WT1190F TO HIT EARTH ON FRIDAY THE 13TH - WT1190F is an unusual object that is not a Near Earth Asteroid but almost certainly a small (1-2 meter) artificial object. It is moving in the Earth-Moon system (i.e. in a very elliptic orbit around earth) and its orbit is under influence of Solar Radiation Pressure, which shows that it is very light weight for its size. This fact, and the geocentric rather than Heliocentric orbit with apogee at twice the distance to the Moon, suggests it is some piece of hardware from a past Lunar mission. More (Source: N2YO.com - Nov 13)
MASSIVE SATELLITE WEB WILL PRODUCE DAILY IMAGES OF THE ENTIRE EARTH - Imagine that it floods in Houston. You want to see how bad it is—what roads are blocked—so you hit up something like Google Earth for live satellite pictures of your city. It's futuristic, but not too far off thanks to a collaboration between private companies, NASA and the International Space Station. The biggest problem is obvious: furnishing fresh global satellite photos requires a massive infrastructure—enough orbiting lenses to pass over of each inch of Earth at least once daily. Satellites are very expensive, and so is launching them into space. More (Source: Chron.com - Nov 13)
RADIO BUG TO KEEP NEW IRIDIUM SATELLITES GROUNDED UNTIL APRIL - The first launch for Iridium’s next-generation mobile communications fleet has been pushed back four months — from December until April — to resolve a technical problem inside the spacecraft’s Ka-band communications payload. The announcement Oct. 29 means Iridium will miss a long-targeted timetable to begin launching the Iridium Next constellation in 2015. Matt Desch, Iridium’s CEO, told investment analysts the problem is rooted inside Ka-band transmit-receive modules made by ViaSat and delivered to spacecraft prime contractor Thales Alenia Space. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)
JAPAN TO BULK UP SATELLITE FLEET, SURVEILLANCE - Japan plans to grow its fleet of intelligence-gathering satellites from four to 10 and begin maritime surveillance from orbit, strengthening national security as space policy evolves. The government released Wednesday draft revisions to the timeline for implementing Japan's Basic Plan on Space Policy. A Cabinet Office body headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will adopt those changes in December after receiving public comments and other feedback. More (Source: Nikkei Asian Review - Nov 12)
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)
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