LIFT-OFF FOR O3B SATELLITE NETWORK - The O3b company has finally got its first four satellites in orbit. They were launched on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana after a day's delay due to unfavourable winds at the Sinnamary spaceport. The satellites' deployment marks the first phase in O3b's construction of a novel telecommunications network. It plans to put a constellation in the sky to handle voice and data traffic for mobile phone, internet and other service providers. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 26)
RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS BEGIN SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station today (June 24) to begin a six-hour spacewalk to test and upgrade systems on the orbiting lab's exterior. Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and his crewmate Alexander Misurkin floated outside to begin their work at 9:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT). This is the sixth career spacewalk for Yurchikhin and Misurkin's first. So far, Yurchikhin has logged 31 hours and 52 minutes of spacewalk time. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 25)
ARMENIA TO LAUNCH FIRST HOME-MADE SATELLITE - A newly created company called Armcosmos is currently busy registering an orbital position for the upcoming satellite, said Gagik Grigoryan, a senior official with the Transportations and Communications Ministry. The price tag for Armenia’s space program is $250mln, with part of the sum to come from private investors, Grigoryan told the Armenian branch of the Radio Free Europe. More (Source: Fars News Agency - Jun 25)
RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS PREPARE FOR SPACEWALK - Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin will perform a planned six-hour spacewalk on Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said. The two ISS flight engineers will open the hatch to the International Space Station’s (ISS) Pirs docking compartment and float outside at 17:40 Moscow time [1:40 p.m. GMT] on Monday. The spacewalk will be broadcast live by NASA. More (Source: RIA Novosti - Jun 24)
CHINA'S SPACE STATION SNAPPED RACING ACROSS SUN - From his vantage point from Southern France, ace astrophotographer Thierry Legault trained his Takahashi TOA-150 refracting telescope at the sun and, at precisely the right moment, captured the Chinese Tiangong-1 prototype space station (plus docked Shenzhou-10 module) as it transited the solar disk on June 16. More (Source: Discovery News - Jun 23)
SPACEX TO LAUNCH TURKMENISTAN'S FIRST SATELLITE - SpaceX announced today that it will be launching Turkmenistan’s first satellite, having been awarded a contract from Thales Alenia Space. The satellite is for the country’s state run communications system. Thales Alenia Space was awarded the contract to build the satellite in November 2011. The satellite is built on the company’s Spacebus 4000 platform, which has an expected lifespan of 15 years. More (Source: Forbes - Jun 23)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION LOOKS MORE LIKE STAR TREK'S USS ENTERPRISE IN ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER'S INCRED - While testing his new telescope a Romanian astrophotographer managed to capture clear images of the International Space Station passing in front of the moon, in broad daylight. And the snap makes Nasa's space station look remarkably like the iconic USS Enterprise from TV show Star Trek. Maximilian Teodorescu was testing the range of his new 150mm f/12 Maksutov telescope near the town of Dumitrana in Romania earlier this month when he took the shot. More (Source: Daily Mail - Jun 21)
SOPHISTICATED SATELLITE IS ON ITS WAY TO LAUNCH PAD - The most sophisticated commercial communications satellite ever built is making its final journey before launch. The Alphasat was designed and constructed by engineers at Astrium, with its intelligent payload core built at the firm’s facility in Anchorage Park, Hilsea. It has been built for the European Space Agency and Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile ?satellite communications services. More (Source: Portsmouth News - Jun 19)
INDIA'S EXCLUSIVE MET SATELLITE INSAT-3D TO BE LAUNCHED IN JULY - European space consortium Arianespace would launch India's INSAT-3D, an exclusive meteorological satellite, from its spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana on July 26. According to Indian space agency ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation), INSAT-3D is configured with advanced meteorological payloads - a six Channel Imager, 19 Channel Sounder along with data relay transponder and satellite aided search & rescue payloads. More (Source: India Today - Jun 17)
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