COUNTDOWN FOR LAUNCH OF CARTOSAT-2 ROCKET WITH 19 SATELLITES BEGINS - The countdown for the launch of Cartosat-2 series and 19 other satellites on Wednesday morning is progressing smoothly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. The satellites' health is being checked and the preparations for the filling of the fuel for the second rocket's second stage/engine is under progress, the ISRO said on Tuesday. "The countdown is progressing normally," it said. On Wednesday at 9.26 a.m., Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will lift off from the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with 20 satellites.    More
(Source: Economic Times - Jun 22)

UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE SET FOR SATELLITE LAUNCH - A satellite launch from Florida's Space Coast on Friday will complete a constellation meant to improve communications for U.S. soldiers. The satellite will be sent up on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, marking the fifth and final piece of the U.S. Navy's Mobile Unit Objective System. The Boeing-Lockheed Martin partnership is scheduled to launch at 10:29 a.m. and will essentially create a global cellular network that improves ground communications. The MUOS is a network of satellites, ground stations and software that improves communication for U.S. forces around the world.   More
(Source: Orlando Sentinel - Jun 22)

WEATHER FORECAST LOOKS GOOD FOR FRIDAY’S ATLAS 5 ROCKET LAUNCH - Air Force meteorologists are giving good odds of acceptable weather conditions for the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket to fly Friday morning from Cape Canaveral to put a Navy mobile communications satellite into orbit. Liftoff from Complex 41 is scheduled during a 44-minute window stretching from 10:30 to 11:14 a.m. EDT (1430-1514 GMT). In their initial launch weather outlook issued this morning, forecasters are concerned only about cumulus clouds. They say thunderstorms won’t fire up until after the launch window ends.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 21)

IN ISRO'S RECORD SPACE LAUNCH, GOOGLE-MADE SATELLITE FINDS A PLACE - In a first, Indian space agency ISRO is set to place into Earth's orbit a hi-tech satellite made by a Google company as part of a record-making 20-satellite launch scheduled for Wednesday from Sriharikota. On its 36th launch, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will fly 20 satellites into space at a cost about 10 times less than other space agencies. As a mark of the India-US friendship, ISRO or the Indian Space Research Organisation will launch 13 American-made small satellites into space.    More
(Source: NDTV - Jun 21)

CHINA PREPARES ASSEMBLY OF ITS SPACE STATION, INVITES COLLABORATION THROUGH U.N. - The Chinese government has agreed to help finance non-Chinese payloads and experiments to be operated from China’s future space station through the United Nations as part of its attempt to internationalize the program, a senior Chinese space official told the U.N. The official said China is on track to inaugurate its fourth spaceport, the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, in the coming weeks with the launch of the first Long March 7 rocket. Wenchang is located at 9 degrees north latitude, which is the southernmost point on Chinese territory. Under the current schedule, a TianGong-2 orbiting laboratory module would be launched in September aboard a Long March 5B rocket to test technologies that will be needed for the space station.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 21)

PHASE 4B RIDESHARE PAYLOAD FINISHES PRELIMINARY DESIGN REVIEW - The GEO project at Virginia Tech being done jointly with AMSAT and using RINCON Research’s AstroSDR has completed our preliminary design review (PDR). Please visit out web site at We are able to provide much more information to donors if you need it including a sanitized version of our PDR slides giving much greater detail on the internal to the spacecraft project. Your donations are needed to make this project fly. The bottom line is we have a design, an air interface document, a ground terminal project plan. We have permission from the US government to put our payload on board their spacecraft.    More
(Source: AMSAT - Jun 20)

SKYGAZERS HAVE ALREADY FOUND THE US GOVERNMENT'S NEW SPY SATELLITE - Last week, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched NROL-37, carrying its latest spy satellite into geosynchronous orbit via Delta IV-Heavy rocket. But it only took amateur space enthusiasts a few days to locate the mysterious new craft in the skies near Malaysia, over the Strait of Malacca. While the contents and capabilities of the NROL-37 mission's payload are classified (the satellite is innocuously labeled US-268), its need to hitch a ride on the world's biggest rocket strongly suggests it is the seventh member of the Mentor/Orion family, an extra-large class of signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites which help provide eavesdropping capability to US intelligence agencies.   More
(Source: Motherboard - Jun 20)

ARIANE 5 LAUNCHES ECHOSTAR 18 AND BRISAT - Ariane 5 has returned to launch action for the third time this year with the lofting of the Echostar 18 and BRISAT satellites on Saturday. BRIsat is the first satellite dedicated to serving a bank. The launch – from the European Spaceport in Kourou – was realigned to Saturday, following a scrub on Friday due to high altitude wind constraints. The launch was set to take place on June 8. However, during the preparations for the roll-out of the Ariane 5 ECA launcher, an anomaly occurred with a fluid connector between the cryogenic upper stage and the launch table.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 19)

A GOOGLE SATELLITE: TWO AMONG 19 SMALL SATELLITES TO BE LAUNCHED FROM US - Two among the 19 small satellites being launched on June 22 are from United States. One of them, SkySat Gen1-1, is a small, Earth-imaging satellite weighing about 110 kg and it has been designed and built by Terra Bella, a Google firm based out of Mountain View, California, in the Unite States. The second one, the Planet Labs Dove Satellites (FLock-2P) are Earth-imaging satellites. A total of 12 Dove Satellites weighing 4.7kg each are being carried in this mission inside three QuadPack dispensers. SATHYABAMASAT, which is one among the two satellites of Indian Academic Institutes, has been developed by the Sathyabama University, Chennai.   More
(Source: Deccan Chronicle - Jun 19)

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