SPACEX ROCKET SENDS A NEW DOOR TO SPACE STATION - More than 2 tons of supplies and gear are speeding toward the International Space Station, after a SpaceX Falcon rocket launched early Monday from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The cargo includes a new port that will standardize how spacecraft connect to the station. The SpaceX Dragon craft will deliver its payload to the station Wednesday morning — but the mission has already been something of a success, as Brendan Byrne of member station WMFE reports. "SpaceX was able to land the first stage of the booster at a landing site at Cape Canaveral a part of their plan for rocket re-usability," Byrne says. Adding a detail that area residents might already know, he adds, "A sonic boom from the re-entry of the booster was heard across Central Florida."   More
(Source: NPR - Jul 19)

ACCURACY OF SATELLITE CONSTELLATIONS CONCERNS US MILITARY - A satellite constellation is a group of human-made satellites coordinated from the ground and synchronised to provide global coverage. ​The most well known of these is the American Global Positioning System (GPS) which, when it was commissioned in 1995, comprised 24 satellites orbiting at an altitude of 20,200 kilometres. The system was originally intended for military use but after Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down over Soviet airspace in 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced that GPS would be made freely available for civilian use. Two hundred and sixty-nine passengers and crew were killed in the crash and the decision to allow open access to GPS was made to avert any similar navigational errors in the future.    More
(Source: Stuff.co.nz - Jul 18)

SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY LANDS FALCON 9 ROCKET ON SOLID GROUND FOR THE SECOND TIME - SpaceX has successfully landed another Falcon 9 rocket after launching the vehicle into space this evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shortly after takeoff, the vehicle touched down at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 — a ground-based landing site that the company leases at the Cape. It marks the second time SpaceX has pulled off this type of ground landing, and the fifth time SpaceX has recovered one of its rockets post-launch. The feat was accomplished a few minutes before the rocket's second stage successfully put the company's Dragon spacecraft into orbit, where it will rendezvous with the International Space Station later this week. "It's the fifth time SpaceX has recovered one of its rockets post-launch" It’s also the first time this year SpaceX has attempted to land one of its rockets on land. For the past six launches, each rocket has tried landing on an autonomous drone ship floating in the ocean.   More
(Source: The Verge - Jul 18)

SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET LAUNCHES ON MISSION TO ISS - Under a full moon, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off early Monday morning from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Several minutes later, the first stage successfully landed back on a launch pad at the Cape sending sonic booms across Central Florida. The Dragon is carrying nearly 5,000 pounds of space station cargo and experiments, including a $26 million docking ring that must be in place for astronauts in Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules to link up to the station, as planned in the next year or two. “We’re looking forward to this mission,” said Joel Montalbano, deputy ISS program manager for utilization. “It’s bringing critical supplies, critical hardware.”   More
(Source: WKMG Orlando - Jul 18)

PROGRESS SUPPLY SHIP HEADS FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft laden with 5,300 pounds of fuel and supplies blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday, riding a Soyuz rocket smoothly into orbit on the first of two resupply launches heading for the International Space Station in the next two days. The Progress MS-03 supply ship, known as Progress 64P in the space station’s visiting vehicle manifest, launched at 2141:45 GMT (5:41:45 p.m. EDT) Saturday aboard a Soyuz-U rocket, soaring east-northeast from the Kazakh spaceport in line with the space station’s flight path. A clear predawn sky at Baikonur afforded views of the Soyuz booster climbing into the stratosphere, then releasing four liquid-fueled strap-on first stage boosters at an altitude of 30 miles, or about 50 kilometers.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 17)

TWO FOR ONE! SPACE STATION GETS ROCKET-LAUNCH DOUBLE SHOT THIS WEEKEND - It's a doubleheader of cosmic proportions: This weekend, not one but two rockets are launching cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS), and you can watch the action live online, thanks to NASA. First, here's what's flying and when: On Saturday, July 16, an uncrewed Russian Progress 64 cargo ship will launch at 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT) from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome to deliver 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of supplies to the space station. Two days later (on Monday, July 19), the private company SpaceX will launch its own mission, with a Falcon 9 rocket and robotic Dragon capsule lifting off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. That mission will launch at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) on Monday to deliver even more supplies for the station's six-person crew. You can watch both rocket launches live online here, courtesy of NASA TV.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 17)

ANIMAL MIGRATIONS WILL SOON BE TRACKED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - To track the migration patterns of tagged birds, sea turtles and other animals around the world, scientists must rely on radio receivers that don’t provide a lot of critical information. The animals “leave in one place and we don’t know what happens to them until they show up in another place,” Meg Crofoot, from the University of California, Davis, told The Atlantic. The lack of this information hinders efforts to save threatened species, and can leave people vulnerable to diseases like avian flu and Ebola that are carried by migratory birds and bats.    More
(Source: Care2.com - Jul 16)

CHINA PLANS TO BUILD OWN SPACE STATION SIMILAR TO ISS - China is developing its own space station and is building a new site which will be used to launch space stations and space technology. The trial run for the new rocket was a success so the construction of the station will begin in 2018. It is likely that China will play a leading role in this sphere and might replace the ISS program, in which Japan also participates.   More
(Source: Sputnik International - Jul 16)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH NINTH SPACE STATION RESUPPLY MISSION - Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne is scheduled to launch one of its rockets on a resupply mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station on Monday, July 18. The Drago cargo spacecraft will carry scientific experiments, crew supplies, and hardware. This is the company’s ninth commercial resupply services mission and seventh rocket launch this year. The Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit about 10 minutes after launch, deploy its solar arrays, and begin a two-day voyage to reach the space station.   More
(Source: Los Angeles Business Journal - Jul 16)

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