VANDENBERG LAUNCH OF POWERFUL ATLAS V ROCKET CARRYING SPY SATELLITE SCRUBBED - The oncoming storm prompted a delay in the planned launch Thursday of a powerful rocket carrying a mysterious U.S. spy satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Atlas V 541 rocket had been expected to blast off from the Lompoc-area base at 7:17 p.m., the 30th Space Wing announced earlier this week. The launch was rescheduled for 7:13 p.m. Friday. The rocket is the same kind that launched NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover in 2011, according to the system’s maker, United Launch Alliance. The 20-story rocket will be the most powerful ever launched from Vandenberg AFB, SpaceFlightNow.com reported. More (Source: KTLA - Dec 12)
CHINA PUTS IN ORBIT RESEARCH SATELLITE - China has successfully placed into designated orbit its Yaogan-25 remote sensing satellite, China’s Central Television said on Thursday. The satellite was launched by a Long March-4C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan space pad in the northwestern province of Gansu. The Yaogan-25 satellite will be used for scientific experiments and Earth surface surveys. Its data will also be used to estimate crop yields and disaster relief. This was Long March’s 201st launch. More (Source: ITAR-TASS - Dec 11)
FINAL ULA MISSION OF 2014, NROL-35, SCHEDULED FOR LIFTOFF ON THURSDAY NIGHT - Another classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), NROL-35, is scheduled to take to the skies on Thursday, Dec. 11, from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It is currently scheduled to launch at 7:17 p.m. PST (0317 GMT), within their two-hour launch window of 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. PST (0200 to 0400 GMT). Regarding the NROL-35 payload itself, little has been said. The only mission description given by United Launch Alliance (ULA), whose rocket will carry the payload, is, “The mission will be launched for the National Reconnaissance Office in support of national defense.” More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Dec 11)
ORBITAL PICKS ATLAS 5 TO LAUNCH NEXT SPACE STATION CARGO RUN - Orbital Sciences Corp. announced Tuesday it selected United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket to launch a Cygnus space station resupply mission in late 2015 while the company redesigns its Antares booster with a new engine following a catastrophic failure seconds after liftoff in October. The Atlas 5 launcher will take off from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad to send Orbital's Cygnus supply ship on a trek to the International Space Station. The flight is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2015, Orbital Sciences said in a statement. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 11)
PROBA-3 DOUBLE-SATELLITE NEARER TO SPACE - A pair of satellites flying in close formation to cast an artificial eclipse is now being turned into space-ready reality by ESA's industrial partners. The latest member of ESA's Proba minisatellite family will begin its ambitious mission in about four years' time. Two satellites will be launched together then separate to fly in tandem, going on to experiment with high-precision formation-flying techniques. More (Source: Phys.org - Dec 10)
THE TINY SPACE SATELLITE THAT YOU CAN BUILD AND LAUNCH YOURSELF - Most of the thousand or so operational satellites in orbit are multi-million-dollar machines that provide major industries with scientific research, global positioning or military espionage. Twenty-five-year-old Tom Walkinshaw, however, hopes to prove that satellites are not the preserve of leviathan space agencies, and that, for a comparatively small sum ($20,000), the workaday enthusiast can build and launch a fully functioning satellite of their own. One year old next January, his company PocketQube Shop provides the basic materials for doing this, most importantly the PocketQube structure itself - a tiny, 5cm3 casing made from aerospace-grade aluminium – which houses each satellite’s components. More (Source: The Guardian - Dec 8)
CHINESE-BRAZILIAN EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED - An Earth-watching satellite developed by China and Brazil lifted off on a Long March 4B rocket Saturday, replacing an environmental craft lost in a launch mishap last year. The CBERS 4 spacecraft — the fifth in a series of joint China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellites — lifted off at 0326 GMT Sunday (10:26 p.m. EST Saturday) from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province, where it was 11:26 a.m. local time. A Long March 4B rocket boosted the 2.3-ton satellite into orbit about 460 miles, or 740 kilometers, above Earth. The launcher’s third stage deployed the CBERS 4 spacecraft in orbit about 12 minutes after liftoff, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, known by the acronym INPE. More (Source: SpaceFLight Now - Dec 8)
ORION SPLASHES DOWN AFTER FIRST, 2-ORBIT TEST FLIGHT - NASA's Orion capsule has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after its first, unmanned, two-orbit test flight. It came down on the surface of the ocean at 11:29 a.m. ET about 270 miles off the coast of Baja California, NASA said. NASA's new Orion spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral and rocketed to orbit Friday morning -- the first test flight for a program that NASA hopes eventually will get astronauts to asteroids and Mars. The 4.5-hour, uncrewed, two-orbit flight is taking Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight has been since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972. More (Source: CNN - Dec 5)
DELTA 4-HEAVY BLASTS OFF WITH ORION CAPSULE - NASA’s inaugural Orion spaceship has set sail on a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise around the Earth, leaving port atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket and its incandescent power at 7:05 a.m. EST today. The 46,000-pound craft rocketed into its preliminary orbit, setting the stage for a coast period and another engine firing by the Delta 4-Heavy later this morning to put Orion on a trajectory to travel 15 times higher than the International Space Station before re-entering over the Pacific Ocean and splashing down 600 miles southwest of San Diego at 11:23 a.m. EST (1623 GMT). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 5)
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