ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S SSTV CUBESAT NOW SET TO DEPLOY FROM ISS ON MAY 16 - After postponements earlier this year, the STMSat-1 CubeSat constructed by pupils at St Thomas More (STM) Cathedral School in Arlington, Virginia, now is set to deploy from the International Space Station on Monday, May 16, between 1400 and 1500 UTC. The spacecraft is equipped with a slow-scan TV (SSTV) payload that will transmit on the 70 centimeter Amateur Radio band (437.800 MHz). The school won a NASA competition for the launch. The satellite is the first to be designed and built by grade schoolers, who have been supported by NASA technical advisors and local radio amateurs.   More
(Source: ARRL - May 13)

A SATELLITE WILL 'WEIGH' THE EARTH'S FORESTS FROM SPACE IN 2021 - Earth scientists are working on a revolutionary radar system that will be able to 'weigh' the world's forests, which they hope to launch into space in 2021. The mission, which is called BIOMASS and is being led by Shaun Quegan from the University of Sheffield, will see the radar installed on a satellite and blasted into orbit. There, it will gather the data to create a three-dimensional map of the Earth's forests. "The study will essentially weigh forests – it will tell us their weight and height, and we will be able to see how they are changing over time," said Quegan.    More
(Source: TechRadar - May 12)

HOW DO WOMEN HANDLE THEIR PERIODS IN SPACE? - The first woman ventured into space more than fifty years ago -- Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Since then, nearly 60 other women have followed in her footsteps. But when they prepare for these journeys, one added challenge faces them: how should they handle their period? "When women first went into space, it wasn't known what the effects would be," says Varsha Jain, gynecologist and researcher at Kings College London, and among the authors of a recent paper on menstruation in spaceflight. It turns out that while most systems in the human body are heavily affected during spaceflight, the female menstrual cycle doesn't seem to change at all.   More
(Source: CNN - May 12)

CARGO-CARRYING DRAGON SPACESHIP RETURNS TO EARTH - SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship departed the International Space Station on Wednesday, fired rocket thrusters to brake out of orbit, and parachuted to a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with approximately 3,461 pounds (1,570 kilograms) of experiment samples and equipment. Concluding a 31-day stay at the outpost, the 12-foot-diameter (3.7-meter) spacecraft detached from the space station’s Harmony module early Wednesday in the grasp of the research lab’s Canadian-built robotic arm, which maneuvered the capsule to a release point about 30 feet, or 10 meters, beneath the complex.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 12)

WATCH SPACEX DRAGON DEPART ISS MAY 11 - On Wednesday, May 11, 2016, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, carrying valuable science research, will depart from the International Space Station (ISS) and return to Earth. NASA Television will provide live coverage of Dragon’s departure beginning at 9 a.m. EDT. Watch here. The Dragon spacecraft, which arrived at the station on April 10, 2016 with almost 7,000 pounds of cargo, will be detached from the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module using a robotic arm operated by ground controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. R   More
(Source: EarthSky - May 11)

STARTUP HELPS AUSSIE STUDENTS REACH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - She hasn't even graduated from university, but Solange Cunin is already planning to send some very special cargo into space. At 23, Cunin is the cofounder of the startup Quberider, which has developed a program for high school students that aims to teach coding and data analysis through the prism of space travel. She's taken the semester off from studying aerospace engineering at the University of New South Wales to concentrate on the project as part of the Sydney accelerator program, muru-D.   More
(Source: Mashable - May 11)

SCHOOL SSTV CUBESAT TO DEPLOY FROM ISS - A Slow Scan TV (SSTV) CubeSat developed by students at Saint Thomas More Cathedral School (STM) in Arlington, VA, is set to be deployed from the International Space Station between 1400 and 1500 UT on May 16. For latest date/time check here. STM student using amateur radio station STM student using amateur radio station STM is thought to be the first Elementary school to build their own satellite, even Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and First Grade students were involved in the project. The satellite, a 1U CubeSat called STMSat-1, will transmit a SSTV Robot36 mode signal on 437.800 MHz.   More
(Source: AMSAT-UK - May 11)

SPACEX MAIDEN FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH MAY CARRY SATELLITE IN NOVEMBER - Move over Arianespace and United Launch Alliance. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is set for its maiden launch this November. The long-awaited Falcon Heavy should be able to outperform both the Ariane 5 and the ULA Delta-4 Heavy, at least in some respects. The payload for the maiden voyage is uncertain so far. According to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s President and CEO, a number of companies have expressed interest in being on the first flight. Shotwell has also said that it might make more sense for SpaceX to completely own their first flight, without the pressure to keep a client happy. But a satellite payload for the first launch hasn’t been ruled out.   More
(Source: Universe Today - May 10)

MESSAGE FROM SPACE: ISS CREW CONGRATULATES EARTHLINGS WITH VICTORY DAY - Members of the ISS expedition 47 – Oleg Skripochka, Alexei Ovchinin and Yuri Malenchenko have recorded a video address from the space station which was later posted on the Russian space agency Roscosmos’ official Facebook page. They also added that "working in space and living a peaceful life; scientific research, dreams and achievements – all of it is only possible in a world without war."    More
(Source: Sputnik International - May 10)

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