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)

NASA WILL ALLOW PRIVATE COMPANIES TO HOOK UP MODULES TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Private space companies may soon get the opportunity to add their own habitat modules to the outside of the International Space Station. That’s according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who announced the new initiative today as a way to help expand the number of companies and people that can do work and research in space. That can eventually help companies gain the experience and capability to create private space stations of their own. "A vibrant user community will be key to ensuring the economic viability of future space stations," wrote Bolden in a White House blog post. The announcement of this new opportunity comes just a few months after NASA asked private companies for ideas of how they might use one of the docking ports on the ISS. Based on the responses NASA received, Bolden said companies had a "strong desire" to attach commercial modules to the station that could benefit both NASA and the private sector.    More
(Source: The Verge - Oct 12)

CHINA TO LAUNCH WORLD'S FIRST PULSAR NAVIGATION SYSTEM SATELLITE IN NOVEMBER - China plans to launch the world's first X-ray pulsar navigation satellite, XPNAV-1, in November, local media reported Monday. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) will base the new space navigation system on signals from 26 X-ray pulsars to be received and analyzed by the satellite, the project's lead scientist, Shuai Ping, said as quoted by the Xinhua news agency. The system, which will rely on a pulsar signal database and is set to exceed current ground-based space navigation systems in timing and accuracy, will take between five to 10 years to set up, Shuai said.    More
(Source: Sputnik International - Oct 11)

LAUNCHING SOCIAL MEDIA IN SPACE: RUSSIAN COSMIC ROBOT SPOTTY TO JOIN ISS TEAM - Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, and the VK social network will send a cute robot named Spotty into space to join the ISS team in 2017. The robot will allow social media users to communicate with cosmonauts and send photos and videos from space. Spotty was introduced at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow on Monday “With its help, social network users will be able to communicate with cosmonauts and receive photos and videos from ISS and space. A projector which has been inserted into it will be able to broadcast content on the station received from VK users,” Roscosmos said in a statement.   More
(Source: RT - Oct 11)

ORBITAL ATK RESCHEDULES NEXT CARGO MISSION TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Dulles-based Orbital ATK Inc. (NYSE: OA) announced Monday that its next cargo mission to the International Space Station is set for Oct. 14 at 8:51 p.m. EDT. On Oct. 12, the company plans to roll out its Antares rocket to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island. The launch was originally scheduled for Oct. 13 at 9:13 p.m. EDT, but teams on the ground "encountered and resolved a minor vehicle processing issue over the weekend which, together with time spent on contingency planning for Hurricane Matthew, necessitated the one-day slip," the company said in a news release. This launch will be significant because it will be the first time the company will be using its own rockets since an ill-fated October 2014 flight when its Antares rocket exploded six seconds after lift-off.   More
(Source: Washington Business Journal - Oct 11)

'STAR TREK BEYOND' BEAMS UP TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Talk about "Beam me up!" The latest entry in the "Star Trek" science fiction franchise — "Star Trek Beyond" — has been "beamed up" to the International Space Station for real-life space explorers to enjoy as they live and work in the final frontier. Representives with Paramount announced on Oct. 4 that "Star Trek Beyond" was sent to the space station crew. The timing coincided with World Space Week and the 59th anniversary of the first orbital launch of Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957. "The International Space Station serves as the world's leading laboratory for conducting cutting-edge microgravity research, and is the primary platform for technology development and testing in space to enable human and robotic exploration...   More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 11)

Previous Next