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)

FREEZING FORECAST FORCES ANTARES LAUNCH DELAY - Orbital Sciences has pushed back next week's launch of a commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station by at least one day to Wednesday to dodge frigid temperatures expected on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Liftoff of the privately-developed Antares rocket was set for Tuesday after a three-week delay from mid-December to make room for spacewalks to repair a problematic ammonia coolant loop on the space station, but the long-range forecast for early next week predicts freezing temperatures.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 4)

NASA PREPARING TO LAUNCH SATELLITE LATER THIS MONTH - While SpaceX prepares for a launch on Monday, NASA is getting ready for it’s own. Crews at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville are working on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-L, TDRS-L for short. The satellite is being prepared for launch later this month. Images received from the Hubble Telescope and video of astronauts on board the International Space Station are sent to Earth through satellites like it.   More
(Source: Bay News 9 - Jan 4)

BIGGEST EVER SATELLITE CONSTELLATION TO BE LAUNCHED - The biggest ever constellation of satellites, which were built by a company whose founders include an Oxford-educated British scientist, will be launched within days from Nasa's flight facility in Virginia. They are no bigger than a bread tin, but the Dove satellites are set to break new ground in space exploration. A flock of 28 are to be put into orbit from Nasa's station at Wallops, about 170 miles south east of Washington DC.    More
(Source: Telegraph.co.uk - Jan 4)

COUNTDOWN FOR INDIA'S GSLV ROCKET TO BEGIN ON JANUARY 4 - The countdown for the launch of India's heavy-duty rocket - the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) - that would carry communication satellite GSAT-14 is set to begin on January 4 morning, said a space agency official Thursday. "The 29-hour countdown for the GSLV launch is expected to commence around 11.20am on Saturday and the rocket is expected to blast off at 4.18pm on Sunday from (India's rocket port) Sriharikota (in Andhra Pradesh)," an Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) official told IANS over phone from Bangalore on Thursday.   More
(Source: Times of India - Jan 3)

SPACECOM’S AMOS-4 SATELLITE MOVES INTO ORBIT - Spacecom’s AMOS-4 satellite has reached its 65° East orbital position and is due to start commercial operations early this month. The communications satellite has Ku-band and Ka-band transponders and will service broadband and broadcast providers throughout Russia, China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.   More
(Source: DigitalTVEurope.net - Jan 3)

SPACEX DELAYS FALCON 9 LAUNCH TO NEXT WEEK - SpaceX has delayed the launch of a Thai communications satellite from Friday until at least Monday, according to the U.S. Air Force. "We're not aware of anything that would cause a mission failure, but in order to ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance we decided to conduct additional inspections of the launch vehicle," said Emily Shanklin, a SpaceX spokesperson.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 3)

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