DID CHINA JUST TEST A NEW SATELLITE-KILLER? - The Chinese fired off a rocket that could turn a satellite into scraps. And they’re not the only ones positioning themselves for a war in space. It’s possible China just tested a powerful new rocket capable of blasting into space with little notice and knocking out America’s low-orbiting satellites. Possible, but not certain. For sure, the Chinese government launched something from the Korla Missile Test Complex in western China on Oct. 30. Photos circulating online depict a rocket corkscrewing into the upper atmosphere, trailing a winding, glowing contrail in the night sky.   More
(Source: Daily Beast - Nov 12)

STACKING STARTS FOR ATLAS 5 CARGO RUN TO SPACE STATION WITH CYGNUS - United Launch Alliance today began stacking its first Atlas 5 rocket to fly in service to the International Space Station, a commercial mission to send supplies to the orbiting complex. This launch, planned for Dec. 3, and another targeted for March 10, are precursors to the much larger role the Atlas 5 rocket will begin playing in International Space Station operations starting in 2017. That is when the Atlas will begin launching astronauts to the station inside Boeing-built Starliner space capsules for NASA. But first up will be unmanned cargo-delivery flights using Orbital ATK Cygnus freighters. The two rides aboard Atlas rockets were purchased by Orbital ATK as gap-fillers while working in parallel to return its Antares booster to flight by mid-2016.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)

ARAB AND INDIAN SATELLITES FLY ABOARD ARIANE 5 - A European Ariane 5 rocket, burning a cryogenic mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, thundered into the sky over French Guiana at dusk Tuesday with two communications relay satellites to serve the Arab world and India. Like clockwork, the rocket lit its liquid-fueled Vulcain 2 main engine at exactly 2134 GMT (4:34 p.m. EST), ran the engine through a super-fast computer health check, then commanded its two strap-on solid motors to fire seven seconds later. The collective power of the main engine and twin boosters pushed the Ariane 5 off its launch pad at Europe’s space center in Kourou, French Guiana, a space city on the northern coastline of South America.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 11)

FIRST BAGPIPES TO BE PLAYED IN SPACE ARE TO JOIN OTHER 'SPACE JUNK' IN 17,500MPH ORBIT - The first bagpipes to be played in space are to join other “space junk” in 17,500mph orbit. The Scots-made pipes, on which astronaut Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace, will be jettisoned from the international space station because its capacity is limited. Lindgren, 42, played in tribute to his scientist and instructor colleague Victor Hurst, who died last month aged 48. He had ordered the £450 plastic pipes from McCallum’s of Kilmarnock in the hope of performing in orbit. Kenny Macleod, of McCallum’s, said: “Kjell asked for the lightest pipes that could be packed away into the smallest space.   More
(Source: Scotland Now - Nov 11)

CHINA LAUNCHES YAOGAN-28 REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE FROM TAIYUAN - China on Sunday launched its latest remote sensing satellite on a Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province in North China. The Yaogan Weixing-28 payload blasted off at 15:06 Beijing time (09:06 UTC), making it China's 14th orbital launch of the year so far. The satellite was made by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space program, but little is known regarding the uses of the Yaogan Weixing series of remote sensing satellite.   More
(Source: gbtimes - Nov 9)

RUSSIA, CHINA DISCUSS POSSIBILITY OF CREATING EARTH ORBIT SATELLITE SYSTEM - Russian and Chinese experts are discussing the possibility of creating a global low earth orbit (LEO) satellite system called the Star of Happiness, director general of the Information Satellite Systems Nikolay Testoedov told RIA Novosti Sunday. "Two first meetings with Chinese colleagues over the global project 'Star of Happiness' were conducted. We were offered cooperation on creating of a new low earth orbit group, consisting of more than a hundred of satellites for broadband access to the Internet and Internet of things <...>," Testoedov said.    More
(Source: Sputnik International - Nov 9)

NOD TO ARIANESPACE FOR LAUNCH OF ISRO SATELLITE - European space agency Arianespace has got the nod to go ahead with the November 10 launch of Indian communication satellite GSAT-15 and Arabsat-6B, the agency said. In a statement on November 7, Arianespace said the November 10 dual-passenger mission with Ariane 5 rocket the spaceport in French Guiana got the authorisation after the Launch Readiness Review on November 6. Planned during a 43-minute launch window that opens at 6.34 p.m. (local time in French Guiana), the Ariane 5 mission will have a total payload lift performance of 9,810 kg.   More
(Source: News World India - Nov 8)

PLANNING FOR DECEMBER FALCON 9 LAUNCH, ORBCOMM SHIPS SATELLITES - The first shipment of Orbcomm’s 11-satellite payload for the Falcon 9 rocket’s first flight since a June launch failure has arrived at Cape Canaveral, and the rest of the spacecraft will reach the Florida spaceport in the coming days, Orbcomm officials said Thursday. The liftoff is expected in December aboard SpaceX’s return-to-flight mission, and the maiden launch of an uprated version of the Falcon 9 booster designed to lift heavier payloads into space. “We are now planning around a December launch roughly four to five weeks from today,” said Marc Eisenberg, CEO of Orbcomm, in a quarterly earnings call with investment analysts Thursday. “While there’s still some work to do, mostly from the SpaceX side, December is achievable as long as their preparations continue to go well.”   More
(Source: SpzceFlight Now - Nov 8)

SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS TACKLE 'HIGH-FLYING PLUMBING' JOB ON SPACE STATION - Two American astronauts took a marathon spacewalk on Friday, spending nearly eight hours outside the International Space Station on a truly out-of-this-world plumbing job. NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindrgren spent seven hours and 48 minutes working outside the station to perform the vital maintenance on their spacecraft. It was their second spacewalk in nine days. The duo's first-ever spacewalk last week, commanded by Kelly, had the two on separate tracks as they performed a variety of long-term maintenance tasks outside the station. This time around, commanded by Lindgren, they worked together, synchronizing their actions to reconfigure and add ammonia to the port-side station cooling systems — "high-flying plumbing," as NASA officials called it via Twitter.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 7)

Previous Next