ISRO TO LAUNCH 6 SINGAPORE SATELLITES IN DECEMBER - India will launch six satellites from Singapore, including a dedicated 500kg earth observation spacecraft, in mid-December, a top space official said on Friday. "The 500kg dedicated satellite (TeLOS-1) will be a commercial launch for Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd while five other smaller satellites are from Singapore universities," Indian space agency's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Chairman and Managing Director V.S. Hegde told IANS in Bengaluru. The polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), the most reliable workhorse and trusted rocket of the Indian Space Research and Organisation (Isro), will deploy the satellites into a near equatorial orbit, inclined 15 degrees lower to the south of equator.   More
(Source: NDTV - Oct 18)

SATELLITE LAUNCHED TO BEAM TV AND INTERNET TO THE ASIA-PACIFIC - A commercial Chinese communications satellite launched Friday aboard a Long March 3B rocket on a mission to broadcast television to consumers across the Asia-Pacific and connect passengers on ships and airplanes with the Internet. Owned and operated by APT Satellite in Hong Kong, the Apstar 9 communications platform is beginning a 15-year mission to replace the aging Apstar 9A satellite in orbit since 1998. Apstar 9 lifted off at 1616 GMT (12:16 p.m. EDT) Friday from the Xichang space base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. A Long March 3B rocket, boosted by four liquid-fueled strap-on engines, put the satellite in orbit 26 minutes later, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 18)

TURKISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LIFTS OFF FROM BAIKONUR - A Russian Proton rocket boosted a Turkish telecommunications satellite into space Friday after a blazing liftoff from Kazakhstan, but it was expected to take more than nine hours to inject the 5.4-ton broadcasting craft into an orbit ranging more than 20,000 miles above Earth. The Turksat 4B satellite — encapsulated in the nose cone of the 19-story Proton booster — blasted off at 2040:11 GMT (4:40:11 p.m. EDT) Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, riding a column of orange rocket exhaust through low clouds hanging above the arid space center. After pitching on a northeast trajectory from Baikonur, the Proton rocketed through the speed of sound and shed its six-engine first stage in the first two minutes of the flight.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 17)

NASA LAUNCHES PYRAMID SATELLITE PROJECT TO STUDY SPACE WEATHER - Controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are doing some pretty tight flying. Alex DeMetrick reports four satellites are being brought close together to get a closer look at space weather. The Blue Angels pull off tight formations every day, but in Maryland, controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are bringing four satellites into a very close formation for the first time. “No one’s ever gotten this close before,” said Conrad Schiff, with the project. Four small satellites are being brought within ten miles of each other. That’s a whisker close in space. “Keeping the spacecraft close enough to meet the science goals, and at the same time, keeping them from actually getting so close they could collide,” Schiff said.   More
(Source: CBS Local - Oct 16)

CYGNUS SERVICE MODULE ARRIVES IN FLORIDA FOR STATION FLIGHT - The power and propulsion section of Orbital ATK’s next Cygnus supply ship, featuring new solar panel and fuel tank designs, arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday to be joined with a cargo module for a Dec. 3 launch to the International Space Station. The shipment comes nearly one year after Orbital ATK’s last space station supply flight crashed seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, aboard the company’s own Antares booster. Orbital ATK engineers blame the failure on one of the Antares main engines, and officials purchased two Atlas 5 rockets from United Launch Alliance to keep the Cygnus missions flying while a new engine model is added to the Antares.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 16)

WATCH VIRGIN GALACTIC TEST FIRE ITS SATELLITE LAUNCHING ROCKET - On top of doing space tourism, Virgin Galactic aims to launch small satellites under 200 kilograms (440 pounds) into standard orbit via its LauncherOne program by the end of 2016. To achieve that (and hit the $10 mllion target price) Branson's outfit will not launch rockets from terra firma, but via a carrier plane at a height of around 50,000 feet. So far nary a rocket has flown, but Virgin says it's making "great progress" after a test this month. It managed to "hotfire" its NewtonThree first-stage rocket for nearly 90 seconds, or about half its projected mission burn time.   More
(Source: Engadget - Oct 15)

SMALL SATELLITES TO LAUNCH FROM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER BEGINNING 2018 - NASA announced Wednesday it has selected three companies to help the agency develop rockets that can deliver small satellites to space. Firefly Space Systems plans to test suborbital flights from new launch pad 39C at Kennedy Space Center in 2017. The Texas-based company is building a two-stage rocket named "Alpha." NASA is awarding Firefly $5.5 million to launch small satellites, and $6.9 million to a second company, Los Angeles-based Rocket Lab USA. Rocket Lab is developing the Electron rocket to send small satellites, called CubeSats, to space. The company is also considering using pad 39C, which KSC opened over the summer.   More
(Source: News 13 Orlando - Oct 15)

PROTON ROLLED OUT FOR LAUNCH OF TURKISH SATELLITE - Russian ground crews moved a Proton rocket to its launch pad in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for liftoff with a Japanese-built broadcasting platform for Turkey’s national telecom satellite operator Friday. The 191-foot-tall booster was rotated vertical at the Baikonur Cosmodrome’s Complex 200 launch facility after an early morning rollout by rail car from a nearby assembly hangar. A mobile service gantry was expected to move into place around the rocket to give workers access to the Proton for final prelaunch checks.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Oct 14)

NASA SAYS FIRST CUBESAT NANO-SATELLITE IS FUNCTIONAL - A miniature satellite sent in the space aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on October 8 is working fine, Nasa has announced. The Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) CubeSat spacecraft is in orbit and operational, said Nasa and The Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, California on Monday. CubeSats are going to play a key role in exploration, technology demonstration, scientific research and educational investigations.   More
(Source: NDTV - Oct 14)

Previous Next