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Russian forces were still near the Ukrainian border in recent days, contradicting Russian assertions they had been withdrawn.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)
SPACEX DELAYS WEEKEND COMMERCIAL SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX has pushed back a commercial satellite launch from Saturday (May 10) until the end of the month at the earliest. "A static fire test in advance of SpaceX’s ORBCOMM OG2 Mission 1 was scrubbed this morning during fueling," SpaceX representatives wrote in a statement Friday (May 9). "Both the Falcon 9 rocket and ORBCOMM satellites are in good condition, but as a result of schedule constraints, launch will be postponed past this weekend with the next opportunity most likely in late May." More (Source: Space.com - May 10)
CROWD-FUNDED SATELLITE MAY FALL FROM SPACE BEFORE UNLEASHING TINY 'SPRITE' ARMADA - A crowd-funded satellite launched to space last month might burn up in Earth's atmosphere before it can complete its mission to deploy a fleet of even tinier "sprite" satellites in orbit. Funded through the website Kickstarter, the small KickSat launched into space along with a group of other cubesats aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket on April 18. The launch, which also sent SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, successfully delivered KickSat into orbit, but the cubesat has encountered problems in recent days. More (Source: Space.com - May 10)
SATELLITE DATA WILL INSPIRE ENTREPRENEURS AND STIMULATE THE BIRTH OF TECH START-UPS - After some 16 years in gestation, the 7.5 billion EU Copernicus programme has sent the first of a constellation of satellites known as the Sentinels into space. These will be keeping watch on the earth, observing ships which dump oil in Europe’s seas, tracking the contributors to air pollution and helping coordinate rescue efforts after natural disasters like flooding. All the data and images captured by the satellites will be free for anyone to use. The unfettered access will stimulate the birth of IT start-ups that will dream up mobile phone apps utilising the data in a myriad of ways... More (Source: Science Business - May 9)
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