SPACEX CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH FROM SPACE STATION - The Dragon launched April 18 and arrived at the space station April 20 with about 5,000 pounds of supplies. It is returning home with 3,564 pounds of science samples, crew supplies and vehicle hardware. Dragon is the only cargo vehicle operating today that can return significant amounts of cargo to the ground. Russian, European and Japanese cargo freighters, plus Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus, all are destroyed during reentry into the atmosphere. Russia's Soyuz carries three people up and down, but little else. The Dragon is one of several contenders to resume flights of NASA crews on U.S. vehicles in a few years.   More
(Source: USA Today - May 19)

NEW GPS SATELLITE HEADED TO UPGRADE NAVIGATION NETWORK - A replacement Global Positioning System spacecraft for the world's best-known satellite constellation ascended into orbit Friday night aboard a Delta 4 rocket in a spectacular sendoff at sunset. Igniting its main engine and twin solid rockets at 8:03 p.m. EDT, the 205-foot-tall vehicle lifted off on 1.2 million pounds of chest-thumping thrust. The launch has been delayed a day by inclement weather. Arcing to the northeast, the Delta 4 accelerated through Mach 1 in less than a minute, jettisoned its strap-on boosters a minute later and cruised out to staging in four minutes.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 17)

24 HOUR DELAY FOR SIXTH BLOCK IIF GPS SATELLITE VIA DELTA IV - The United Launch Alliance (ULA) will wait 24 hours to launch the US Air Force’s sixth Block IIF GPS satellite atop a Delta IV rocket. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was scheduled for 20:09 local time (00:09 UTC on Friday) at the start of a nineteen minute window. However, the launch was scrubbed due to very poor weather in the local area.    More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - May 16)

TELECOM SATELLITE LOST AFTER PROTON LAUNCH FAILURE - An advanced Russian communications satellite was destroyed Thursday when its Proton rocket booster failed minutes after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Express AM4R spacecraft, worth approximately $200 million, was supposed to begin a 15-year mission beaming radio, television, broadband Internet and telephone services across Russia and neighboring countries. But a few minutes after the 12,720-pound (5,770-kilogram) Express AM4R satellite launched from Baikonur, Russia's primary space base, its Proton rocket ran into a problem.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 16)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE CREW LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN - A Japanese astronaut, a veteran Russian cosmonaut and a NASA flight engineer strapped into a Soyuz ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and fell back to Earth Tuesday, plunging back through the atmosphere for a jarring rocket-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 188-day stay in orbit. The international crew's return aboard a Russian spacecraft is the first such flight since Russia's annexation of Crimea, the imposition of U.S. and European sanctions and escalating Cold War rhetoric that stands in stark contrast to the close cooperation that has been the hallmark of the International Space Station program.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 14)

SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW RUSSIAN FORCES STILL ON UKRAINE'S BORDER, U.S. SAYS - The U.S. government released new satellite pictures on Tuesday which it said showed Russian forces were still near the Ukrainian border in recent days, contradicting Russian assertions they had been withdrawn. President Vladimir Putin announced last Wednesday that the troops had moved, but NATO and the United States both said they had seen no sign of a Russian withdrawal from the frontier. NATO officials have previously estimated Russia has around 40,000 soldiers close to Ukraine's border, exacerbating the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.   More
(Source: Newsweek - May 14)

SATELLITE OPERATORS TO PROCEED WITH LAUNCHES FROM RUSSIA - Satellite industry executives say U.S. government sanctions restricting the export of defense articles to Russia, a broad category which includes satellite components, are unlikely to disrupt near-term plans to launch spacecraft on Russian rockets. But there looms a threat that the U.S. State Department could revoke export licenses for satellites to Russia that contain parts from the United States. In the globalized space industry, that includes almost all commercial satellites.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 13)

RUSSIAN SPACE STATION MODULE DELIVERY DELAYED AGAIN - A significant contribution to the International Space Station, Russia's Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, will not be delivered to the orbital outpost before 2017, nearly 10 years past its intended launch date. Engineers at RSC Energia — the Russian state-owned company responsible for building Russia's manned space vehicles — were working on the module when they discovered debris in the engines, Interfax reported on Monday, citing a source in the Russian space industry. The model was scheduled for flight this year.    More
(Source: The Moscow Times - May 13)

BOEING TO SEND FIRST UNMANNED "SPACE TAXI" TO THE ISS IN 2017 - Boeing is at the forefront of the goal to get American astronauts their own space taxi, which would release them from their dependence on Russia for rides to and from the ISS. Boeing has scheduled its first unmanned test flight for 2017. Boeing has scheduled their first unmanned test flight of commercial CST-100 for early 2017. Boeing is among a trio of American aerospace firms that are on a mission to restore America’s capability to fly humans to Earth orbit and the International Space Station.    More
(Source: The Space Reporter - May 12)

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