FURTHER DELAYS LIKELY IN U.S. LAUNCHES TO SPACE STATION - Come 2018, it's almost certain U.S. astronauts will still be riding Russian rockets to the International Space Station. A vote by a key Senate panel Wednesday all but killed any chance Congress will fully finance NASA's space shuttle replacement program by 2017 and end the agency's reliance on Soyuz rockets for access to the space station. That vote by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that finances the space program approved $900 million for the shuttle replacement program, known as Commercial Crew, in fiscal 2016. That's nearly $350 million less than the $1.24 billion NASA requested to meet a launch target of late 2017. More (Source: USA Today - Jun 11)
RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY RESCHEDULES 6 FLIGHTS TO INT'L SPACE STATION FOR 2015 - Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday it has rescheduled launches to the International Space Station (ISS) to include six more for 2015. The decision was made after the Progress M27-M cargo ship carrying fuel, oxygen, food and scientific equipment to the ISS failed to dock, going into an uncontrolled spin on April 28. The spacecraft was soon declared irretrievable and burned up in the atmosphere during reentry. More (Source: Sputnik International - Jun 10)
GLITCH SHIFTS POSITION OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A glitch at the International Space Station on Tuesday caused its position in orbit to change, but the crew was not in danger, the Russian space agency said. Roscosmos said the engines of a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station unexpectedly started during testing of the radio system that controls the docking procedure. Steps were taken to stabilize the station and specialists were now working to determine what caused the engines to start, the agency said. More (Source: ABC News - Jun 10)
SPACE STATION CREW RETURNING TO EARTH AFTER DELAY - Three crewmembers who have been aboard the International Space Station for an extended, 6.5-month mission will be heading home on Thursday, with no launch date set for their replacements. Station commander Terry Virts with NASA, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and the Italian Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti had been slated to fly back to Earth on May 13. The trio launched aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on Nov. 24, 2014. The Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, and its partners in the station program delayed the crew’s homecoming and the launch of their replacements while engineers investigated why a Russian Progress cargo ship, flying on a different version of the Soyuz rocket used to launch crew, failed shortly after reaching orbit on April 28. More (Source: Discovery News - Jun 10)
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY PLANS TOWN ON THE MOON TO REPLACE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - he European Space Agency is planning a village on the moon to replace the International Space Station orbiting earth that looks like it has come straight from the Teletubbies. Professor Jan Woerner, the future head of the ESA, said construction could start on 'Lunarville' to replace the station in 2024 and would spark huge innovations. 'The construction of a station on the moon would trigger a huge surge of technological innovation on earth. The back side of the moon, which we can't see from earth, would provide the best conditions for research where telescopes could be set up to have an undisturbed view into the depths of space. More (Source: Daily Mail - Jun 9)
SATELLITE COMES BACK TO LIFE, DEPLOYS SOLAR SAIL ON SECOND TRY - Mission managers say the shoebox-sized LightSail satellite powered up its tiny deployment motor Sunday, and data from the diminutive spacecraft indicate its experimental solar sail unfurled in orbit hundreds of miles above Earth. The deployment sequence began at 3:47 p.m. EDT (1947 GMT) off the west coast of Baja California, when LightSail was in radio contact with a ground station in San Luis Obispo, California. “Telemetry received on the ground showed motor counts climbing to the halfway point before LightSail traveled out of range,” wrote Jason Davis, a blogger who has provided daily updates since LightSail’s launch for the Planetary Society, which manages the mission. “Power levels were consistent with ground-based deployment tests, and the spacecraft’s cameras were on.” More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 8)
THREE SPACE STATION CREW MEMBERS SET TO RETURN TO EARTH JUNE 11 - After more than six months of performing scientific research and technology demonstrations in space, three International Space Station crew members are scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory Thursday, June 11. SpaceCoastDaily.com via NASA TV will provide coverage of their station departure and return to Earth. Coverage begins at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, June 10, when Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA hands over command of the space station to cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). More (Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - Jun 7)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES FIRST SOYUZ ROCKET SINCE SPACE STATION MISSION FAILURE - A Russian Soyuz booster rocket has successfully launched a satellite for the first time since a much-publicized failure in April. The Defense Ministry said the Soyuz 2.1A rocket was launched Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, placing a Russian military satellite into its designated orbit. The failure of the previous Soyuz launch on April 28 led to the loss of an unmanned Progress cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. More (Source: NBCNews - Jun 6)
N. KOREA DEVELOPING NEW SATELLITE, DEFENDS SPACE PROGRAM - North Korean space agency officials say the country is developing a more advanced Earth observation satellite and are defending their right to conduct rocket launches whenever they see fit, despite protests by the United States and others that the launches are aimed primarily at honing military-use technologies. The North launched its first and only satellite in 2012. The claim that it is working on another, made in an interview last week with an AP Television crew in Pyongyang, comes amid a flurry of attention to the country’s fledgling space agency, including a visit by leader Kim Jong Un to a new satellite control center that was repeatedly broadcast on North Korean TV early last month. More (Source: Washington Post - Jun 5)
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