ARIANESPACE’S VEGA SUCCESSFULLY LOFTS DZZ-HR SATELLITE - Arianespace launched the third Vega mission at the second attempt, completing a mission tasked with lofting Kazakhstan’s DZZ-HR Earth observation satellite, also known by the name KazEOSat-1, into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Launch occurred on time at 01:35 UTC (Wednesday UTC), with the rocket lifting off from pad ELA-1 at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 30)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION’S ORBIT TO BE RAISED BY OVER 2 KILOMETERS - The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be corrected on Tuesday by raising it by 2.15 kilometers (1.3 miles), the Mission Control Center reported. “The maneuver will be carried out using the thrusters of Progress M-21M cargo spacecraft, which is currently docked with the station,” the center said. “The thrusters will be switched on at 11:45 Moscow time [7:45 GMT] and will stay operational for 566.8 seconds [about 9.5 minutes].” The station will be raised to the altitude of 415.2 kilometers (258 miles) and the adjustment is made to ensure better docking conditions of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft, which is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on May 28 to bring a new crew to the ISS. More (Source: ITAR-TASS - Apr 30)
ARIANESPACE’S VEGA LAUNCH WITH DZZ-HR SATELLITE SCRUBBED - Arianespace has scrubbed its third launch of the Vega rocket, which was tasked with lofting Kazakhstan’s DZZ-HR Earth observation satellite, also known by the name KazEOSat-1, into a Sun-synchronous orbit on Monday evening. Lift off from pad ELA-1 at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana was scheduled for 01:35 UTC (Tuesday), prior to a scrub being called just ahead of T-10 minutes. The four-stage launcher is tailored to carry the growing number of small scientific spacecraft and other lighter-weight payloads under development or planned worldwide. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 29)
PROTON ROCKET DEPLOYS SATELLITE DUO INTO ORBIT - A Proton rocket delivered two communications satellites to orbit Monday after a nine-hour ascent from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, achieving a successful launch with payloads for Russia and Kazakhstan. The Luch 5V and Kazsat 3 spacecraft, both manufactured by Russian satellite-builder ISS Reshetnev, launched at 0425 GMT (12:25 a.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites were mounted on top of a Proton rocket, which roared away from the historic space base at 10:25 a.m. local time. The three-stage Proton booster and Breeze M upper stage put the dual-payload package in a preliminary orbit about 15 minutes later. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 29)
SATELLITE TO PROVIDE WEALTH OF DATA - Kazakhstan's first-ever Earth observation satellite is to be fired into orbit next week from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana, launch company Arianespace said. The 830-kilogram orbiter will provide Kazakhstan with data for mapmaking and security, monitor changes in nature and agriculture, and provide support for rescue operations in case of natural disaster, it said in a statement. The satellite, dubbed KazEOSat-1, will take off on a lightweight Vega launcher overnight on Monday, Kourou time. More (Source: Independent Online - Apr 27)
M3M SATELLITE LAUNCH TO BE RESCHEDULED - COM DEV International Ltd., a leading manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, and majority owner in exactEarth(TM) Ltd, its maritime surveillance subsidiary, today announced that the Government of Canada has decided to not proceed with the planned Russian Soyuz launch of M3M, which was scheduled for June this year. The M3M satellite was constructed by COM DEV under contract from the Canadian Space Agency/Public Works Government Services Canada, for the Department of National Defense and was also subject to a commercial data sharing license with exactEarth(TM). More (Source: Wall Street Journal - Apr 26)
FRANCE MANEUVERS INTEL SATELLITE TO AVOID DEAD WEATHER SPACECRAFT - One of four French electronic-intelligence satellites flying in formation in low Earth orbit was forced to perform a collision-avoidance maneuver after U.S. and French space-tracking radars determined that it was on a collision course with a large piece of orbital debris, the French air force said. The satellite that had to be moved is one of four identical 120-kilogram Elisa demonstrator satellites launched into a 694-kilometer low Earth orbit in December 2011. With both French naval and German ground-based precision space-surveillance radars out of service for several months for maintenance, the French military deployed two of its own, less-precise ground radars, located in Sommepy in northeast France and Solenzara on the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean, to track what the French air force said was a dead satellite. More (Source: Space News - Apr 24)
CALTECH CARGO LAUNCHED TO SPACE STATION - When the SpaceX-3 cargo resupply mission launched to the International Space Station April 18, an experiment designed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Pasadena, Calif., was among the cargo headed to space. The experiment, Crystallization of Huntingtin Exon 1 Using Microgravity (CASIS PCG HDPCG-1), investigates the crystallization of huntingtin, a protein associated with Huntington's disease that has evaded crystallization for more than a decade. More (Source: Propulsion Laboratory - Apr 23)
RICK FLEETER'S PERSONAL SATELLITE REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN - The launch Friday of SpaceX's Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) is important for at least three primary reasons. First, because the vehicle carries about 5,000 pounds of supplies (including food and new spacesuits) to ISS aboard its Dragon capsule. The station currently houses a six-man crew -- Oleg Artemyev, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Tyurin of Russia; Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson of the United States; and Koichi Wakata of Japan. The second reason is that the mission will attempt to recover the first of the Falcon 9's two stages. More (Source: Huffington Post - Apr 21)
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