NASA TURNS TO SPACEX ONCE AGAIN FOR ITS LATEST CREW MISSION TO ISS - NASA is slowly but surely declaring its independence from Russia when it comes to shuttling astronauts to the International Space Station. On Friday, the agency noted that it had taken “another important step Friday in returning U.S. astronaut launches from U.S. soil” by ordering a second SpaceX crew mission to the ISS. “Commercial crew flights from Florida’s Space Coast to the International Space Station will restore America’s human spaceflight launch capability and increase the time U.S. crews can dedicate to scientific research, which is helping prepare astronauts for deep space missions, including the Journey to Mars,” NASA said in a press release.   More
(Source: Yahoo News - Aug 1)

RUSSIA'S ADVANCED NEW SURVEILLANCE SATELLITES TO KEEP AN EYE ON US CARRIERS - The Russian Defense Ministry has plans to launch a new orbital surveillance system aimed to bolster the reconnaissance capabilities of the Aerospace Defense Forces. What kinds of capabilities will the new system have? One of Russia's leading online news and analysis portals spoke to military experts to try and find out. On Thursday, Kommersant newspaper provided a few details about a new orbital surveillance system being developed for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The new system, consisting of three brand new Razdan-class satellites, is set to be lifted into orbit between 2019 and 2024 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The system will complement and eventually replace the Persona-class optical-electronic satellites presently used by the military.    More
(Source: Sputnik International - Jul 31)

NROL-61 SATELLITE LAUNCHED THURSDAY SPOTTED IN SPACE BY SKY-WATCHERS - Sky-watchers with a passion for looking up and tracking satellites with remarkable precision have made quick work of locating the spacecraft launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket on Thursday. The NROL-61 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office was successfully deployed into space by the United Launch Alliance rocket following an 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT) liftoff from Cape Canaveral. The vehicle headed eastward on 1.5 million pounds of thrust toward a geosynchronous transfer orbit to release the satellite about a half-hour later.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 31)

CHINA TO LAUNCH THE WORLD'S FIRST QUANTUM SATELLITE - China is planning to bring quantum physics to space. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Academy of Sciences are collaborating to build a satellite that will perform the first ever quantum experiments in orbit. The experiments could have applications in future telescopes and communication technology. The Chinese satellite will be launched sometime in August, where it will test the limits of quantum communication. Onboard the satellite will be a special crystal that generates pairs of entangled photons, which will be fired at two laboratories in Beijing and Vienna. These photons will be used to test the range of quantum entanglement and the feasibility of quantum communications.   More
(Source: Yahoo News - Jul 31)

ISRO ALL SET TO LAUNCH INDIGENOUS WEATHER SATELLITE ON AUGUST 28 - Preparations for the launch of weather satellite INSAT-3DR with the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-MkII) next month are progressing at Sriharikota, officials said on Friday. "The weather satellite INSAT-3DR will be put into orbit by a GSLV rocket August end. Preparations for the launch are going on," P. Kunhi Krishnan, Director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), told IANS. India's rocket port is located in SDSC in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It is learnt that the launch is tentatively slated for August 28. A senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS that the satellite is yet to reach the rocket port.   More
(Source: The News Minute - Jul 30)

NASA'S NEW SATELLITE WILL LOOK FOR EARTH-SIZED PLANETS NEARBY - The Kepler mission scopes out stars and galaxies thousands of light-years away to find exoplanets. NASA's upcoming planet hunter, however, will keep an eye on solar systems closer to home. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS will find planets by observing stars and looking out for shadows cast by transiting planets. It will be programmed to compute for a planet's size and the time it takes to orbit its star, because those are the information astronomers need to determine if it's habitable. Since Earth- and even super-Earth-sized planets are tiny, though, TESS will observe small bright dwarf stars only hundreds of light-years away. The satellite is slated to blast off to space in 2017 or 2018 and is expected to observe 200,000 stars within its two-year lifespan. I   More
(Source: Engadget - Jul 30)

NASA'S NEW SPACE PLANE IS GETTING READY TO TAKE FLIGHT - NASA's next cargo delivery vehicle - a spunky little space plane that looks like it could be an offspring of the space shuttle - is getting ready to fly. The svelte and snub nosed Dream Chaser will soon be shipped to the Mojave desert in California where it would begin a series of ground tests that would eventually culminate with a flight from an altitude of 2.5 miles high. To get to this point, however, has been a long road for its manufacturer, the Sierra Nevada Corp. The company had originally pursued a NASA contract to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.    More
(Source: Chicago Tribune - Jul 30)

SPY SATELLITE INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTED BY SUCCESSFUL ATLAS 5 ROCKET LAUNCH - A clandestine satellite for the U.S. reconnaissance program was successfully launched by an Atlas 5 rocket today, riding a ferocious torrent of fire and smoke off the pad before disappearing behind a curtain of secrecy. The 194-foot-tall United Launch Alliance rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT) to cap a flawless early morning countdown. A combined 1.5 million pounds of thrust sent the vehicle to the east, along a 99-degree flight azimuth, carrying the NROL-61 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office that runs the country’s spy satellite network. The twin solid boosters burned out 90 seconds into flight, then separated about 40 seconds later when dynamic pressure conditions were apt.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 30)

YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT TAKES TO MOVE A 2-TON SATELLITE ACROSS CALIFORNIA - You may not have heard of DigitalGlobe, but you've definitely seen its work in action. For over two decades, the company has been capturing high-resolution pictures of the Earth and selling them to organizations you're familiar with. Much of Google Earth, Google Maps, Apple Maps imagery and surveying systems used by the U.S. government is provided by DigitalGlobe. Its photography has been used for everything from disaster relief to city planning to simply helping your Uber driver figure out where he's taking you. On September 15th, the company is launching a brand-new satellite, the WorldView-4, into orbit.    More
(Source: Fast Company - Jul 29)

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