SOUTH AFRICA TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST CUBE SATELLITE - The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is set to make history with the launch of South Africa‘s first cube satellite, ZACUBE-1, from the Yasny base in Russia at 9:10 a.m. South African time on Nov. 21, the university announced Monday. The nano-satellite is a single unit carrying a space weather experiment, and will be sent up atop the RS-2OB rocket (Dnepr). Running on the same amount of power as a five-watt bulb, ZACUBE-1 will orbit Earth up to 15 times a day at an altitude of 600 kilometres. More (Source: Atlanta Black Star - Nov 17)
TJ STUDENTS BUILD SATELLITE SET TO LAUNCH INTO SPACE TUESDAY - The TJ CubeSat satellite is the first satellite built by high school students NASA will send into orbit. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) students will make history this week when NASA launches TJ3Sat into space. The satellite, which is pronounced TJ-cube-sat, will be the first satellite built by high school students to be launched into orbit. More (Source: Patch.com - Nov 17)
DUBAI’S SECOND SATELLITE TO BE LAUNCHED ON NOVEMBER 21 - DubaiSat 2, UAE’s second earth-imaging satellite, will blast off from the Yasny launch base in Russia on November 21, a key milestone for the UAE’s nascent space industry. Built and designed by a team of 32 engineers, half of whom are Emirati, the state of the art satellite is an initiative of the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST), in association with South Korea’s Satrec Initiative. More (Source: gulfnews.com - Nov 14)
CHINA UNVEILS SPACE STATION RESEARCH PLANS - China is positioning itself to provide orbital laboratory space, experiment racks and facilities to scientists worldwide following the completion of the U.S.-led international space station program. “China Space Station (CSS) will operate in orbit from 2022 to 2032. This period will provide much more opportunities to scientists in China and all of the world after the international space station,” Gu Yidong, president of the China Society of Space Research, said at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference here Nov. 3 – 8. More (Source: Space News - Nov 13)
EUROPEAN GOCE SATELLITE FALLS TO EARTH IN FIERY DEATH DIVE - A European satellite met its fiery doom in Earth's atmosphere late Sunday (Nov. 10), succumbing to the same gravitational pull of the planet that it spent the last four years mapping like never before. The European Space Agency's GOCE satellite fell from space Sunday at 7 p.m. EST (0000 Nov. 11 GMT) while flying on a path that would take it over Siberia, the Western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica, ESA officials said. More (Source: Huffington Post - Nov 12)
SOYUZ RETURNS TO EARTH, COMPLETING ORBITAL TORCH RELAY - Three station fliers strapped into their Soyuz TMA-09M ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Sunday, settling to a jarring rocket-assisted landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 166-day stay in space. Packed safely away in the Soyuz spacecraft was an Olympic torch that was launched last Wednesday with another three-person crew and carried outside the station Saturday for a dramatic spacewalk photo op. Olympic organizers plan to use the torch in the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. More (Source: SoaceFlight.com - Nov 11)
OLYMPIC TORCH TAKES SPACE WALK - The torch for the Sochi Winter Olympics made a historic trip to open space Saturday, with Russian cosmonauts saying they hoped to "make it look spectacular." A three-man crew of astronauts accompanied the torch to the International Space Station Thursday in a Russian spacecraft that blasted off from Kazakhstan, the BBC reported. Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky brought the unlit torch into open space Saturday afternoon and took pictures and videos of each other holding it. More (Source: UPI - Nov 10)
SOYUZ TMA-11M DOCKS INCREASING ISS TO NINE PERSON CREW - The three person crew of Soyuz TMA-11M have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, just six hours and 14 minutes after being launched by their Soyuz FG rocket. Using the fast track rendezvous, the arrival has temporarily increased the orbital outpost’s crew compliment to nine. Veteran Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin was joined on the Soyuz by NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and JAXA’s Koichi Wakata, with additional focus on the launch due to a publicity stunt related to the 2014 Winter Olympics. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Nov 8)
MASSIVE SATELLITE 'CLUSTER' LAUNCH SET FOR NOVEMBER 21 - A Dnepr launcher set to lift off from Dombarovsky, near Yasny, Russia, on November 21 will carry more than two dozen satellites from 13 countries. Individual satellite teams are now in Yasny preparing their payloads for launch. Several of the satellites will carry Amateur Radio payloads, marking this as the largest single deployment of ham radio satellites. Paving the way for this month's event was the August 22 Dnepr launch of the KOMPSAT-5 satellite from Korea -- the first Dnepr launch in 2 years. More (Source: eHam.net - Nov 8)
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