SPACEX SET FOR FALCON 9 DUAL SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX will launch its sixth mission of the year Wednesday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a pair of communications satellites – Eutelsat 117 West B and ABS-2A – into orbit. Liftoff from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral is expected during a 44-minute window that opens at 10:29 local time (14:29 UTC). Wednesday’s launch is the twenty-sixth launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle; coming less than three weeks after the previous mission, which deployed the Thaicom 8 satellite in late May.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 15)

PRIVATE CARGO SHIP LEAVES SPACE STATION TO IGNITE RECORD-BREAKING FIRE EXPERIMENT - A private cargo ship left the International Space Station today (June 14) and will soon host the biggest fire-in-space experiment ever conducted. The robotic Cygnus spacecraft, which was built by Virginia-based company Orbital ATK, undocked from the orbiting lab at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). At about 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT), when the freighter is a safe distance from the ISS, controllers on the ground will deliberately light a large fire inside Cygnus to test how flames spread in microgravity. The fire experiment — called the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-1, or Saffire-1— will spark the biggest human-made fire in space. -    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 15)

1ST HIGH ORBIT REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE PUT INTO USE - China's first high orbit remote sensing satellite, Gaofen-4, went into use after six months of in-orbit testing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced Monday. Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated. Unlike from Gaofen-1 and Gaofen-2 in low orbits around the earth, Gaofen-4 is orbiting at 36,000 kilometers. High orbit satellites have the advantage of being able to snap "grand scenarios." Low orbit satellites, in contrast, can see more detail at faster speed.   More
(Source: China.org.cn - Jun 14)

THIS IS WHERE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL GO TO DIE - The cold void of the ocean floor is the closest thing Earthlings can come to the conditions of space. Nothing really lives there, and nothing ever visits. It’s freezing, dark and empty. However, off the coast of New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean is home to what may be the most exclusive scientific burial ground in the world: the so-called Spacecraft Cemetery has become the final resting place for hundreds of manmade space objects. There are thousands of satellites and pieces of debris orbiting the Earth at any given moment, but what happens when they run out of fuel or complete their missions? Essentially, they need to get out of the sky and out of the way of other spacecraft.   More
(Source: Popular Science - Jun 14)

LONG MARCH 3C LAUNCHES CHINA'S 23RD BEIDOU SATELLITE - China launched its Beidou G7 navigation and positioning satellite at 15:30 UTC on Sunday, atop a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. The satellite is the 23rd of the Beidou constellation (BDS) and will enter a geostationary orbit nearly 36,000 kilometres above the Earth. According to state news agency Xinhua, the satellite will, after entering its designed work orbit and finishing in-orbit testing, improve the stability of the system, preparing for BDS to offer global coverage.   More
(Source: gbtimes - Jun 13)

DELTA IV HEAVY BLASTS OFF FROM CAPE CANAVERAL WITH SPY SATELLITE - A U.S. spy satellite thundered toward orbit Saturday afternoon atop the most powerful rocket flying today, a 23-story Delta IV Heavy that blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:51 p.m. Firing engines from three boosters strapped together, the United Launch Alliance rocket rumbled from its Launch Complex 37 pad with more than 2 million pounds of thrust, rising into low, puffy clouds before threading a white contrail through patches of blue sky. The triple-bodied rocket — only the ninth flown since its debut in 2004 — and its National Reconnaissance Office intelligence payload flew southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, believed headed for a high orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Jun 12)

SPACEX TARGETS WEDNESDAY FALCON 9 LAUNCH - A busy stretch on the Eastern Range continues with SpaceX’s planned Wednesday morning launch of a Falcon 9 carrying a pair of commercial communications satellites. There’s an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for the targeted 10:29 a.m. liftoff, at the opening of a 44-minute window at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40. The mission is one of three in quick succession this month, along with two by United Launch Alliance. ULA’s Delta IV Heavy rocket on Saturday blasted off with a U.S. intelligence satellite on the mission's second attempt in three days, while an Atlas V is being prepared for a June 24 liftoff with a Navy communications satellite.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Jun 12)

LIGHTSAIL-2 TO SEND MORSE CODE - The Planetary Society CubeSat LightSail-2 will transmit Morse code from space, and you can make the sound your ringtone Jason Davis @jasonrdavis reports that during last year’s LightSail-1 mission (call sign KK6HIT), dozens of radio enthusiasts around the wrote in to tell us they heard our solar sailing CubeSat chattering away in low-Earth orbit. Every few seconds, LightSail automatically transmits a beacon packet.   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Jun 12)

CHINESE SPACE STATION 'OUT OF CONTROL', WILL DO BEST FIREWORK IMPRESSION - The Chinese space agency has apparently lost control of its Tiangong 1 mini-space station, which is expected to return to Earth as a fireball. The Middle Kingdom's state media reported in March that the space station's systems had been shut down and the platform was officially retired. Now there's word from the science community that the controllers no longer have command of its systems and won't be able to bring it back down to earth in a controlled manner. "It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case, there have been rumors about it on the mailing lists for months," Jonathan Tate, director of the UK's Spaceguard Centre, told The Reg.   More
(Source: The Register - Jun 11)

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