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)

NASA SET TO AWARD SPACE STATION CARGO CONTRACTS - Multibillion-dollar contracts NASA is expected to award as soon as Thursday will establish the fleet of U.S. vehicles servicing the International Space Station into the next decade, and could introduce a new spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center. The space agency was scheduled to announce the winners of contracts to deliver cargo to the space station on unmanned craft between 2018 and 2024, decisions that have been delayed multiple times this year. The incumbent cargo haulers, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, hope to continue their services, while Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. hope to claim a piece of the action that could be worth up to $14 billion.   More
(Source: USA Today - Nov 6)

MSU RESEARCH SATELLITE DESTROYED IN ROCKET LAUNCH TUESDAY - An experimental U.S. military rocket failed shortly after launch from Hawaii Tuesday night destroying all 13 small research satellites aboard, including one developed in part at Montana State University. The U. S Navy did not say what went wrong with the launch Tuesday evening, but the website Spaceflight Now reported that videos of the flight showed the 67-foot Super Strypi rocket that carried the satellites veered out of control and broke apart about a minute after liftoff from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.   More
(Source: Montana State University - Nov 5)

CHINESE LONG MARCH 3B ROCKET PUTS CHINASAT-2C COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - China launched a new communications satellite designated ChinaSat-2C, or Zhongxing-2C on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Liftoff of the Long March 3B rocket and its precious cargo, took place at 12:25 p.m. EDT (16:25 GMT). The launch was conducted from the Launch Complex 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center located in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. As was the case with numerous prior Chinese launches, the liftoff was not announced earlier by the media or government officials. The launch was slated for November but the exact date wasn’t revealed.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Nov 5)

HAWAII ROCKET CARRYING SATELLITE FAILS AFTER TAKEOFF - Hawaii’s first satellite crashed back down to Earth shortly after liftoff when a rocket failed. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the Air Force confirmed the failure of the Super Strypi rocket at Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Tuesday. The rocket is designed to be a cost-effective method of launching smaller payloads. The University of Hawaii is investigating the cause the failure.   More
(Source: Fox News - Nov 5)

AAUSAT5 COMMUNICATES WITH STUDENTS ON EARTH - With the help of amateur radio operators, Aalborg University engineering students have established two-way communication with their home-built, ESA-sponsored satellite AAUSAT5. The European Space Agency (ESA) report: "AAUSAT5 was launched from the International Space Station on October 5, 2015. Following initial difficulties in establishing a two way communication link with the satellite from the control centre in Aalborg and attempts to improve the ground station performance, the investigation revealed that the northern location of Aalborg, relative to the satellite’s orbit, was a contributor to the communication issue. Therefore the project team reached out to ham operators in more southern locations in Europe for help."   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Nov 5)

ISS ASTRONAUTS LINK-UP WITH ITU WRC-15 IN GENEVA - The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) is taking place in Geneva from November 2-27. On Tuesday, November 3 at 1241 UT there was an amateur radio link-up between WRC-15 and two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The contact took place using the permanent amateur radio station at the ITU. The station’s normal call sign is 4U1ITU but during the conference the special call sign 4U1WRC is being used.   More
(Source: AMSAT-UK - Nov 4)

Previous Next