CYGNUS PREPARED FOR ATLAS LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION - Preparations for the first launch of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft in more than a year, and the first on an Atlas 5 rocket, have gone smoothly despite some changes in timing of loading cargo on the spacecraft, an Orbital ATK executive said. An Atlas 5 is scheduled to launch the Cygnus craft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dec. 3. The launch will be the first for the Cygnus since the October 2014 failure of Orbital’s Antares rocket shortly after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 26)

US, CHINA SET UP SPACE HOTLINE TO AVOID SATELLITE WARFARE - The United States and China have set up a space hotline between them. This connection will be used to facilitate the exchange of information between the two countries and prevent satellite-related conflicts and misunderstandings. There have been fears of the possibility of warfare in space after China blew up a satellite during one of its test runs of its anti-satellite technology back in 2007. Military operations and intelligence-gathering efforts that are dependent on satellites could be severely derailed by such weapons.   More
(Source: Tech Times - Nov 25)

DEORBITSAIL SATELLITE UNSUCCESSFUL IN DEPLOYING SAIL - Following its July 10, 2015, launch, the DeorbitSail satellite has achieved some, but not all, of its mission objectives, including contact with the satellite, solar panel deployment, and taking pictures of Earth. The satellite, a University of Surrey research project, carries a 1200 bps BPSK beacon transmitting on 145.975 MHz. DeorbitSail is a 3U CubeSat with a deployable sail to demonstrate rapid deorbiting. “[W]e have struggled to accurately determine the satellite tumble rate and get it under control,” said an update from DeorbitSail Project Manager Chiara Massimiani, and Surrey Space Center (SSC) Director and DeorbitSail Principal Investigator Guglielmo Aglietti.    More
(Source: ARRL - Nov 25)

JAPANESE-BUILT H-2A ROCKET LIFTS OFF CARRYING FIRST COMMERCIAL SATELLITE - An H-2A rocket carrying a Canadian communications satellite lifted off from Tanegashima Island in southwestern Japan on Tuesday, marking the first time a commercial satellite has been launched into space by the Japanese-built platform. The rocket, launched at 3.50 pm. from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, has an improved second-stage engine aimed at carrying satellites farther in distance and closer to the Earth's geostationary orbit during its four-and-a-half-hour flight. The payload on Tuesday's launch is Telesat Holdings’ broadcast and communications satellite named Telstar 12 Vantage, which is expected to provide coverage to Europe, Africa and South America.   More
(Source: South China Morning Post - Nov 24)

IMPROVED H2A TO LAUNCH SATELLITE - Japan’s H2A rocket No. 29 carrying a Canadian communications satellite will be launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Tuesday afternoon. The plan is for the improved H2A to send a satellite into stationary orbit. If the operation is successful, it will be the first time for a Japanese rocket to put a commercial satellite into orbit. For the No. 29 rocket, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the first time made major changes to the H2A’s engineering design in the hopes of attracting more orders for commercial satellite launches.   More
(Source: The Japan News - Nov 23)

NASA ORDERS FIRST COMMERCIAL CREW MISSION TO SPACE STATION FROM SPACEX - Restoring America’s ability to once again launch US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from US soil on US rockets took another significant step forward when NASA ordered the first the agency’s first commercial crew rotation mission from the Hawthorne, California based-company SpaceX. NASA and SpaceX hope that the blastoff with a crew of up to four astronauts will take place by late 2017. The new Nov. 20 award from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) office to launch the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule follows up on an earlier commercial crew rotation mission award this past May to the Boeing Company of Houston to launch its CST-100 Starliner astronaut crew capsule to the ISS.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Nov 23)

CONTACT LOST WITH ISRAELI COMMUNICATION SATELLITE AMOS 5 - Contact has been lost with communications satellite Amos 5, starting at 6: 45 AM Saturday, its operator, Spacecom, announced in a statement Saturday evening. “The Company wishes to clarify, based on the preliminary examinations it carried out, that even if there will be a ‘total loss’ (complete failure) of the satellite, this would have a negligible effect on the equity of the company,” Spacecom stated. The Amos 5 satellite was built by Russian manufacturer NPO PM. The four earlier satellites in the Amos series were built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).   More
(Source: The Jewish Press - Nov 22)

RUSSIA’S GLONASS-M NAVIGATION SATELLITE PLANNED FOR LAUNCH IN LATE DECEMBER - The Russian navigation satellite Glonass-M is planned for launch from the Plesetsk space center in north Russia in late December, the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, the satellite developer, told TASS on Friday. The satellite will be orbited by a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket with the Fregat booster. The Glonass-M satellite, which has No. 51, will replace the satellite that has operated for three years above the warranty term in the Russian navigational orbital grouping, the company said.   More
(Source: TASS - Nov 21)

EUROPE TO DEVELOP SATELLITE TO MAP PLANT FLUORESCENCE - The European Space Agency has selected a satellite mission to monitor the health of global vegetation over an atmospheric research project to track carbon in Earth’s atmosphere, officials announced Thursday. The competition pitted the Fluorescence Explorer, or FLEX, against CarbonSat to be the eighth satellite in ESA’s Explorer mission line for a launch in 2022. Scientists recommended ESA proceed with the FLEX mission in September, and the space agency’s Earth observation management board approved the selection this month, according to a press release Thursday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 21)

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