EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH - The first satellite in Europe’s Earth monitoring program is now in Guiana and ready for launch, Thales Alenia Space announced. The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite, part of the Copernicus program, was built by Thales Alenia Space and will map urban areas, observe environmental impact, monitor risks due to movements in the Earth’s surface, conduct surveillance of the marine environment, provide maritime security, monitor sea ice and Earth’s forests and monitor climate change.    More
(Source: UPI.com - Apr 2)

LONG MARCH ROCKET BOOSTS CHINESE SATELLITE TO ORBIT - China launched an experimental satellite Monday aboard a Long March 2C rocket from the Jiuquan space base in northwest China, according to official media reports. Liftoff occurred at 0246 GMT Monday (10:46 p.m. EDT Sunday), according to a report broadcast on Chinese state television. Launch was at 10:46 a.m. Beijing time. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported the two-stage Long March 2C rocket's payload was the Shijian 11-06 satellite, the sixth in a series of secretive spacecraft launched since 2009.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 1)

MILITARY WEATHER SATELLITE FINALLY SET TO LAUNCH - A $518 million military weather satellite that has been waiting 15 years to shine will be launched into orbit Thursday atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the western spaceport in California. Liftoff of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19 spacecraft is planned for 7:46 a.m. local time (10:46 a.m. EDT; 1446 GMT) at the opening of a 10-minute launch window at Vandenberg Air Force Base.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 1)

SPACEX DELAYS LAUNCH OF THIRD ISS RESUPPLY MISSION - SpaceX has once again delayed the launch of its third contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station, SpaceX-3. NASA reports that this delay was caused by a “range asset issue,” and officials are now working to determine the cause of an instrumentation outage. According to an Air Force statement issued on Thursday: “A mandatory range asset supporting the NROL-67 launch went offline, March 24, 2014. An investigation revealed a tracking radar experienced an electrical short, overheating the unit and rendering it inoperable.    More
(Source: RedOrbit - Apr 1)

RUSSIAN RESUPPLY VEHICLE TO BLAST OFF FOR SPACE STATION VOYAGE - A Russian unmanned Progress resupply spacecraft is readying for an April 9 launch from the Baikonur space center to deliver essential cargo to the International Space Station, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has said. "The spaceship will carry more than 2.5 tons of diverse cargo, including fuel for the ISS, additional hardware, food, water and oxygen for the crew, as well as scientific equipment for conducting experiments," the agency said in a statement.   More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Apr 1)

SOYUZ DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station Thursday, two days after a technical snag blocked a fast-track rendezvous and docking shortly after launch Tuesday. With commander Alexander Skvortsov monitoring the automated approach from the Soyuz's center seat, the docking mechanism in the nose of the Soyuz TMA-12M ferry craft engaged its counterpart at the end of the upper Poisk module at 7:53 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed 252 miles above southern Brazil.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 28)

SOYUZ ON TRAJECTORY TO REACH SPACE STATION THURSDAY - Russian flight controllers troubleshooting a glitch aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft that interrupted a planned four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station Tuesday successfully uploaded a revised 34-orbit trajectory overnight, setting up a delayed docking Thursday. While engineers have not yet determined what caused an apparent orientation error that prevented a rocket firing Thursday that was part of the original four-orbit rendezvous plan, officials said Wednesday that two rocket firings had been executed as part of a revised "burn" plan and that the Soyuz spacecraft operated normally.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 27)

SATELLITE SPOTS 122 OBJECTS IN SEARCH FOR MISSING MALAYSIAN JET - A French company is mobilizing five satellites in a bid to help search crews locate missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 after it captured images of 122 objects that potentially belong to the plane. The images were taken Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Europe's Airbus Group; its businesses include the operation of satellites and satellite communications. Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s acting transport minister, announced the findings on Wednesday and said the objects were seen close to where three other satellites previously detected possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean. He added that the sightings together are "the most credible lead that we have."   More
(Source: Fox News - Mar 27)

SOYUZ RENDEZVOUS ABORTED AFTER SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH - A veteran Russian space station commander, a rookie cosmonaut and a NASA shuttle flier rocketed smoothly into space aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft Tuesday, but the crew ran into problems executing a required rendezvous rocket firing, delaying docking with the International Space Station until Thursday at the earliest. Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 3:17 a.m. Wednesday local time), kicking off a planned four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous with the station.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 26)

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