ISRO TO LAUNCH GERMAN, FRENCH, BRITISH, CANADIAN SATELLITES - Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), that got global recognition for its successful launch of a mission to Mars, will now launch German, French, British and Canadaian satellites, a top official said. "We will be launching EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Programme) satellite belonging to Germany. The satellite will weigh around 800 kg," ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan told a news agency in an interview. The EnMAP is a hyperspectral satellite that would provide images of the Earth at regular intervals. This apart, ISRO will be launching French satellite SPOT-7 during the first quarter of 2014, Radhakrishnan said. More (Source: Zee News - Nov 25)
MAIDEN NEXT GEN SPACEX FALCON 9 LAUNCH FROM CAPE CANAVERAL SET FOR NOV. 25 - The maiden flight of the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the firms Cape Canaveral launch facility is set to soar to space on Monday afternoon, Nov. 25 on a ground breaking mission that will be most difficult ever. The upgraded Falcon 9 booster is slated to haul the commercial SES-8 telecommunications satellite for the satellite provider SES for SpaceX’s first ever payload delivery to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). Liftoff is scheduled for 5:37 p.m. EST from SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40 pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. More (Source: Universe Today - Nov 25)
SWARM SATELLITES BLAST OFF TO EXPLORE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD - A swarm of three European magnetic field research satellites rocketed into orbit Friday from a wintry launch pad in northern Russia, kicking off a four-year mission to catalog the sources behind Earth's shield against radiation and solar storms. Behind a veil of thick fog as temperatures hovered near the freezing mark, the European Space Agency's $280 million Swarm mission lifted off at 1202:29 GMT (7:02:29 a.m. EST) Friday at the top of a 95-foot-tall Rockot launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military launch facility about 500 miles north of Moscow. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 25)
SILO-LAUNCHED DNEPR ROCKET DELIVERS 32 SATELLITES TO SPACE - A Soviet-era ballistic missile shot out of an underground silo in southern Russia and rocketed into orbit Thursday with 32 satellites for students, corporations and government agencies from 18 countries on five continents. The launch from a remote military facility in southern Russia came barely one day after a U.S. Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket blasted off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia with a record-setting 29 satellites for the Defense Department, NASA and university and high school students. More (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com - Nov 21)
S. KOREA'S NEW SCIENCE SATELLITE SET TO BLAST OFF FROM RUSSIA - South Korea will launch its first science satellite with infrared radar in Russia later Thursday. The Science and Technology Satellite 3 (STSAT-3) will be launched at 1:10 p.m. (4:10 p.m. KST) from here at Russia's Yasny Launch Base. "So far, no problems have been detected in either the launch vehicle or satellite," Park Gyeong-soo, an official from Seoul's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, told reporters here. More (Source: Korea Times - Nov 21)
UL SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO ORBIT - A small, cube satellite designed and built by a team of UL-Lafayette students is finally in orbit after almost a half a decade wait. The Cajun Advanced Pico-Satellite was part of a payload that was launched into orbit at 7:30pm Tuesday night. Five years after the project started, the satellite was supposed to launch in the first week of November, but a government shutdown pushed the date back. More (Source: KLFY - Nov 21)
SATELLITE BUILT AT UNM GOES INTO ORBIT - The first satellite built by University of New Mexico researchers and students blasted into orbit Tuesday on a Minotaur I rocket from the East Coast. The satellite, appropriately, is called Trailblazer. It is small: a four-inch by four-inch by four-inch cube, also known as a CubeSat. It is one of 28 CubeSats, many of which were built at other universities. In a sense, Trailblazer will go where no satellite has gone before. While it may be small, its mission is complex. It aims to prove that off-the-shelf component parts are possible for larger Air Force satellites. More (Source: ABQ Journal - Nov 21)
CHINESE MILITARY SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO ORBIT - A Long March rocket shot a Chinese intelligence-gathering satellite into orbit Wednesday. Consistent with China's usual communications policy for military space missions, official sources did not announce the launch in advance. China's state-run Xinhua news agency declared the launch successful. The Yaogan 19 satellite lifted off on a Long March 4C rocket at 0331 GMT Wednesday (10:31 p.m. EST Tuesday), or 11:31 a.m. Beijing time, from the Taiyuan launching center in northern China's Shanxi province. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 21)
BALL AEROSPACE-BUILT STPSAT-3 SATELLITE LAUNCHES FROM WALLOPS ISLAND, VA - The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. STPSat-3 satellite built for the Department of Defense and part of the Operationally Responsive Space-3 (ORS-3) mission, successfully launched from Wallops Island, VA, on board a Minotaur I at 8:15 p.m. EST. TPSat-3 joins its predecessor, the Ball-built STPSat-2, which launched in 2010 on the same date. These satellites demonstrate the ability to rapidly access space by using standard interfaces on a standard spacecraft bus. More (Source: Wall Street journal - Nov 20)
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