SATELLITE CAPTURES TOTAL ECLIPSE AS SEEN FROM SPACE - While millions of people across the Pacific observed this week's total solar eclipse, NASA's DSCOVR satellite captured an amazing view of its own: the shadow of the moon as it skittered across the globe, blocking the sun's rays from Earth. The animation was created from 13 images captured by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), the nation's first deep space satellite orbiting one million miles away from Earth. The animation shows the shadow of the moon passing over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia, then into open water and the islands of Oceania.   More
(Source: CBS News - Mar 11)

PSLV DEPLOYS NEXT SATELLITE FOR INDIAN NAVIGATION NETWORK - An Indian navigation satellite lifted off Thursday aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, heading for a perch more than 22,000 miles over Africa to grow the country’s independent space-based positioning fleet. The sixth spacecraft in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System launched at 1031 GMT (5:31 a.m. EST) Thursday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, an island spaceport about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Chennai on India’s east coast. The 44-meter (145-foot) PSLV XL, boosted by six enlarged strap-on solid rocket motors, soared east from the launch base over the Bay of Bengal, surpassing the speed of sound in less than a minute on more than 2 million pounds of thrust.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 11)

MUOS 5 SATELLITE COMES TO FLORIDA ON WAY TO GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT - The fifth and final satellite for the U.S. Navy’s new mobile network to provide rugged smartphone communications to all branches of the military has arrived at the launch site for blastoff in May. The Mobile User Objective System satellite No. 5, built to be an on-orbit spare, was flown aboard a C-5 Galaxy aircraft March 3 from its Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale, California to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Liftoff is targeted for May 5 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flying in its mightiest 551 configuration with five strap-on solid-fuel boosters.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 10)

ARIANE 5, IN 2ND STRAIGHT SOLO MISSION, PLACES EUTELSAT 65 WEST A INTO ORBIT - Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket on March 8 successfully placed the Eutelsat 65 West A multi-band telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. It was the vehicle’s 71st consecutive success, its second of 2016 and, exceptionally, the second straight solo-passenger mission. Paris-based Eutelsat said the satellite, built by SSL of Palo Alto, California, was healthy in orbit after separation from the Ariane 5 and had deployed its solar arrays. It is scheduled to enter full operations in early May – well in time to capture television business in Brazil during this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As was the case with fellow fleet operator Intelsat, whose 29e satellite was launched in January, Eutelsat decided it was better to pay a bit more as a solo passenger than to wait for a compatible co-passenger aboard the Ariane 5.   More
(Source: Space News - Mar 9)

EUTELSAT 65 WEST A READY FOR MARCH 9 LAUNCH - Arianespace has delivered another Ariane 5 to the launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, positioning this workhorse vehicle for its March 9 early morning mission with the Eutelsat 65 West A relay satellite. The launcher rolled out from the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch zone at this near-equatorial facility – where Ariane 5 is scheduled for liftoff during a three-hour window that opens Wednesday at 2:20 a.m. local time in French Guiana. Ariane 5’s transfer followed the successful launch readiness review that validated the “go” status of the heavy-lift vehicle and its single payload, along with the Spaceport’s infrastructure and the network of tracking stations that will follow the flight.   More
(Source: Broadband TV News - Mar 9)

ENGINEERS LOSE CONTROL OF U.S. MILITARY WEATHER SATELLITE - The U.S. Air Force has been unable to send commands to the service’s newest weather satellite for nearly a month, and engineers are trying to determine if the spacecraft can be salvaged, officials said last week. The polar-orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19, or DMSP F19, spacecraft stopped responding to orders from the ground Feb. 11, the Air Force said in a March 3 press release. “At this time, it is not known what caused the anomaly or if the satellite will be recovered, and the anomaly is under investigation,” the Air Force said. “There are no other known issues with the satellite.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 9)

CHINA PLANS SPACE TELESCOPE THAT WILL DOCK WITH THEIR SPACE STATION - China has plans to build a new space telescope which should outperform Hubble. According to the Chinese English Language Daily, the new telescope will be similar to Hubble, but will have a field of view that is 300 times larger. The new telescope, which has not been named yet, will have the ability to dock with China’s modular space station, the Tiangong. The China National Space Administration has come up with a solution to a problem that dogged the Hubble Telescope. Whenever the Hubble needed repairs or maintenance, a shuttle mission had to be planned so astronauts could service it. China will avoid this problem with its innovative solution. The Chinese telescope will keep its distance from the Tiangong, but if repairs or maintenance are needed, it can dock with Tiangong.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Mar 9)

INDIA TO LAUNCH SIXTH NAVIGATION SATELLITE ON THURSDAY - India is slated to put into orbit its sixth navigation satellite on Thursday evening, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced here on Monday. The 1,425-kg IRNSS-1F - Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1F - would hurtle into space on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on March 10, the ISRO said. The rocket will blast off around 4 p.m. from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km from here. This will be already the second rocket launch for India in 2016.    More
(Source: Zee News - Mar 8)

IRAN READY TO LAUNCH NEW SATELLITE - Iran has got its latest locally developed satellite, named Doosti (Friendship), ready to be launched into orbit, a senior Iranian official said. Iranian ICT Minister Mahmoud Vaezi has said that Iran is now among the 15 countries that own the peaceful space technology as the country has obtained the know-how for designing, making and launching satellites into space, IRNA news agency reported March 5. He further said the country now should focus on the use of space technologies, such as telecommunications and remote sensing for disaster management, agriculture, environment and others.   More
(Source: Trend News Agency - Mar 7)

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