ISS CHRISTMAS: ASTRONAUTS ABOARD SPACE STATION EXCHANGE GIFTS, CELEBRATE HOLIDAY - Christmas in orbit might not look exactly like the holidays on Earth, but the astronauts living on the International Space Station this holiday season try to make the orbiting science laboratory as homey as possible. The six members of the station's Expedition 34 crew, three of whom just arrived last week, will all be spending Christmas and New Years Day aboard the spacecraft, but that doesn't mean they don't get to celebrate. Hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface, the spaceflyers will eat, exchange gifts, and be merry during Christmas and when welcoming in the New Year. More (Source: Huffington Post - Dec 26)
NEW ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - At 11:37 am on Friday, the International Space Station gained three new crewmembers, bringing Expedition 34 to its full crew complement. The new crewmembers are all veteran of space station missions. They include NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, making his third trip to the International Space Station; Russian Cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, who’s previously spent six months on the station; and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who helped install the station’s robotic arm. More (Source: Forbes - Dec 22)
SOYUZ BLASTS OFF WITH CREW BOUND FOR SPACE STATION - Braving arctic temperatures and a brutal wind chill, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft roared to life and streaked smoothly into orbit Wednesday, carrying a veteran three-man crew on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. With commander Roman Romanenko at the controls, the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft climbed away from its launching stand at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:12:35 a.m. EST (GMT-5; 6:12 p.m. local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 20)
ARIANE 5 ECA LAUNCHES SKYNET 5D AND MEXSAT 3/BICENTENARIO - Arianespace launched their final Ariane 5 launch of the year by successfully lofting two satellites into orbit – Skynet 5D and Mexsat 3/Bicentenario – from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch was on schedule at the opening of the window at 21:49 UTC on Wednesday. The Ariane 5 ECA (Cryogenic Evolution type A) – the most powerful version in the Ariane 5 range – was used for this flight. The Ariane 5 ECA is an improved Ariane 5 Generic launcher. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Dec 20)
TURKISH IMAGING SATELLITE LIFTED TO ORBIT BY CHINA - China launched a Turkish reconnaissance satellite Tuesday to supply optical imagery for civilian users and defense forces, according to media reports. The Gokturk 2 spacecraft lifted off on a Chinese Long March 2D rocket at 1613 GMT (11:13 a.m. EST) Tuesday. The launch, which originated from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China, was at 12:13 a.m. Beijing time, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Built by Turkish Aerospace Inc. and funded by the Turkish government, the Gokturk 2 satellite is beginning a five-year mission to collect imagery visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared global reconnaissance imagery. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 19)
ASTRONOMERS SAY APPARENTLY MALFUNCTIONING NORTH KOREA SATELLITE COULD ORBIT EARTH FOR YEARS - A North Korean satellite launched into space last week appears to be malfunctioning but could remain in orbit for several years, a leading expert in the United States said Tuesday. North Korea says the satellite is working. Even if it isn't, its successful launch into space marks a milestone in the impoverished country's technological advances, especially given accusations that the rocket launch was actually a test of systems that could be used to launch long-range More (Source: Fox News - Dec 19)
SOYUZ PUT IN PLACE FOR MISSION TO SPACE STATION - A Soyuz spacecraft atop a towering rocket was placed into launch position Monday at Russia's manned-space facility in the freezing steppes of Kazakhstan ahead of a five-month mission for three astronauts to the International Space Station. The craft was rolled out of its hangar on a flatbed train at exactly 7 a.m. in strict accordance with tradition and crawled for two hours at a walking pace to the launch pad. More (Source: Houston Chronicle - Dec 18)
ASTRONOMERS SAY NORTH KOREAN SATELLITE IS MOST LIKELY DEAD - The North Korean satellite launched into space last week appears to be tumbling in orbit and is most likely dead, astronomers are reporting. The evident failure will not cause the spacecraft to fall quickly back to earth but seems to represent a major blow to the North’s portrayal of the launching as a complete triumph. “It’s spinning or tumbling, and we haven’t picked up any transmissions,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. More (Source: The New York Times - Dec 18)
YAMAL-402 SATELLITE REACHES GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT - GAZPROM SPACE SYSTEMS - Thales Alenia Space (Cannes, France), the manufacturer of the Yamal-402 satellite for Gazprom Space Systems, has carried out the fourth and the final maneuver to place the satellite into a planned geostationary orbit, Gazprom Space Systems told Interfax-AVN on Saturday. More (Source: Russia Beyond The Headlines - Dec 16)
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