PHOTOBOMB! SATELLITE CATCHES MOON CROSSING EARTH'S FACE - The moon has photobombed Earth again. For the second time in a year, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has captured a stunning time-lapse video of the moon crossing the sunlit face of Earth. "For the second time in the life of DSCOVR, the moon moved between the spacecraft and Earth," DSCOVR project scientist Adam Szabo, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. "The project recorded this event on July 5 with the same cadence and spatial resolution as the first 'lunar photobomb' last year."   More
(Source: CBS News - Jul 14)

CHINESE SATELLITE FREE-WHEELING THROUGH SPACE COULD FALL BACK TO EARTH ANY MINUTE - China’s first space station may be orbiting Earth out of control with potentially lethal consequences, space experts have warned. The Tiangong-1 satellite is reported to have lost radio connection with China’s space authorities in March this year leaving them with no control over its descent. Now it is feared the free-wheeling satellite is in a deteriorating orbit and will eventually fall back to Earth. Satellite tracker Thomas Dorman, who has been monitoring the progress of the spacecraft, told Space.com: “If I am right, China will wait until the last minute to let the world know it has a problem with their space station.   More
(Source: iNews - Jul 11)

MYSTERY PAYLOAD FOR SPY SATELLITE AGENCY LAUNCHING ABOARD NEXT ATLAS 5 - United Launch Alliance is preparing an Atlas 5 rocket to boost an undercover satellite into orbit for national security later this month. Details are scarce and informed speculation is nonexistent in the lead up to launching the clandestine NROL-61 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff is scheduled for July 28 during a four-hour unclassified launch period of 8 a.m. to 12 noon EDT (1200-1600 GMT). Stacking of the rocket began Friday, July 8. Satellite-deployments for the NRO are a mainstay in the U.S. launch industry as the agency sends up fresh replacements for its constellations of imaging, eavesdropping, surveillance and data-relay spacecraft.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 10)

SOYUZ DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying astronauts from Russia, Japan and the United States has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after a two-day voyage. The expedition is slated to last 115 days. NASA and Russian space agency authorities said the docking took place smoothly at 0406 UTC Saturday at a height of 412 kilometers (254 miles) above the Earth. The international crew was to enter the space laboratory after the lengthy procedure to open the hatches connecting the orbital space station and the capsule.   More
(Source: Deutsche Welle - Jul 9)

ESA TO CAPTURE LARGE DERELICT SATELLITE - The European Space Agency is moving forward with plans to capture and remove a large piece of space debris, in a mission called e.Deorbit, by 2023. European space ministers at the ESA’s Ministerial Council gave the mission an initial go-ahead in December, and ESA released this video with an article about the e.Deorbit’s mission on July 8, 2016 The mission – which is part of ESA’s Clean Space initiative – hopes to capture an ESA-owned derelict satellite in low orbit in 2023, then move it to where it can safely burn it up in a controlled reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.   More
(Source: EarthSky - Jul 9)

NAVY’S NEW MUOS 5 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE EXPERIENCES SNAG IN SPACE - Trouble has befallen the U.S. Navy’s new communications satellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral two weeks ago, suspending orbit raising maneuvers and leaving the craft half-way between its rocket deployment orbit and a circular geosynchronous orbit. The $340 million Mobile User Objective System satellite No. 5, the last in the planned spacecraft series and the in-orbit spare for Navy’s constellation, was successfully lofted into space June 24 by the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. MUOS 5 is designed to provide Ultra High Frequency communications to the U.S. military for the next 15 years over an area that extends from Africa to the Middle East to Asia.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 8)

SATELLITE EYE ON EARTH: JUNE 2016 – IN PICTURES - The impact of India’s drought, a remote volcanic eruption and an oasis in the Sahara and were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month. Stagnant lakes stretch east-west across the upper reaches of the Volga river delta in southern Russia. The lakes are trapped by sandy mounds, left behind after the Caspian Sea’s level rose then fell in the wake of the last ice age.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Jul 8)

ONE YEAR AFTER KICKOFF, ONEWEB SAYS ITS 700-SATELLITE CONSTELLATION IS ON SCHEDULE - Satellite Internet startup OneWeb Satellites has completed the preliminary design review for its 700-satellite constellation and expects to have its entire satellite subcontractor team committed by by early August, Chief Operating Officer Eric de Saintignon said June 30. The next step, he said, is a design-to-manufacture period to be followed by production of the first 10 pilot satellites, to be built at Airbus Defence and Space’s production facility here.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 7)

DOOMED JAPANESE SATELLITE GLIMPSED GALACTIC WIND BEFORE IT DIED - It’s a taste of what might have been. In March, a software glitch caused the Japanese X-ray satellite Hitomi to spin itself to pieces just a month and a half after launch. Efforts to rescue it have since been abandoned. But before it died, the probe mapped of one of the largest weather systems in the universe, the flowing plasma of a massive clump of galaxies known as the Perseus cluster. We have long known that superheated plasma fills the spaces between galaxies in a cluster. This swirling material outweighs stars and other normal matter – that is, not dark matter made from exotic, unknown particles – by a factor of about five, making it a key part of the universe. But it is difficult to detect except in the X-ray wavelengths Hitomi was sensitive to, where it gives off a faint glow.   More
(Source: New Scientist - Jul 7)

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