FIREBALL AS RUSSIAN SPACE JUNK 'BELLY FLOPS' TO EARTH ABOVE AUSTRALIA - A fireball the size of a small truck, which shot through the sky over Australia Thursday night, was space junk from Russia's Soyuz rocket, astronomers said. More accurately, it was "object 40077", the third stage of the Soyuz rocket which was launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday. It was hurtling around the Earth at some 18,000 mph, or almost 29,000 kilometers per hour. "What you're seeing in that fireball is it slowing down really fast. It's belly-flopping on the world's atmosphere at 18,000 miles an hour. That really hurts," said Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. More (Source: CNN.com - Jul 11)
A TOLL FREE NUMBER FOR SPACE STATION PASSES PREDICTION: 1-844-N2YO-COM - Are you curious if the Space Station will pass over your house in the next 24 hours? Are you tired of checking the passes on internet? Or maybe you don't have access to internet on your mobile device? No problem! Just dial a toll free number and in less than a minute you will have the answer by a synthesized voice. It's really easy. Here is how that works:
Dial 1-844-N2YO-COM (1-844-629-6266) and wait for the greeting message:
"Welcome to the automated International Space Station pass prediction system. The system is available for United States customers. This service is provided by N2YO.com."
Then you will be prompted to enter your five digits zip code. Once finished entering the zip code, do not press #, just wait for the voice to read the passes prediction for the following 24 hours.
That's all. You can listen to the prediction again, if you want.
Enjoy! Your feedback is really appreciated!
N2YO.com Team More (Source: N2YO.com - Jul 10)
SOYUZ ROCKET SENDS UP RUSSIAN WEATHER SATELLITE - A new Russian weather satellite lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, riding a Soyuz launcher into space with six small piggyback satellites from Britain, the United States and Norway. The polar-orbiting Meteor M2 satellite will track cloud cover, storm systems, temperature and humidity, and polar ice for weather forecasters. The 6,124-pound Meteor M2 satellite launched at 1558:28 GMT (11:58:28 a.m. EDT) from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was 9:58 p.m. local time. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 9)
FIRST SCOTTISH SATELLITE READY TO LAUNCH - Scotland's first satellite is scheduled for launch later. UKube-1 is a cubesat, packing six payloads into a space not much bigger than a shoebox. Its experiments include a study of space weather and a project to let school pupils interact with the satellite. It was commissioned by the UK Space Agency and built by Clyde Space, a Glasgow company which has a big share of the market for cubesat components. They already have orders for another two complete satellites, and say they are planning to mass-manufacture hundreds or even thousands more. More (Source: BBC News - Jul 8)
RUSSIA TO PHASE OUT OLDER SOYUZ ROCKETS FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RUNS - Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, will upgrade the Soyuz rocket and secure its supply chain by phasing out older versions in favor of the newer Soyuz-2 series to support the International Space Station, the head of the company that builds Soyuz said. Variants of the Soyuz 2 series rockets are already in use for satellite launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and the European Space Agency launch facility in French Guiana. But now, the rocket is set to begin launching unmanned Progress resupply vehicles to the International Space Station. More (Source: The Moscow Times - Jul 8)
EUTELSAT 3B SATELLITE FULLY FIRED UP AT 3 EAST - Following its successful launch on May 26, Eutelsat Communications (nyse euronext paris:ETL) announces that the EUTELSAT 3B satellite is now fully fired up and providing commercial services at 3° East. Eutelsat's newest satellite is designed to increase and diversify capacity and reach of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Brazil. The first commercial satellite to assemble Ku, C and Ka payloads in a single platform, it can operate up to 51 transponders through an innovative configuration that enables customers to select the frequency band most adapted to their applications and targeted service area. More (Source: MarketWatch - Jul 7)
ISS MISSION FROM WALLOPS SET TO LAUNCH JULY 11 - Orbital Sciences Corp.’s second cargo supply mission to the International Space Station will be launched from Wallops Island on Friday, July 11, according to a mission update. The mission is one of eight commercial cargo supply missions planned under Orbital’s contract with NASA. The mission, originally scheduled for June, was pushed back twice after a rocket engine destined for use on a cargo supply mission next year failed during testing at Stennis Space Center in May. More (Source: The News Journal - Jul 6)
LOCKHEED'S 'SPACE FENCE' SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM TO TRACK COSMIC DEBRIS - Right now, millions of objects are whizzing around Earth faster than speeding bullets. Much of this is celestial garbage — remnants of past missions and cosmic collisions that have taken place over half a century. Dead satellites. Spent rocket stages. Astronauts' long-lost equipment. To keep watch over this vast orbiting junkyard, the Air Force has awarded a $914.7-million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop a surveillance system that will provide a continuous watch over what's up there. The system will enable the U.S. government to detect and track objects as they circle the globe, particularly the most congested areas of space. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - Jul 6)
ANGARA RE-LAUNCH MAY TAKE PLACE ON JULY 9 - The re-launch of Russia's Angara space rocket from Plesetsk may take place on July 9, the Kommersant newspaper reports citing a Defense Ministry source. "A special commission will meet on July 5 to decide on the rocket's launch readiness," the source said, adding that there were no objective reasons for a further postponement. The maiden lift-off of the Angara, Russia's first carrier rocket of post-Soviet design, was automatically cancelled seconds before launch after the system detected a fault in a pressure valve in a liquid oxygen tank. More (Source: The Voice of Russia - Jul 6)
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