FIRST TWO IRIDIUM NEXT SATELLITES SHIPPED TO VANDENBERG - The first two next-generation Iridium satellites, designed to connect global subscribers with data and voice traffic, arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday, where they will join eight more message relay craft for launch in September on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This week’s shipment via truck from an Orbital ATK satellite manufacturing plant near Phoenix to Vandenberg on California’s Central Coast will be followed by the arrival of eight more spacecraft at the launch site. Like the first two craft, subsequent satellites will be transported two-and-a-time inside self-stabilizing, climate-controlled containers on a truck to SpaceX’s clean room... More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 5)
THE MILITARY'S NEW COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE HAS MALFUNCTIONED - In late June, the military launched communications satellite MUOS-5 with the goal of creating a secure communications grid over Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. MUOS-5 will work with the four other MUOS satellites that have already been launched. At least, it would if it made it to the correct orbit. Unfortunately, it seems something has malfunctioned on the satellite, and it's no longer able to reach the orbital height it was supposed to. Currently, the satellite is stuck in a lower, intermediate, highly elliptical orbit. More (Source: Popular Mechanics - Aug 4)
WORRIED ABOUT SPACE WEATHER? NEW SATELLITE PROVIDES WARNINGS - A distant satellite called DSCVR is now sending information about potentially damaging space weather back to Earth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) announced last week. Ejections from the sun cause the aurora borealis we see on Earth, but it can also disrupt services like GPS, power grids, and telecommunications. The DSCVR satellite is a million miles from Earth— and 92 million from the Sun— and stays in between the two bodies, measuring the weather from the Sun headed towards Earth More (Source: Fox News - Aug 4)
DONALD TRUMP WANTS YOU TO TAKE A HARD LOOK AT AMERICA'S SPACE PROGRAM - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump runs a little hot and cold on the U.S. space program. During his Reddit AMA last week, Trump extolled the virtues of NASA, saying that he thinks the space agency is "wonderful" and that "America has always led the world in space exploration." On Wednesday, however, Trump sang a different tune. "Look at your space program. Look at what’s going on there," Trump said at a town hall event in Daytona Beach, Florida. More (Source: Mashable - Aug 4)
GIANT WILDFIRE IN CALIFORNIA SEEN FROM SPACE BY NASA SATELLITE - The Soberanes fire, currently burning near Monterey, California, was imaged by a NASA satellite on Sunday afternoon, as the blaze continued to swallow up tens of thousands of acres of land. The fire, which has been burning for a little more than three weeks, had destroyed over 33,000 acres on Saturday (July 30), according to the Los Angeles Times. But in just a few days, the engulfed area has expanded to include 43,400 acres (67.8 square miles or 175.6 square kilometers) according to the state wildfire management agency, Cal Fire. The image of the fire, trailing white smoke out over the Pacific Ocean, was captured with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite at 4:35 p.m. EDT (20:35 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Aug 3)
NAVY LOOKS FOR PLAN B TO SALVAGE ITS NEWEST COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - The U.S. Navy has declared the primary orbit-raising system aboard its new MUOS No. 5 communications satellite failed, leaving controllers scrambling to design a rescue plan. The final Mobile User Objective System satellite was launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit on June 24 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft was supposed to perform 7 burns of its main engine to raise and circularize the orbit to geosynchronous altitude 22,300 miles over the equator in view of Hawaii. After completing an unspecified number of maneuvers, an “anomaly” struck June 29 that has rendered the main propulsion system failed. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 3)
CHINESE RESEARCHERS PLAN SPACE TRAVEL AT LOWER COST FOR COMMON PEOPLE - Chinese scientists are researching a new type of aerospace vehicle that will take even those who have never had training to space in about 10 years' time at a much lower cost compared to the current price. China Central Television (CCTV) reported Monday that scientists from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation have started work on a new vehicle integrating different kinds of engine technologies. The vehicle will integrate air-breathing engines, such as turbine and ramjet engines, and rocket engine, which would allow it to operate as a normal plane in the atmosphere and as a rocket in space. More (Source: Jakarta Post - Aug 3)
RUSSIA TESTS SUCCESSFULLY ITS FIRST ATMOSPHERIC SATELLITE - Russia has successfully tested its first high-altitude unmanned vehicle, or atmospheric satellite, Izvestia daily says in an article published in its Tuesday's edition. Atomospheric satellites are commonly known as atmosats and are sometimes called pseudo-satellites. The testing has been done by the Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (FPI), which is an agency for research in prospective defense technologies, and the Research and Production Enterprise Taiber. The vehicle stayed in the air without landing for 50 hours at the altitudes of up to 9,000 meters. The FPI does not reveal details on the technological characteristics of the atmosat but it known that the vehicle that was made of materials on the basis of carbonic fibers had the wingspan of 9 meters and weighed some 12 kg. More (Source: TASS - Aug 2)
SPACEX NABS SECOND CREW MISSION TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The days of U.S. astronauts riding solely Russian vehicles to the International Space Station is drawing to an end. On Friday, NASA announced a second crew mission with the private space company after they completed several developmental milestones. NASA also reviewed the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket and the ground systems supporting the inevitable launch. The days of U.S. astronauts riding solely Russian vehicles to the International Space Station is drawing to an end. On Friday, NASA announced a second crew mission with the private space company after they completed several developmental milestones. NASA also reviewed the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket and the ground systems supporting the inevitable launch. More (Source: News Ledge - Aug 2)
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