SATELLITE SPOTS 122 OBJECTS IN SEARCH FOR MISSING MALAYSIAN JET - A French company is mobilizing five satellites in a bid to help search crews locate missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 after it captured images of 122 objects that potentially belong to the plane. The images were taken Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Europe's Airbus Group; its businesses include the operation of satellites and satellite communications. Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s acting transport minister, announced the findings on Wednesday and said the objects were seen close to where three other satellites previously detected possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean. He added that the sightings together are "the most credible lead that we have." More (Source: Fox News - Mar 27)
SOYUZ RENDEZVOUS ABORTED AFTER SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH - A veteran Russian space station commander, a rookie cosmonaut and a NASA shuttle flier rocketed smoothly into space aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft Tuesday, but the crew ran into problems executing a required rendezvous rocket firing, delaying docking with the International Space Station until Thursday at the earliest. Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 3:17 a.m. Wednesday local time), kicking off a planned four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous with the station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 26)
ATLAS V ROCKET LAUNCH DELAYED UNTIL AT LEAST THURSDAY - An Atlas V rocket launch, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed further. Air Force crews continue to work an issued with a mandatory range asset needed before the rocket can carry a classified satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. The United Launch Alliance released the following statement Tuesday evening... More (Source: Bay Bews 9 - Mar 26)
SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW US-RUSSIAN CREW TOWARD SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz rocket launched an international trio of crewmembers to the International Space Station today (March 25), sending them into space for a 5.5-month stint on the orbiting laboratory. The rocket launched a Soyuz capsule housing NASA's Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, where the local time was 3:17 a.m. Wednesday. The three crewmembers are scheduled to dock with the space station at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 March 26 GMT), and you can watch the Soyuz's arrival live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 March 26 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Mar 26)
US-RUSSIA QUARREL WON'T DELAY TUESDAY SPACE STATION LAUNCH - The tense political relationship between the United States and Russia will not affect the planned launch of a NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts to the International Space Station Tuesday (March 25), NASA officials reiterated last week. The situation in the Ukraine has led to heightened tensions between Russia and the United States recently. Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, a region of the Ukraine, making the peninsula a part of Russia on Friday (March 21). More (Source: Space.com - Mar 25)
ROCKET SOYUZ WITH PILOTED SPACESHIP PUT ON BAIKONUR LAUNCHING PAD - Russian rocket Soyuz with a piloted spaceship was put on a launching pad at spaceport Baikonur on Sunday morning. “Delivery and putting of rocket Soyuz-FG with docked piloted spaceship Soyuz TMA-07M passed as scheduled,” an official of Russian space agency Roscosmos said at the southern Russian spaceport. “The gates of an operations and checkout facility opened at 7am local time (1am GMT) on Sunday according to years-long tradition,” the space official said. More (Source: ITAR-TASS - Mar 24)
ATLAS V ROCKET 'GO' FOR LAUNCH TUESDAY - An Atlas V rocket is set to launch Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The rocket is carrying a top-secret payload dubbed NROL-67 into orbit. The National Reconnaissance Office builds and operates intelligence satellites for the U.S. government. More (Source: News 13 Orlando - Mar 24)
ARIANE 5 LAUNCHES ON DUAL-PAYLOAD COMMERCIAL MISSION - Kicking off a busy sequence of launches from the Europe's spaceport in the jungle of French Guiana, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off Saturday and put two satellites in perfect orbits to expand direct-to-home television programming in Eastern Europe and broadcast football matches at this summer's World Cup in Brazil. The heavy-lift launcher, weighing 1.7 million pounds with full fuel tanks, fired its hydrogen-fed main engine and solid rocket boosters at 2204 GMT (6:04 p.m. EDT) to climb away from the ELA-3 launch pad at the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)
FRESH GLONASS NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED BY RUSSIA - Russia launched a Soyuz rocket Sunday with a fresh satellite for the country's Glonass navigation system, which broadcasts positioning and timing signals to Russian military forces and civilian users worldwide. The Soyuz 2-1b rocket lifted off at 2254 GMT (6:54 p.m. EDT) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military-run facility in the Arkhangelsk region about 500 miles north of Moscow. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)
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