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)

UNIVERSITY ORBITER SET TO LIFT SPACE ELEVATOR TECHNOLOGY - Space elevators could one day be zipping astronauts from terra firma to orbiting space stations, thanks to a tiny satellite made by students and researchers at Shizuoka University. Unveiled June 8, the STARS-C (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite-Cube) was designed by a project team headed by Shizuoka University's Faculty of Engineering. The microsatellite is specially designed to test a “space tether,” a cable essential in connecting Earth with a space station high above its atmosphere in the space elevator concept.   More
(Source: Asahi Shimbun - Jul 7)

RUSSIA PLANS ALL-RUSSIAN SPACE STATION CALLED ROS TO REPLACE THE ISS - Russia's announcement it plans a new space station called the Russian Orbital Station, or ROS, to replace the International Space Station (ISS) confirms the ISS won't make it to the 30th anniversary of its existence in 2028. It also seems to confirm the United States will exit from the ISS consortium of countries to focus its limited funding on its deep space programs such as landing humans on Mars by 2035. The U.S.' "ISS-xit" comes despite Russia's insistence the ISS will operate until 2024 and that Roscosmos and NASA "do not rule out that the station's flight could be extended."    More
(Source: ChinaTopix - Jul 7)

BRAND NEW SOYUZ ROCKET LIFTS OFF FROM BAIKONUR, TAKING 3-MAN CREW TO ISS - A modernized Soyuz capsule has successfully blasted off into space from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a three-man crew on board. The extended two-day flight to the ISS will give Russian scientists and engineers a chance to test out the new space technology. In less than 10 minutes, the rocket carrier Soyuz-FG with manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-01 will reach orbit. Once in outer space, the three-man team will take a two-day route to the International Space Station, instead of the six-hour journey completed by recently launched Soyuz missions.   More
(Source: RT - Jul 7)

IS CHINA’S MYSTERIOUS NEW SATELLITE REALLY A JUNK COLLECTOR—OR A WEAPON? - China just boosted a high-tech, mysterious new satellite into orbit. It might be a weapon. It might not be a weapon. There’s no way to be certain, either way—and that’s a problem for all spacefaring countries. Especially the United States and China. Washington and Beijing are lofting more and more of these ambiguous satellites into orbit without agreements governing their use. In failing to agree to the proverbial rules of the orbital road, the two governments risk ongoing suspicion, or worse—a misunderstanding possibly leading to war. The Roaming Dragon satellite rode into space atop a Long March 7 rocket that blasted off from Hainan in southern China on June 25.   More
(Source: Daily Beast - Jul 6)

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