SPACEX RELEASES EXPLOSIVE VIDEO OF FIERY ROCKET CRASH - SpaceX has released explosive video footage from its botched attempt to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday following a successful trip to the International Space Station. A video posted to the aerospace company's Vine account shows the 14-story rocket crashing on the barge, which was roughly the size of a football field, according to the Associated Press. "Close, but no cigar. This time," the caption reads, echoing an earlier tweet from founder Elon Musk, who also heads electric car company Tesla Motors. Musk seemed lighthearted about the incident in a tweet Friday, jokingly calling the crash a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."    More
(Source: mySanAntonio.com - Jan 18)

ELON MUSK AND RICHARD BRANSON INVEST IN SATELLITE-INTERNET VENTURES - Two space entrepreneurs — Elon Musk and Richard Branson — are adding satellites to their cosmic ambitions. In separate announcements this week, the two men said they were making big investments in small satellites that could one day provide a global low-cost Internet service. Musk, the founder of upstart rocket company SpaceX, was in Seattle on Friday to open a new office where dozens of engineers will work on developing smaller-sized satellites. In an earlier post on Twitter, he explained that SpaceX was in the initial stages of creating "advanced micro-satellites" that would orbit the earth in large clusters.   More
(Source: Los Angeles Times - Jan 17)

NASA HOPES TO REPLACE CARGO LOST ON ANTARES FAILURE THIS YEAR - NASA officials say the International Space Station’s logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver supplies on time this year. “It’s just critical,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager. “We can’t operate without the logistics partners. With the Orbital standdown, we basically lost about 2.3 metric tons of cargo that we had planned for, so now we’re adjusting for that.” Without regular cargo deliveries, officials may have to reduce the size of the space station’s crew from six to three. In a worst case scenario, the space station could be temporarily abandoned.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 16)

SPACE STATION CREW MOVED AFTER GAS LEAK FEARS - Crew members were evacuated from a US segment of the International Space Station after an ammonia leak was suspected. But Nasa officials now says a sensor problem probably created the false impression of leaking coolant. The Russian space agency emphasised that the crew members had not been in any danger. It said that mission control experts in Russia and the US had quickly co-operated to ensure the crew's safety. The six crew members on the outpost put on breathing equipment and moved into the Russian segment after the alert at around 0900 GMT, closing the hatch to the US side behind them.    More
(Source: BBC News - Jan 14)

NAVY'S NEW 'BEACH BALL' SATELLITE TAKES A SPIN FROM THE ISS - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have launched a spherical, beach ball-sized satellite whose performance could help the military in its quest for smaller, less expensive satellites that can be used to extend communications or support specific missions. Developed by the Naval Research Lab, the SpinSat’s primary mission is to test a new thruster technology that could be applied to altitude control for small satellites the Navy is developing, such as cube, pico and nano staellites.    More
(Source: Defense Systems - Jan 14)

VIASAT SELECTS SPACEX TO LAUNCH VIASAT-2 SATELLITE - ViaSat Inc. is taking another step forward in the transformation of satellite broadband with the selection of SpaceX to launch ViaSat-2, the next generation of high-capacity broadband satellite. ViaSat-2 is scheduled for a late summer 2016 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon Heavy is the world's most powerful rocket, with the ability to lift more than twice the payload of the next closest launch vehicle at only one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy is an evolution of the flight-proven Falcon 9 that is used to launch commercial satellites as well as cargo missions to the International Space Station.    More
(Source: MarketWatch - Jan 13)

LAUNCH OF RUSSIAN PROTON CARRIER ROCKET WITH BRITISH SATELLITE SET FOR JANUARY 30 - The launch of a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with British communications satellite Inmarsat-5F2 has been scheduled for January 30 from the Baikonur space center that Russia leases from Kazakhstan, Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told TASS Monday. “The Inmarsat-5F2 spacecraft was delivered to Baikonur on December 18. Specialists of the Boeing manufacturer company’s space programs unit immediately started preparing and checking it in the integration and test building,” Roscosmos said.   More
(Source: ITAR-TASS - Jan 13)

FOURTH NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCH IN MARCH - The fourth navigation satellite of the country is getting ready for launch in March, and it will be another step forward for India in evolving its own navigation satellite system and not depend on the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) service of the U.S. Cryogenic propulsion systems on board PSLV-C27 rocket that will launch the satellite are being developed by scientists of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district. S. Ingersol, group director of the complex, told The Hindu, “Totally, seven satellites are required to be launched to complete the configuration under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) and already three had been launched.   More
(Source: The Hindu - Jan 12)

HUNGARY’S FIRST SATELLITE DEORBITS AFTER COMPLETING MISSION - Having successfully completed its mission, Masat-1, Hungary’s first satellite, is now destroyed after entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the research team controlling its mission told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Saturday. The satellite is believed to have burned up as projected, between 23:15 pm on Friday and 0:45 am on Saturday. According to the scientists, its last online package was received at 21:21.43 pm on Saturday, after which no further signal from Masat-1 was detected. This is due partly to the fact that the satellite spent its final hours above an ocean or an area where no surface radars collecting data for Hungarian controllers exist.   More
(Source: Hungary Today - Jan 11)

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