PROGRESS 58 DOCKS TO STATION’S ZVEZDA SERVICE MODULE - Traveling about 257 miles above the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Puerto Rico, the unpiloted Progress 58 Russian cargo ship docked at 11:57 a.m. EST to the rear port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. The craft is delivering three tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory. Progress 58 is scheduled to remain docked to the space station until August. Meanwhile, astronauts in the U.S. segment of the station are reviewing procedures for a trio of spacewalks. The first is set to begin Friday at 7:10 a.m. Spacewalkers Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts will exit the orbital lab to set the stage for a pair of new commercial crew vehicle docking ports to be installed later this year.   More
(Source: NASA - Feb 18)

SOYUZ ROCKET BOOSTS RUSSIAN CARGO CRAFT TO SPACE STATION - Russia launched a Progress resupply mission Tuesday on a six-hour pursuit of the International Space Station with more than 6,000 pounds of fuel, supplies and experiments to support the lab’s six-person crew. A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1100:17 GMT (6:00:17 a.m. EST), or 5 p.m. local time at the Central Asia space base. The three-stage launcher burned a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen as it powered into orbit with the Progress M-26M supply ship. After disappearing into low clouds about 20 seconds after liftoff, the Soyuz rocket shed four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters, jettisoned a protective shroud covering the Progress payload, then released its main core stage.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 17)

LAST ATV REENTRY LEAVES LEGACY FOR FUTURE SPACE EXPLORATION - ESA’s fifth automated cargo ferry completed its mission to the International Space Station today when it reentered the atmosphere and burned up safely over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific Ocean. The end of the mission as the craft broke up as planned at about 18:04 GMT (19:04 CET) marks the end of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) programme. The programme has served the Station with the most complex space vehicle ever developed in Europe, achieving five launches in six years following its 2008 debut.    More
(Source: ESA - Feb 15)

EUROPE’S FINAL ATV CARGO VEHICLE UNDOCKS FROM ISS - Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5, the Georges Lemaitre) has departed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday morning, ahead of a destructive re-entry on Sunday. The End Of Mission (EOM) events will complete the final ISS mission for the European cargo ship, although its spirit will live on with NASA’s Orion spacecraft program.The ATV-5 was launched on July 29, 2014 – atop an Ariane ES booster from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. ATV-5 proved to be the heaviest passenger ever to ride on the Ariane rocket.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight - Feb 14)

ISRO TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST US SATELLITE, FOR STARTUP SKYBOX - The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its first American satellite later this year or early next year. This is from the company Skybox Imaging, which was bought by Google after it signed the contract with Isro. Skybox is planning to launch a series of satellites from other places for highresolution imaging. Google reportedly has big plans to enter the space industry, and is planning a constellation of 180 satellites in low earth orbit, which will provide Internet access throughout the world. According to earlier reports, the cost of this constellation will be somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion. Isro signed the deal with Skybox in April 2014.    More
(Source: Economic Times - Feb 14)

EUROPE'S FINAL ATV CARGO SHIP LEAVES SPACE STATION SATURDAY: WATCH LIVE - An unmanned European space ship as big as a double-decker bus will leave the International Space Station tomorrow, signaling the end of a line of cargo ships that had delivered supplies to astronauts since 2008. Packed with astronaut trash, the European Space Agency's (ESA) fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5) will undock from the orbiting outpost Saturday morning (Feb. 14) at 8:41 a.m. EST. You can watch the undocking live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. The space agency's coverage will begin at 8:15 a.m. EST. [Europe's ATV-5 Space Cargo Ship Mission in Pictures]    More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 14)

VIRGIN GALACTIC UNVEILS MANUFACTURING FACILITY FOR ITS SATELLITE LAUNCHER - Virgin Galactic announced today that it has leased a new facility in Long Beach, California for the design and manufacture of its small satellite launcher, LauncherOne. The 150,000 square foot facility is intended to produce LauncherOne rockets “at quantity,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said in a statement. “With New Mexico’s magnificent Spaceport America for our commercial spaceflight operations, our Mojave facilities for WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo production, and now our new facility in Long Beach for LauncherOne, we are building capability to serve our expanding customer community.”   More
(Source: Forbes - Feb 13)

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)

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