LAUNCH OF U.S.-FRENCH OCEANOGRAPHY SATELLITE POSTPONED - The launch of a U.S.-French oceanography satellite from California has been postponed from July 22 after engineers discovered contamination in one of the spacecraft’s thrusters at its factory in France. NOAA announced the launch slip Tuesday. Officials did not set a new launch date. “The launch of the Jason 3 mission will not occur July 22, as announced previously,” NOAA said in a statement. “During spacecraft testing, engineers located contamination in one of the four thrusters on the spacecraft. The problem thruster has been replaced. An investigation into the contamination will continue during the next two weeks, as the new thruster is tested.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)

BOEING SPACE CAPSULE GETS NASA'S 1ST COMMERCIAL CREW FLIGHT ORDER - NASA has awarded Boeing with the first order for a commercial crew change flight to the International Space Station once the company's new CST-100 space taxi is ready for manned flights in 2017. Both Boeing and SpaceX are building private spaceships to ferry astronauts on round trips to the space station for NASA. While SpaceX has not received an order yet, NASA said the company will likely receive one later this year. Who flies first will be determined at a later date. "Final development and certification are top priority for NASA and our commercial providers, but having an eye on the future is equally important to the commercial crew and station programs," said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, in a statement.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 3)

PLANETARY SOCIETY REGAINS COMMUNICATION WITH LIGHTSAIL SPACECRAFT - The Planetary Society says it has regained contact with its LightSail satellite. Last week fears arose that the organization had permanently lost touch with the tiny spacecraft, which launched earlier this month to lay the groundwork for testing a solar sail in Earth orbit. The private organization, headed by Bill Nye, launched LightSail on May 20 aboard an Atlas V rocket. Two days later the "cube sat" went silent due to a suspected software glitch. Planetary Society engineers predicted the spacecraft would reboot itself, but they weren't entirely confident that would happen.   More
(Source: NPR - Jun 1)

THE SILLY REASON THE CHINESE AREN’T ALLOWED ON THE SPACE STATION - Geopolitics can be child’s play—literally. How else would you describe the did-not! did-too! brawl that can result when one country crosses another country’s invisible line in the playroom that is the South China Sea? How else would you describe the G-8 canceling its playdate in Sochi after Russia climbed over the fence to Ukraine’s yard? Something similar is true of the International Space Station (ISS), the biggest, coolest, most excellent tree house there ever was. Principally built and operated by the U.S., the ISS has welcomed aboard astronauts from 15 different countries, including such space newbies as South Africa, Brazil, The Netherlands and Malaysia. But China? Nuh-uh. Never has happened, never gonna’ happen.   More
(Source: TIME - May 30)

WEATHER TALK: SATELLITE LAUNCHING SOON WILL WATCH OCEAN LEVELS - A new orbiting weather satellite scheduled to launch July 22 is designed to monitor the level of the ocean. Jason-3, the latest in a joint U.S. and European mission designed to monitor sea level, will use the latest and most sophisticated radar altimeter to send a series of microwave pulses to the ocean’s surface so it can time the reflection. Jason-3’s predecessors have measured a 2.4 inch average rise in the past 23 years. But the rise is not universal.   More
(Source: INFORUM - May 30)

SPACE STATION MODULE MOVED TO CLEAR PATH FOR CARGO SHIPS - Ground controllers powered up the International Space Station’s robotic arm and repositioned a storage module Wednesday to give visiting cargo delivery vehicles a second parking port at the complex. The reconfiguration is another step in preparing the space station to receive commercial crew vehicles owned by Boeing and SpaceX. When the changes are complete later this year, the space station will have two ports for unpiloted resupply vehicles from the United States and Japan, plus a pair of docking locations for Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 29)

ARIANE 5 ROCKET SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES DIRECTV-15 AND SKY MEXICO-1 COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES - An Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched two communications satellites on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, at 6:16 p.m. local time (5:16 p.m. EST) from Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 (ELA 3) at the Spaceport located in Kourou, French Guiana. This marked the 223rd Arianespace mission to date and was designated Ariane Flight VA223. The booster delivered both the DirecTV-15 and Sky Mexico-1 satellites into orbit. “I’m delighted to announce another Ariane5 success! Our on-board telemetry system confirms both payloads separated as planned,” Stéphane Israël, Arianespace CEO, said shortly after the launch.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - May 28)

X-37B SPACEPLANE’S ORBIT DISCOVERED - Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force’s mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth. The X-37B craft, making the program’s fourth mission into space, was launched May 20 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The ascent entered a news blackout about five minutes after liftoff, as the Centaur upper stage began its burn to put the spaceplane into low-Earth orbit. It wasn’t until later that officials confirmed the launch had gone smoothly for the Orbital Test Vehicle mission No. 4. It is believed the Centaur deployed X-37B about 19 minutes into flight. Observers this week spotted the craft flying overhead in a 194 by 202 mile orbit (312 X 325 km), tilted 38 degrees relative to the equator.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 28)

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS LEAVE ISS CREWS IN HOLDING PATTERN - Four weeks after a Progress space station supply ship spun out of control in a launch mishap, Russian engineers have not yet revealed what might have gone wrong, casting a cloud of uncertainty over downstream flights of unpiloted cargo ships as well as Soyuz crew ferry craft. The Progress M-27M/59P cargo craft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 28. The ascent appeared to go smoothly but at roughly the moment the supply ship reached orbit, something went wrong, damaging the cargo ship, imparting a rapid spin and boosting the craft to a higher-than-planned altitude.   More
(Source: CBS News - May 28)

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