ISRO TO LAUNCH RESOURCESAT-2A ON DEC 7 - Indian Space Research Organisation will launch Earth observation satellite Resourcesat-2A on board a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C36) on December 7. PSLV-C36 carrying the 1235kg Resourcesat-2A will lift off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, situated around 100km from Chennai, at 10.24am. It will be PSLV's 38th flight. Eighteen minutes later, the satellite will be placed in an 817km polar sun-synchronous orbit. Resourcesat-2A is a remote sensing satellite intended for resource monitoring. It is a follow-on mission to Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, which were launched in 2003 and 2012 respectively.    More
(Source: Times of India - Dec 5)

PICTURE THIS... CANON ELECTRONICS GETS SPACEY - Engineers from Canon Electronics, which is a unit of the Japanese imaging devices maker, have joined a team led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that is building what will be the world's smallest satellite launch vehicle, about the size of a utility pole—the company decided to assist Japan in manufacturing a low-cost "mini-rocket" for future satellite launches—a number of private companies in Japan are working to help build the nation's space industry to greater prominence. A JAXA SS-520 research rocket launch. The company's experience designing and manufacturing devices, such as digital cameras, should help the JAXA team select the best rocket parts as well as make key control instruments smaller and lighter.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Dec 4)

NEW SATELLITE PHOTOS WILL DETAIL YOUR WORLD VIEW - Your view of the world through Google Maps is about to get a little better as a new satellite starts beaming down imagery of our planet. DigitalGlobe, which supplies imagery to Google Maps and several other customers, has begun gathering data from the new WorldView-4 satellite the company launched on November 11. Its first public image, taken on November 26, is of Japan's Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo. Satellite imagery, once only affordable to military and intelligence agencies with huge budgets and a powerful desire to peer at world affairs, now has become a relatively routine part of industry.    More
(Source: CNET - Dec 3)

INCREDIBLE FOOTAGE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION REVEALS LIFE INSIDE PYONGYANG THAT IS SO CLE - EERIE video filmed from Earth’s orbit has provided a rare peek into secretive and paranoid North Korea – showing weirdly empty streets. Filmed using an Iris camera from the International Space Station (ISS), it lifts the lid from above on the peculiar capital city, Pyongyang. The video was released by UrtheCast. For a large city - apparently home to 3.2million - hardly anyone seems to be walking or driving about.   More
(Source: The Sun - Dec 3)

RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP FAILURE WON'T ENDANGER SPACE STATION CREW, NASA SAYS - The six astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be OK despite a Russian cargo ship's failure to make it to orbit Thursday (Dec. 1), NASA officials said. The uncrewed Progress 65 freighter fell back to Earth shortly after liftoff Thursday, apparently doomed by a problem with the third stage of its Soyuz rocket. The spacecraft and its 2.6 tons (2.36 metric tons) of food, equipment and other supplies burned up in the atmosphere over southern Russia, Russian space officials said. But there's no danger that crewmembers of the station's current Expedition 50 will go hungry or thirsty, according to NASA officials.   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 3)

TURKEY TO LAUNCH INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE GöKTüRK-1 SATELLITE NEXT WEEK - The Göktürk-1 satellite, which will provide target intelligence satellite imagery for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), will be launched at 4:51 p.m. on Dec. 5. The assembly and integration activities for the satellite, designed to meet the satellite imagery needs for the TSK with regards to target intelligence, are being carried out by the project's main contractor Telespazio (Italy) along with Thales Alenia Space (France) in their facilities located in Cannes. The satellite was subjected to environmental tests at Turkey's first Space Systems Integration and Testing Center (USET) located at the Turkish Aerospace Industries' (TAI) Akıncı Air Base and was later sent to the Kourou Launch Center in French Guiana in preparation for orbit.   More
(Source: Daily Sabah - Dec 2)

SPACEX COULD RETURN TO FLIGHT DEC. 16, SATELLITE LAUNCH CUSTOMER SAYS - SpaceX could return to flight in about two weeks, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval, after an explosion that destroyed one of its rockets, satellite launch customer Iridium Communications Inc. said Thursday. The tentative date comes three months after one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, destroying a commercial communications satellite that was to be managed by Israeli satellite operator Spacecom. The fiery failure caused delays in SpaceX’s launch schedule and led to criticism from some members of Congress of the company’s role in leading the investigation.   More
(Source: Los Angeles Times - Dec 2)

RUSSIA CONFIRMS ISS-BOUND PROGRESS SPACESHIP LOST AFTER LAUNCH - Russia’s space agency has confirmed that an unmanned cargo ship launched on Thursday to take supplies to the International Space Station has been lost. Roscosmos said on Twitter that the ship had been destroyed during its launch. It is said to have mainly burnt up in the atmosphere, 190 kilometres above Siberia. Earlier, the space agency said that data transmissions had been cut off nearly six and a half minutes after the launch.   More
(Source: Euronews - Dec 2)

WHAT CHINA’S LATEST X-RAY POSITIONING SATELLITE MEANS FOR DEEP-SPACE EXPLORATION - ONovember 10, aboard a Long March 11 rocket, China launched a suite of satellites into space. Among them was the innovative X-ray Pulsar Navigation 1 (XPNAV 1) satellite which is equipped with a world’s first instrument that offers X-ray-based navigation. Unlike classical satellites and spacecraft that rely on GPS-like features, the XPNAV 1 uses X-ray sources from space like those emitted by pulsars to triangulate its position. In other words, this tiny satellite is paving the way for a new class of spacecraft that will not only breach the final frontier but also find its way around it.   More
(Source: ZME Science - Dec 1)

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