ASTRA 5B SATELLITE LAUNCH SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 21 - SES S.A. announced today that Arianespace has scheduled the launch of its new satellite ASTRA 5B for March 21, 2014. The satellite will be launched into space from the European Space Centre in French Guiana on board an Ariane 5 ECA rocket between 19:05 pm and 20:02 pm local time (23.05 -- 00.02 CET; 18.05 -- 19.02 EDT). ASTRA 5B was built by Airbus Defence and Space (formerly Astrium) in Toulouse, France, using a Eurostar E3000 platform. The multi-mission satellite will be located at 31.5 degrees East and carry Ku and Ka-band payloads for the delivery of high-performance Direct-to-Home (DTH) in Eastern Europe and the neighboring markets. More (Source: Wall Street Journal - Mar 20)
ATV GEORGES LEMAITRE SET TO TEST NEW RENDEZVOUS SENSORS - ESA’s space freighter ATV Georges Lemaitre, set for launch this summer, will test new rendezvous sensors in space as it approaches the International Space Station. ESA has set its sights on allowing future spacecraft to rendezvous with "uncooperative" targets, such as orbiting debris or a Mars sample capsule. The LIRIS demonstrator – short for Laser InfraRed Imaging Sensors – on the last Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, is the first step towards an uncooperative rendezvous in space. More (Source: Red Orbit - Mar 20)
SEARCHERS RELYING ON SATELLITE DATA TO LOCATE MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES PLANE - Finding a missing Malaysia Airlines plane may hinge on whether searchers can narrow down where they need to look using satellite data that is inexact and has never been used for that purpose before, search and rescue experts say. Authorities now believe someone on board the Boeing 777 shut down part of the aircraft's messaging system about the same time the plane with 239 people on board disappeared from civilian radar. But an Inmarsat satellite was able to automatically connect with a portion of the messaging system that remained in operation, similar to a phone call that just rings because no one is on the other end to pick it up and provide information. More (Source: Fox News - Mar 18)
SPACE STATION MOVES AWAY FROM SPACE JUNK - The International Space Station had to sidestep a piece of space junk. Experts aren’t sure how big the junk is. It’s from a Russian weather satellite launched in 1979. After the maneuver, it was determined the debris would have posed no threat. NASA says it preferred playing it safe. More (Source: Washington Post - Mar 17)
RUSSIAN PROTON ROCKET LAUNCHES CARRYING TWO TELECOMS SATS - A Russian Proton-M rocket took off early Sunday morning from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur space center carrying two Russian telecommunications satellites, the Russian space agency said. The rocket’s payload, the Express-AT1 and Express-AT2 satellites, were successfully inserted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit nine hours after the launch by the Proton’s upper stage, the Briz-M. More (Source: RIA Novosti - Mar 16)
SATELLITE DATA REVEAL ROUTE OF MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES PLANE - Malaysia Airlines missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter said, as searchers zeroed in on new target areas hundreds of miles west of the plane's original course. The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. More (Source: Wall Street Journal - Mar 16)
DRAGON CONTAMINATION CLEANUP FORCES LAUNCH DELAY - Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship bound for the International Space Station has been delayed from Sunday to no earlier than March 30, because of what sources described as apparent contamination that could pose problems for research hardware carried by the Dragon cargo craft. SpaceX engineers were preparing the rocket for launch at 4:41 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Sunday to boost the Dragon capsule, loaded with about 4,600 pounds of equipment and supplies, on an automated flight to the International Space Station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 14)
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW POSSIBLE MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370 WRECKAGE AS FINAL WORDS OF FLIGHT REVEAL - Chinese satellites have reportedly captured images of what may be wreckage taken near where the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 dropped off the radar. The "suspected crash area at sea," according to a Chinese government agency, is roughly 140 miles from where the missing flight's transponder turned off, CNN reported. In addition to the one large object pictured, "three suspected floating objects" were also found, according to China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. More (Source: New York Daily News - Mar 13)
US SATELLITE IMAGING FIRM HELPS TO CROWDSOURCE SEARCH FOR MH370 - With Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 still missing as search and rescue operations enter their fourth day, an American satellite imaging company has started an initiative to crowdsource the search for the jet. In this initiative, the public will help analyse high-resolution images for any sign of the missing plane. ABC News reported that DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colorado, has trained cameras from its five orbiting satellites on Saturday on the Gulf of Thailand region from where MH370 was last heard. More (Source: The Malaysian Insider - Mar 12)
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