NASA MOVING SATELLITE TO LAUNCH PAD - NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite is getting closer and closer to liftoff. On Monday crews at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville are transporting the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-L, TDRS-L for short to Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The satellite has spent much of the month at Astrotech in Titusville, where crews have been working on it.   More
(Source: Bay News 9 - Jan 14)

CYGNUS ARRIVES AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Christmas has finally arrived for the six space station astronauts. A privately launched supply ship reached the International Space Station on Sunday morning, three days after blasting off from Virginia. The space station crew used a hefty robot arm to capture the Cygnus capsule as the two craft zoomed side by side at 17,500 mph. The Cygnus is carrying 3,000 pounds of equipment and experiments for NASA, including ants for an educational project. Also on board: eagerly awaited Christmas presents from the families of all six spacemen as well as some fresh fruit courtesy of NASA.   More
(Source: Fox News - Jan 12)

IRAN TO LAUNCH THREE NEW SATELLITES INTO SPACE - The Iranian vice president for executive affairs says the country is preparing to launch three new indigenous satellites. “Tadbir (Prudence), Sharif Sat and Fajr (Dawn) satellites are in the final stages [of preparation] and [are] ready for launch,” Mohammad Shariatmadari said on Saturday. He said the satellites would be launched after technical tests are completed. “Any delay in this satellite (Sharif Sat) and other similar ones is because of technical issues or [the need for] … political and security coordination which is completely normal in this field.”   More
(Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/01/11/345008/iran-to-launch-three-new-satellites/ - Jan 12)

AFTER WEEKS OF DELAY, CYGNUS CARGO SPACESHIP BLASTS OFF FOR SPACE STATION - Orbital Sciences Corp.'s robotic Cygnus space capsule was launched Thursday on its first official cargo-carrying mission to the International Space Station — after weeks of delay caused by a breakdown on the space station, frigid weather on the East Coast, and a radiation storm from the sun. The cargo craft rose into space from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore at 1:07 p.m. ET, atop Orbital's two-stage Antares rocket. It's carrying 2,780 pounds (1,260 kilograms) of food, supplies and equipment for the space station.   More
(Source: NBCNews - Jan 9)

TURKSAT 4A SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH - Turksat 4A satellite will be sent to the launch base in Kazakstan and will be launched with a proton rocket on February 15, 2014. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday attended a delivery ceremony of the TURKSAT 4A satellite co-produced by Turkish and Japanese engineers in Tokyo. As part of his official tour, Turkish Prime Minister visited the satellite production center of the Mitsubishi Electric company located in Tokyo, where the two satellites TURKSAT 4A and 4B were produced.   More
(Source: www.worldbulletin.net - Jan 9)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION LIFE 'TO BE EXTENDED' - Construction of the ISS began in 1998 and is a joint venture between the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, and states in the European Space Agency (Esa). These partners will have to support any extension for it to be implemented. Their current commitments run to 2020, but many engineers believe the station could work safely until at least 2028. Bill Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator at Nasa with responsibility for the station, told reporters that it was feasible to continue operating the ISS if some partners decided not to stay on board, but added that he expected them all to come through, even if the agreements took a few years to put in place: "I think the idea is that 10 years from today is a pretty far-reaching, pretty strategic decision," he said.   More
(Source: BBC News - Jan 9)

EARLY THIS MORNING, ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. DECIDED TO SCRUB TODAY'S LAUNCH ATTEMPT OF THE ANTARES RO - Early this morning, Orbital Sciences Corp. decided to scrub today's launch attempt of the Antares rocket and the Cygnus cargo spacecraft on the company's first resupply mission to the International Space Station due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded constraints imposed on Antares. The solar flux activity that occurred late yesterday afternoon resulted in an increasing level of radiation beyond what the Antares engineering team monitored earlier in the day.    More
(Source: NASA - Jan 8)

SPACEX KICKS OFF THE YEAR WITH LAUNCH OF THAI SATELLITE - Launching for the second time in five weeks, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Monday and successfully put a broadcasting satellite in a high-altitude for a Thai communications operator. The half-hour mission came just over one month after SpaceX tallied its first launch into geostationary transfer orbit, an orbit favored by communications satellite companies seeking to deploy spacecraft in orbits over the equator synchronized with Earth's rotation.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 7)

INDIA LAUNCHES COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE INTO SPACE - India has successfully launched a communications satellite, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) D5, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal. The GSLV-D5’s engine was designed and built in India, a triumph for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which has been attempting such a feat since 2001. Following Sunday’s launch, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said: “Today is an important day for space technology in the country. The Indian cryogenic stage performed as expected and injected the satellite to the intended orbit.   More
(Source: Euronews - Jan 6)

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