PREPARATIONS FOR LAUNCH OF EUROPEAN SATELLITE ASTRA 2G PROCEED ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE - Preparations for the launch of the European satellite Astra 2G scheduled for November 28 are continuing at the Baikonur space center, Alexander Shmygov, a spokesman for the Khrunichev research and production space center, told Interfax-AVN. "All work is going according to schedule," Shmygov said in commenting on online reports alleging that the satellite's launch could be postponed to a later date.    More
(Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - Nov 9)

U.S. NAVY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE SHIPPED TO LAUNCH SITE - A massive U.S. Navy satellite to launch from Cape Canaveral in January arrived in Florida on Thursday, kicking off a campaign to ready the mobile communications craft for flight. The Mobile User Objective System No. 3 satellite (MUOS 3) is slated for launch Jan. 20 at 7:42 p.m. EST by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. “The delivery of MUOS 3 is an important step toward enabling our warfighters to be able to pick up the phone to seamlessly call or transfer data anywhere around the world,” said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 8)

JAPANESE SATELLITES LAUNCHED ON SOVIET-ERA MISSILE - A decommissioned Soviet-era ballistic missile — adapted for space launches instead of nuclear war — rocketed out of an underground silo and sent five Japanese Earth observing satellites into orbit Thursday. The 111-foot-tall Dnepr rocket fired out of a missile silo at the Dombarovsky military base in southern Russia at 0735 GMT (2:35 a.m. EST; 10:35 a.m. Moscow time) and deployed its passenger spacecraft in orbit nearly 14 minutes later, according to Kosmotras, a Moscow-based company with joint Russian-Ukrainian ownership that oversees the commercial exploitation of the launcher. The rocket is a modified R-36M missile developed in Ukraine. The Western designation for the missile is the SS-18 “Satan.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 7)

SOVIET SPY SATELLITE TO FALL BACK TO EARTH - An old Soviet reconnaissance satellite is due to enter and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday while any possible debris is projected to fall in the Pacific Ocean, Russian Aerospace Defense Force have announced. “Analysis indicates that fragments of the Kosmos-1441 satellite will leave the near-Earth orbit on November 8, 2014 over the Pacific Ocean. The final date and site where the fragments may crash may change under the influence of external factors,” spokesman for the Russian Space Command Aleksey Zolotukhin told TASS. Kosmos-1441 is a Soviet military ELINT (Electronic and Signals Intelligence) satellite that was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome back in 1983 onboard a Vostok rocket.   More
(Source: RT - Nov 7)

WHEN THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CAN BE SEEN THROUGH NOV. 11 - Residents in Central Florida will get a chance to spot the International Space Station as it orbits Earth this weekend. The space station will be visible for about three minutes at 6:18 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. The station will be visible again for about two minutes at 5:30 a.m. Friday. All of the opportunities to see the International Space Station are early in the morning. The space station is currently about 268 miles above Earth.   More
(Source: News 13 Orlando - Nov 7)

WITH ONE SATELLITE TO SPARE, IRIDIUM COUNTING ON SPACEX TO MAINTAIN LAUNCH TEMPO - Mobile satellite services provider Iridium Communications lost the use of two more satellites in the three months ending Sept. 30 and is now down to a single in-orbit spare, a situation the company said is unlikely to cause service disruptions given the arrival of the second-generation system in 2015. Iridium’s $3 billion Iridium Next constellation of low-orbiting satellites is scheduled to make its inaugural launch, of two satellites, in June aboard a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket from Russia’s Yasny spaceport. The remaining launches will be aboard seven Space Exploration Technologies Corp.   More
(Source: Space News - Nov 6)

EMIRATI STUDENTS BUILD OWN SATELLITE - Emirati students will design, engineer and test a “nanosatellite” as part of the country’s push into the aerospace industry. The Nayif-1 satellite is part of the CubeSat Mission developed by Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, or Eiast, and American University of Sharjah. It is due to be launched into space at the end of next year. The project aims to develop a high-tech science and technology base by giving Emirati students experience in the development process. “This programme plays a significant role in developing the science and technology sector in the UAE through investing in local talents and capabilities,” said Yousuf Al Shaibani, director general of Eiast.    More
(Source: The National - Nov 5)

MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE LAUNCHED FROM RUSSIA - A Russian military communications relay platform blasted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, riding a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage into an egg-shaped orbit reaching nearly 25,000 miles above Earth. The satellite launched at 0143 GMT on Oct. 30 (9:43 p.m. EDT on Oct. 29) on top of a Soyuz 2-1a rocket from Plesetsk, Russian’s northern spaceport in the country’s Archangelsk oblast, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. A Fregat upper stage released from the Soyuz booster’s three-stage core vehicle fired three times to inject the Meridian communications satellite into an elliptical orbit with a low point of 600 miles and a high point of nearly 25,000 miles.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 3)

DIRECTV-14 SATELLITE FUELED FOR UPCOMING ARIANE 5 LAUNCH - The DIRECTV-14 satellite has been fueled at the Spaceport as preparations continue for its launch on Arianespace's upcoming Ariane 5 mission-which is scheduled for liftoff in early December, with India's GSAT-16 as the co-passenger. Built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL) for operator DIRECTV, the high-capacity spacecraft received its propellant load in the S5A fueling and integration hall - with this activity coming after DIRECTV-14's fit-check process performed earlier this month in the Spaceport's S5C clean room facility.   More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Nov 3)

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