provided that Hurricane Nicole doesn’t interfere any more. You don’t have to be in Virginia for a decent view, though. The skies are expected to be clear, so if you’re on the East Coast between South Carolina and New Hampshire, you can see the rocket’s launch.   More
(Source: Inverse - Oct 16)

HEAVENLY VESSEL: CHINA’S SHENZHOU-11 READY FOR LIFTOFF - At approximately 07:50 Beijing time Sunday, China’s Shenzhou-11 spacecraft will liftoff from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. A Long March 2F rocket will send the vessel and its two astronauts into orbit where it will dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab, launched last month. This will be the sixth manned mission for China’s rapidly expanding space program. If all goes according to plan, the 30 day stay aboard the Tiangong-2 will more than double the national record for longest time in space for its astronauts. While the previous two Shenzhou missions in 2012 and 2013 carried three astronauts, the crew size for this mission was reduced to extend duration upon the Tiangong-2. The identities of the two astronauts will most likely be revealed just before launch.   More
(Source: CCTV-America - Oct 16)

METEOR SIGHTING WAS LIKELY SPACE STATION TRASH, SAYS MUN INSTRUCTOR - Stargazers in eastern Newfoundland got a treat Thursday night: clear skies, the faint glow of the Aurora Borealis, and what one instructor suspects was a load of space garbage. The American Meteor Society recorded four reports of a suspected "fireball" — a bright meteor — in the sky at around 7 p.m. The object was spotted over Gander, Holyrood, St. John's and Conception Bay South. Callers to CBC Newfoundland and Labrador also reported they say a bright meteor-like object in the sky — but Chris Stevenson, an Astronomy instructor at Memorial University, said the object was most likely a trash capsule from the International Space Station.   More
(Source: CBC.ca - Oct 15)

'ASGARDIA,' THE FIRST NATION IN SPACE, WANTS YOU! - Plans to create the first "nation in space" were unveiled in Paris on Wednesday. They are nothing if not ambitious. The new nation will launch its own satellite in 2017 and dedicate itself to opening up access to space. The goal is to foster world peace, as well as protect earth from rogue asteroids and space debris. The new space country will be called "Asgardia," named for the city in the skies ruled by Norse god Odin. We aren't talking about an actual orbiting city or space station where humans will live.   More
(Source: CNET - Oct 14)

CHINA TO DOMINATE SPACE WITHIN 10 YEARS AS IT BECOMES ONLY NATION WITH PERMANENT ORBITAL OUTPOST - A top military official has claimed the People’s Republic will be the only nation with a permanent base in space by 2024, when the America-backed International Space Station will reach the end of its life. Lei Fanpei, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, told Xinhua that his country “plans to launch the experimental core module of its space station around 2018 with a Long March 5 heavyload carrier rocket, and the 20 ton combination space station will be sent into orbit around 2022”. This could leave “China’s space station may be the only one left in service”, the news service reported.   More
(Source: The Sun - Oct 14)

TO THE MOON, VIA THE SPACE STATION? A Q&A WITH ORBITAL ATK - It's been two years since the spaceflight company Orbital ATK lost one of its Antares rockets in a jaw-dropping accident on the Virginia coast. On that day, a liquid oxygen turbopump feeding one of the rocket's Soviet-built AJ-26 engines exploded, sending the rocket plunging back to the launch pad seconds after liftoff. The cargo, an International Space Station-bound spacecraft named Cygnus, was destroyed in the ensuing fireball. Orbital decided to swap the AJ-26 for a modern Russian engine, the RD-181. While the company was making the switch, it outsourced two Cygnus flights to United Launch Alliance. All that's now ancient history—at least, that's what Orbital and NASA hope.   More
(Source: The Planetary Society - Oct 14)

NEW SATELLITES WITH AMATEUR RADIO PAYLOADS LAUNCHED, MONITORED - The AlSat-1N and Pratham satellites, both carrying Amateur Radio payloads, have both been heard and identified following the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) PSLV-C35 mission launch on September 26. Reports are requested.Reports on AMSAT-BB indicate the Pratham CW beacon on 145.980 MHz is active. The 3U AlSat-1N CubeSat was built in collaboration with the Algerian Space Agency, the UK Space Agency (UKSA), Surrey Space Centre (SSC) staff, and Algerian students as a technology transfer and demonstrator for Algeria. AlSat-1N is also hosting three UK payloads from various institutions and aims to take images of the Earth and send back data from the UK payloads. The IARU coordinated downlink is 437.650 MHz (9,6 FSK). Downlinked data reports are welcome, both decoded hex files and recordings.   More
(Source: ARRL - Oct 14)

HURRICANE NICOLE PROMPTS ANTARES LAUNCH DELAY TO SUNDAY - The threat from Hurricane Nicole churning toward a tracking station in Bermuda will keep Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket from launching on a space station cargo run until at least Sunday, officials said Tuesday. The Antares launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, will carry more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments inside a commercial Cygnus supply ship in pursuit of the International Space Station. The logistics flight was previously set to blast off Friday, after an earlier delay partially prompted by emergency preparations for Hurricane Matthew at the launch site, along with an issue encountered during final flight preparations.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 13)

ORBITAL, AIRBUS TEAM TO BUILD EUTELSAT SATELLITE TO LAUNCH WITH ORBITAL SATELLITE-SERVICING MISSION - Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat on Oct. 11 said it had inaugurated its design-to-cost spending-reduction plan by ordering a direct-broadcast television satellite from Orbital ATK of the United States and Airbus Defence and Space of Europe. In another cost-reduction measure, the satellite, Eutelsat 5 West B — benefiting from Orbital’s smaller platform size — will be launched in 2018 as a co-passenger aboard an International Launch Services Proton Breeze-M rocket. Riding to geostationary transfer orbit with the Eutelsat satellite will be Orbital’s precedent-setting satellite in-orbit serving Mission Extension Vehicle, MEV-1, which uses the same GEOStar-based platform as Orbital’s telecommunications satellites.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 12)

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