CHINA PLANS TO LAUNCH A LIVE-IN SPACE LAB TOMORROW - In 2011, Congress ruled that China is not allowed on the International Space Station because of "national security" concerns. Undeterred, the People's Republic decided to build its own. Tiangong-1, which launched in 2011, was the first step in that direction. The unmanned prototype served as a practice for docking spacecraft, and played host to a short manned mission. Now China's ready for part 2: sending astronauts to live in space for the longer term.   More
(Source: Popular Science - Sep 15)

IDLED BY RANGE FACILITY REWORK FOR MONTHS, VANDENBERG READY TO LAUNCH AGAIN FRIDAY - Resuming space launches from the U.S. Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after a half-year infrastructure outage, an Atlas 5 rocket will boost a commercial Earth-imaging bird into orbit on Friday. Using the same United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 built and stacked on the pad for NASA’s now-delayed Mars InSight lander that was supposed to head for the Red Planet in March, the privately-owned and operated WorldView 4 spacecraft will ride the booster to a sun-synchronous polar orbit above Earth. Liftoff of the rocket, designated AV-062, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. local (2:30 p.m. EDT; 1830 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 3-East on South Base. The available launch window extends 14 minutes.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 15)

OFEK 11 SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO SPACE, EXPERIENCES TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES - Approximately two weeks following the failure of the Amos 6 satellite, which exploded on the ground in Cape Canaveral, Israel Aerospace industries and the Ministry of Defense successfully launched the Ofek 11 satellite into space on Tuesday from Palmachim Airbase near Rishon LeZion. However, it turned out later in the day that the satellite's systems may be malfunctioning. "There are indications according to which things aren't working as we expected, and so we are trying to stabilize (the satellite). There are things that make us worried. The satellite orbits the earth once every hour and a half. It's possible that some systems are not in the correct condition," officials told the press Tuesday.   More
(Source: Ynetnews - Sep 14)

WHY EXPLODING ROCKETS ARE NOT ALWAYS A BAD THING - Let's face it: Spaceflight is inherently risky, and getting off the ground is one of the most dangerous phases of any mission. A rocket launch is, by definition, one long, controlled explosion, with the energetic results of that explosion streaming out of the bottom-mounted engines and propelling the vehicle into space. It's when that controlled explosion, or its fuel source, becomes uncontrolled that things get shaky. On the morning of Sept. 1, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blew up on a launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, two days before its scheduled launch date. (Actually, according to a tweet from SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk, it was not an explosion but a "fast fire.")   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 14)

SELL THE SPACE STATION, EXPLORE MARS - What should NASA do with the International Space Station? Officially, it is slated to end its operational life in 2024, about the time that NASA’s Journey to Mars program is scheduled to shift into high gear with “proving ground” missions in cislunar space near the Earth’s moon. The assumption had been that the space station, conceived over 30 years ago during the Reagan administration, would be abandoned and taken out of orbit so that it would burn up harmlessly over the ocean. But NASA official Bill Hill recently suggested that the space agency and its international partners would hand off the ISS to a private company. Commercializing the space station makes sense. It’s bipartisan, for a start. President George W. Bush set into motion the commercialization of human space travel, President Obama has embraced the idea, and the transition is under way.    More
(Source: USA Today - Sep 14)

ISRO TO LAUNCH SATELLITE DESIGNED BY IIT-B STUDENTS IN SEPTEMBER FROM SRIHARIKOTA - A team of students from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) have designed a microsatellite Pratham which will be launched into space by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), at the end of this month, reported The Indian Express. The group of students involved in the project will visit Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh to test the satellite which will later be launched from there. The 10 kg satellite will be launched by Isro's four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in September.    More
(Source: Firstpost - Sep 13)

LUNAR-ORBITING HAM RADIO SATELLITE COULD RESULT FROM NASA CUBE QUEST CHALLENGE - A NASA Cube Quest Challenge (CQC) team partnered with AMSAT-NA is among the five CQC teams to receive $20,000 each from the space agency as part of a competition that could lead to a lunar-orbiting Amateur Radio satellite. The Ragnarok Industries Nano-Satellite Company team, comprised of former NASA Goddard Space Flight Center PhD engineering interns, is designing the 6-unit (6U) Heimdallr CubeSat to test advanced propulsion and communication technologies for lunar and deep-space missions. AMSAT would develop the 5 GHz uplink/10 GHz downlink — the so-called “five and dime” paradigm — Phase 5 Amateur Radio transponder for the spacecraft, and AMSAT’s Ground Terminal initiative is supporting the effort. The five teams announced on September 9 scored highest in the first of four “ground tournaments” making up the initial phase of the $5 million CQC.    More
(Source: ARRL - Sep 13)

JEFF BEZOS UNVEILS DETAILS OF NEW BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET - Jeff Bezos, whose company Blue Origin is quietly developing a wide range of commercial launch vehicles, unveiled details of a new heavy-lift rocket Monday, a towering booster named after astronaut John Glenn that the Amazon founder says will be able to deliver crews and cargoes to low-Earth orbit and beyond. A two-stage version of the New Glenn booster will stand 270 feet tall, have a diameter of 23 feet and will generate 3.85 million pounds of thrust at liftoff using seven company-developed BE-4 engines burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. The second stage will be powered by a single BE-4 optimized for use in vacuum. A three-stage variant will stand 313 feet tall, using a single BE-4 for the second stage and a single hydrogen-powered BE-3 engine in its third stage.   More
(Source: CBS News - Sep 13)

NASA’S SOLAR SATELLITE JUST FILMED A RARE 'DOUBLE ECLIPSE' - Astronomers working with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft have witnessed an unusal 'double eclipse', where both Earth and the Moon cross in front of the Sun at the same time. While Earth blocks SDO’s view of the Sun once a day during its semi-annual 'eclipse season', witnessing a double eclipse is remarkably rare, and the good news is that NASA has the pictures to prove it. "In the SDO data, you can tell Earth and the Moon’s shadows apart by their edges: Earth’s is fuzzy, while the Moon’s is sharp and distinct," the team explains. "This is because Earth’s atmosphere absorbs some of the Sun’s light, creating an ill-defined edge. On the other hand, the Moon has no atmosphere, producing a crisp horizon."   More
(Source: ScienceAlert - Sep 11)

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