EUROPEAN CARGO SHIP LEAVING SPACE STATION SATURDAY, SKIPPING TEST BECAUSE OF FAILED POWER LINE - A European cargo ship is set to depart the International Space Station this weekend. But it will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up the next day, skipping a special descent test because of a problem. One of four power lines failed last week on the trash-filled capsule. Engineers suspect a bad battery. The problem prompted the European Space Agency to cancel a shallow re-entry test that had been planned for the end of the month. Instead, the craft will re-enter normally Sunday over the Pacific. More (Source: U.S. News & World Report - Feb 13)
ESA EXPERIMENTAL SPACEPLANE COMPLETES RESEARCH FLIGHT - An experimental vehicle to develop an autonomous European reentry capability for future reusable space transportation has completed its mission. ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless reentry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands. The IXV spaceplane lifted off at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time) on 11 February from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega rocket. More (Source: ESA - Feb 12)
SPACEX LAUNCHES SATELLITE BUT CALLS OFF ATTEMPT TO LAND ROCKET ON PLATFORM IN ATLANTIC - Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched a research satellite into space Wednesday but called off a dramatic attempt to land the first stage of an unmanned rocket on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean because of extreme weather that caused massive waves. In a statement, the company said that the "drone ship," as it calls the floating platform, "was designed to operate in all but the most extreme weather." But with waves "three stories high crashing over the decks," the attempt was not possible. More (Source: Washington Post - Feb 12)
VEGA ROCKET LAUNCHES IXV SPACEPLANE – MISSION COMPLETE - The European Space Agency is flying a reentry demonstration mission Wednesday with its Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV). Boosted by Europe’s lightweight Vega rocket, the IXV flew a suborbital mission culminating in landing and recovery in the Pacific Ocean after around 102 minutes of flight. Liftoff is occurred at 13:40 UTC from Kourou, French Guiana. The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, or IXV, is a fully-automated technology demonstration spacecraft designed to build on earlier research into atmospheric reentry and serve as a stepping stone to a proposed reusable experimental vehicle. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 11)
DARPA TO BEGIN TESTING SATELLITE-LAUNCHING FIGHTER JET THIS YEAR - The United States military's ambitious plan to launch satellites from the belly of a fighter jet should get its first in-air test later this year. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to begin the flight-test phase of its Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program, or ALASA, with a demonstration run in late 2015. If all goes according to plan, a series of 12 orbital flights would then commence in early 2016 and wrap up by the middle of the year, DARPA officials said. "The plan right now is, we have 12 [orbital] launches. The first three are fundamentally engineering checkout payloads," Bradford Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said Feb. 5 during a presentation at the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 11)
SPACEX CRS-5 DRAGON RETURNS HOME VIA PACIFIC SPLASHDOWN - SpaceX’s CRS-5 Dragon spacecraft departed the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of a return to Earth on Tuesday. The EOM (End Of Mission) events climaxed with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at around 7:44 pm Eastern, concluding another successful mission for the commercial resupply spacecraft. Launched atop of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle on January 10, Dragon has enjoyed yet another successful mission at the orbital outpost – her sixth ISS stay in total. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 11)
SPACEX SCRUBS FALCON 9'S DSCOVR LAUNCH (AGAIN) DUE TO WINDS - SpaceX postponed the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket with the Deep Space Climate Observatory once more on Tuesday, due to unacceptable upper-level winds. The rocket was geared up to send the observatory, also known as DSCOVR, on its trek to a vantage point a million miles from Earth — and then make a second try to land the rocket's first stage on an oceangoing platform. But with 13 minutes left on the countdown clock, the upper-level winds were judged to be too high for the rocket to handle. More (Source: NBC News - Feb 10)
SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE LEAVES SPACE STATION FOR OCEAN SPLASHDOWN - SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule is headed back to Earth after spending one month attached to the International Space Station, marking the start of a big day for the private spaceflight company that also includes a satellite launch and bold rocket landing attempt. The uncrewed Dragon supply ship — carrying hardware and experiments back from the station — cast off from the space station at about 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT) today, Feb. 10. Dragon will splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 7:44 p.m. EST (0044 Feb. 11 GMT), where a recovery ship is standing by to retrieve the capsule. If all goes according to plan, the splashdown should occur just hours after SpaceX is due to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) space weather satellite into orbit. SpaceX also hopes to try to land the rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after delivering the satellite to space. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 10)
EUROPEAN SPACE CARGO SHIP'S FIERY DEMISE STARS IN NEW VIDEO - A stunning video shows the destruction of a robotic cargo ship re-entering Earth's atmosphere in November after delivering 7 tons of supplies to the International Space Station. The sequence of pictures shows the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) named for Albert Einstein burning up over an unpopulated area of the Pacific Ocean. The amazing ATV re-entry video, which ESA unveiled last week, shows the colorful breaking apart of the vehicle as it entered Earth's atmosphere on Nov. 2, 2013. The ship carried about 1.7 tons of waste from the station. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 10)
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