FLOCK OF ‘MICROSATS’ LAUNCHED TO MEASURE WINDS INSIDE HURRICANES - A winged Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet off the east coast of Florida and fired into orbit Thursday with eight research satellites to fly around the tropics and return measurements of winds at the cores of hurricanes. The wind data should help scientists better understand the formation, growth and dissipation of tropical cyclones, and lessons from the $157 million Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System may improve hurricane forecasting, particularly the strength of storms at landfall.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 16)

OUR FUTURE IS IN RUINS: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SPACE, SATELLITES AND ORBITAL JUNK - Next year will mark six decades of space travel. Orbiting above us are more than one hundred million pieces of debris from this age of exploration - everything from specks of paint and flecks of plastic, to the tool bag dropped by a US astronaut in 2008, to the bus-sized European observation satellite that unexpectedly fell silent four years ago. Twelve years ago, Australian archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman began thinking about the historical value of what is commonly called 'space junk'. Space junk makes space more hazardous.    More
(Source: ABC Online - Dec 15)

PEGASUS LAUNCH OF NASA SATELLITES SET FOR THURSDAY - The weather forecast is much better than it was Monday, with an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions. A planned launch attempt on Wednesday was postponed after the spacecraft team uncovered a software issue during testing on Tuesday. Updated "flight data parameters" have been loaded into the microsatellites. The testing on Tuesday followed a scrubbed launch try on Monday due to a problem with the hydraulic system that releases the Pegasus from the L-1011 aircraft. That scrub may have been fortuitous, allowing time to spot the software problem before the microsatellites were put in space.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Dec 15)

DEAR PRESIDENT TRUMP: HERE’S HOW TO MAKE SPACE GREAT AGAIN - President-elect Donald Trump often says that Americans no longer dream and must do so again. Nowhere can dreams be more inspiring and profitable than in space. But today, expanding space enterprise is not foremost on the minds of Americans or military strategists. As a recent CNN special showed, defense thinkers feel embattled in space, focused on protecting our existing investments rather than developing new ones that seize strategic advantage. The first step to make space great again is for the United States to offer a constructive vision that can satisfy many American space needs, including defense.   More
(Source: WIRED - Dec 15)

CHINA TO LAUNCH FIRST SATELLITE MONITORING GLOBAL EMISSIONS - A satellite that can monitor global carbon levels will be launched this month by China. The orbiting carbon observatory satellite is not only one of the best satellites of its kind, but is also the first for China. The satellite works through highly accurate detectors of cloud, aerosol and carbon monoxide, explained an employee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.   More
(Source: China.org.cn - Dec 14)

SPACEX HAS DELAYED FIRST MANNED NASA LAUNCH TO 2018 FROM 2017 - Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has decided to delay to 2018 from 2017 the first manned launch of its Dragon capsule intended to carry U.S. astronauts into orbit. The company privately reported the slippage to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration earlier this year and confirmed it on Monday. The nearly one-year delay, to the second quarter of 2018 from the spring of 2017, comes in the midst of top-priority efforts to develop new launchpad fueling procedures affecting the company’s entire fleet of Falcon 9 rockets. A company spokesman initially described it as a slip of several months, but a NASA document indicates the initial manned mission had been targeted for April 2017.    More
(Source: Wall Street Journal - Dec 14)

JAPANESE SPACESHIP MAKES CHRISTMAS DELIVERY AT SPACE STATION - It may not be a sleigh driven by a jolly old elf, but a Japanese cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station today (Dec. 13) to make a Christmas delivery to the outpost's six-person crew. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's robotic H-II Transfer Vehicle 6, or HTV-6, was captured by station astronauts using a robotic arm at 5:37 a.m. EST (1037 GMT). A few hours later, the cargo ship and its nearly 5 tons of supplies were attached to a berthing spot for unloading later. It is JAXA's sixth unmanned cargo delivery to the station using its HTV Kounotori vehicles (the name means "white stork").   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 14)

TECHNICAL GLITCH POSTPONES NASA SATELLITE LAUNCH - A technical problem on Monday delayed the planned launch for at least 24 hours of a series of NASA satellites designed to study hurricanes, the US space agency said. Orbital ATK's Stargazer L-1011 airplane took off as planned from Cape Canaveral with a rocket attached to its underside, but the in-air launch was foiled by a problem with the hydraulic system that appeared after takeoff. "The hydraulic system in question was not for the L-1011 aircraft itself, but for the system that allows the Pegasus XL rocket to release from the aircraft," NASA said in a statement.    More
(Source: Phys.Org - Dec 13)

SIXTH JAPANESE SPACESHIP ARRIVES TUESDAY MORNING - The six crew members aboard the International Space Station are getting ready for the arrival of new resupply ship early Tuesday. The crew is also exploring human research and physics and cleaning spacesuits. Japan’s sixth cargo craft, the Kounotori HTV-6, has been orbiting Earth and chasing the International Space Station for three days after its launch from the Tanegashima Space Center last week. It will arrive Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. EST for a robotic capture and installation to the Harmony module. NASA TV will cover the events live beginning Tuesday at 4:30 a.m. Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet will be in the cupola Tuesday morning commanding the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple the HTV-6 while monitoring its approach.   More
(Source: NASA - Dec 13)

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