SPACEX FAILS A THIRD TIME TO LAND ITS FALCON 9 ON A DRONE SHIP IN THE SEA - SpaceX has failed to land its Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous drone ship in the Pacific Ocean after launching the vehicle into space. The company originally said that the rocket came in too hard, but after further review of the data, SpaceX concluded that one of the rocket's legs failed to lock, causing the whole thing to tip over. Waves at the landing site today were 12 to 15 feet high, which may have contributed to difficulties in landing. But when asked if the same scenario would have happened on land, Musk answered, "Probably."   More
(Source: The Verge - Jan 17)

SPACEX FALCON 9 DEPLOYS JASON-3 SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Breaking through a dense fog a SpaceX rocket carried the Jason-3 satellite into low-Earth orbit on Sunday, but the Falcon 9's first-stage is not upright on the ocean barge after a return landing attempt. Lifting off with 1.3 million pounds of thrust, the Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:42 a.m. PST/1:42 p.m. EST. The first and second stage of the rocket separated over Africa, sending the second stage powered by a Merlin vacuum engine to deliver the Jason-3 into orbit.    More
(Source: Orlando Sentinel - Jan 17)

JASON-3 SATELLITE TO TRACK RISING SEA LEVELS, GLOBAL WEATHER - After several delays throughout 2015, the Jason-3 satellite is now ready to take its place as the latest instrument deployed to track the changing surface height of Earth’s oceans. A joint effort between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European EUMETSAT and the French CNES organizations, Jason-3 will use the high-precision Poseidon-3B radar altimeter to observe the topography and the height of our planet’s ice-free oceans over time. SpaceX will try again to land the Falcon 9’s first stage on one of the NewSpace firm’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships for the launch of Jason 3. Photo Credit: SpaceX The topography of the ocean surface - that is, its own hills and valleys - affects the way the waters transfer heat around the planet.    More
(Source: Space Flight Insider - Jan 17)

WATCH: SPACE STATION CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON WATERSKIER ON EARTH - Think of it as an "E.T.'s"-eye view. A powerful camera pointed at Earth from the International Space Station captured a remarkable detail from 250 miles away: an amazingly clear image of a waterskier speeding through the waves. Vancouver-based UrtheCast, which is the first high-definition video streaming platform of Earth to be located on the International Space Station, released a GIF of a waterskier darting around behind a speedboat taken from space. After looking closely at a video taken by the High-Resolution Camera (HRC) called Iris, the UrtheCast team noticed the waterskier within a larger image of the famous Acropolis of Lindos in Greece.   More
(Source: CBS News - Jan 16)

FIRST BRITISH SPACE STATION ASTRONAUT TAKES 'ELECTRIFYING' SPACEWALK TODAY - NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tim Peake will take venture outside the International Space Station on a spacewalk today (Jan. 15) to repair one of the station's eight vital power channels. Peake is the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station, and this will be his first spacewalk. Kopra, who has flown once before, went on a spacewalk with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly in December. This is his third spacewalk. You can watch the spacewalk live here beginning at 6:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV. The two spacewalking Tims are expected to exit the station by about 7:55 a.m. EST (1255 GMT).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 16)

BELARUSIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LAUNCHED FROM CHINA - A Chinese rocket carried the first communications satellite for Belarus into orbit Friday, recording a success in the first space launch this year. The Belintersat 1 telecom craft lifted off at 1657 GMT (11:57 a.m. EST) aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang space center in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Owned by the government of Belarus, Belintersat 1’s C-band and Ku-band transponders will broadcast television and radio programming, support corporate networking, and provide broadband Internet connectivity.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 16)

ASTRO-H SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH - On 12 January 2016, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) presented their ASTRO-H satellite to the media at the Tanegashima Space Center, situated on a small island in the south of Japan. The satellite, developed with institutions in Japan, the US, Canada and Europe, is now ready to be mounted on an H-IIA rocket for launch on 12 February.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Jan 15)

SPACEX ROCKET SET TO LAUNCH NOAA SATELLITE SUNDAY - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite is set to lift off Sunday, as part of an ongoing international effort to measure the physical features of the ocean surfaces. The launch of Jason-3, an international mission led by the NOAA to continue U.S.- European satellite measurements, is scheduled for Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:42:18 p.m. ET from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4 East. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on the Western Range on Jan. 18 at 1:31:04 p.m. ET.    More
(Source: Fox News - Jan 15)

RUSSIA DECREASES NUMBER OF SATELLITES IN ITS 2025 PLAN DUE TO BUDGET CUTS - The number of satellites in the Russian orbital constellation in 2025 will reach 70 instead of previously planned 95 spacecraft, according to the draft federal space program for 2016-2025 prepared by the Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos. According to the document that is being prepared for the government’s approval, in 2025 the number of satellite in the Russian orbital constellation will reach not 95, as it had been planned with the budget of 2 trillion rubles, but 70 spacecraft given the new financing. More: http://tass.ru/en/science/849569   More
(Source: TASS - Jan 15)

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