RUSSIA SET TO LAUNCH PROTON ROCKET WITH TELECOMS SATELLITE - A Proton-M rocket carrying a high-power telecommunications satellite will lift off Thursday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to wrap up Russia’s space launch program for this year. “The launch has been scheduled for 2:50 p.m. Moscow time [10:50 GMT]. The separation of the Express-AM5 satellite from the Briz-M booster is expected at 12:12 a.m. Moscow time on December 27,” said a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos.   More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Dec 26)

WOW! INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PASSES BY CRESCENT MOON IN AMAZING PHOTO - The International Space Station can be seen cruising in front of a crescent moon in this stunning night sky photo recently sent to SPACE.com. Juan Gonzalez-Alicea of Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe captured the image from western Puerto Rico on Dec. 6 using a Canon 7D with a 300 mm lens. "I was able to capture the ISS [International Space Station ] passing in front of the moon,” Gonzalez-Alicea wrote SPACE.com. "It was an amazing sight since Venus was at maximum brightness below the crescent moon.”   More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 25)

THAICOM 6 LAUNCH TO KICK OFF SPACEX'S BUSY 2014 MANIFEST - With a busy manifest next year stacked with up to 10 launches for NASA and commercial customers, SpaceX is targeting Jan. 3 to launch the Thaicom 6 telecommunications satellite from Cape Canaveral. Built by Orbital Sciences Corp. Thaicom 6 will beam Ku-band and C-band services to clients across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The satellite is designed for a 15-year mission in geostationary orbit over the equator at 78.5 degrees east longitude.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 24)

ISRO TO DECIDE ON GSLV-D5 LAUNCH ON 27 DECEMBER - The flight test of rejuvenated Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) with indigenous cryogenic engine is likely to take place on 5 January from the space port of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, Indian Space Research Organisation said. ISRO's Mission Readiness Review (MRR) team will meet on 27 December to take a final call on the launch of GSLV-D5. Its mission was aborted at the 11th hour on 19 August, this year due to a fuel leak in its second stage.    More
(Source: Firstpost - Dec 23)

SATELLITE OF RUSSIA'S EARLY WARNING CONSTELLATION BURNS DOWN IN ATMOSPHERE - The Kosmos-2393 satellite integrated in the Oko system, the space component of Russia's early warning system ceased to exist Saturday night, Interfax was told at the Vympel interstate joint-stock company, which is part of the Almaz-Antei air defense corporation.    More
(Source: The Voice of Russia - Dec 23)

BOLIVIAN SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES FROM CHINA - The Bolivian satellite Tupac Katari (TKSAT-1) was successfully launched on December 20 from the Xinchang satellite launch center in China, Bolivian state news agency ABI reported. The aircraft is expected to enter into operations in March 2014 after a three-month trial once put in orbit. The Túpac Katari satellite was constructed in China by Chinese firm China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). It was launched by the LM-3B/E vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The satellite required parts manufactured in the US, France and Germany, according to the report.   More
(Source: Business News Americas - Dec 22)

EUROPE'S 'DISCOVERY MACHINE' SOARS TO MAP THE MILKY WAY - The sharp-sighted Gaia observatory, carrying the largest camera ever flown in space, rocketed into a predawn sky from French Guiana on Thursday to survey a billion stars and reveal the structure of the Milky Way in finer detail than any mission before. The ambitious European project, in the works since the early 1990s, promises to collar countless cosmic wonders, ranging from intrinsically bright distant quasars and exploding stars to comparatively dim alien planets, brown dwarf stars and asteroids closer to home.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 19)

BRAZIL, CHINA TO MAKE NEW SATELLITE LAUNCH IN 2014 - Brazil and China will launch a new joint environmental monitoring satellite next year to replace one which failed to enter orbit earlier this month, Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo said Tuesday. "What happened was a tragedy...But there is another satellite already built and ready. It was in the budget for the project, planned for launch in 2015," Bernardo said.    More
(Source: Phys.Org - Dec 19)

SPACE STATION RESUPPLY LAUNCH SET FOR THURSDAY - NASA says it's working towards enabling a launch on Thursday of a rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station. Engineers are still trying to fix a problem with the space station's cooling system before that launch can go ahead. Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft is set to launch from Wallops field in Virginia at 9:19pm Thursday. The spacecraft was initially scheduled to lift off Wednesday, but the launch was pushed back to allow engineers more time to fix the cooling loop on the space station.    More
(Source: WMFE - Dec 18)

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