INDIAN PSLV SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES IRNSS-1A NAVIGATION SATELLITE - India have launched their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Monday carrying IRNSS-1A, the first satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. Liftoff from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre occurred at 18:11 UTC (23:41 local time). The IRNSS-1A satellite is the first of seven which will make up the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). More (Source: NASAspaceflight.com - Jul 2)
INDIA'S FIRST MIDNIGHT SATELLITE LAUNCH SET FOR MONDAY - The countdown for the Monday midnight launch of an Indian navigation satellite is progressing smoothly with the liquid fuel filling for the fourth stage engine getting completed, an official said on Sunday. "Yesterday (Saturday) evening, the filling of the liquid fuel in the fourth stage was completed and the fuel for the second stage will be filled during the countdown. In addition, pressurisation of the stages with gases will also be done," a senior official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. More (Source: Times of India - Jul 1)
NASA LAUNCHES SUN-WATCHING TELESCOPE TO PROBE SOLAR SECRETS - NASA's newest solar observatory launched into space late Thursday (June 27), beginning a two-year quest to probe some of the sun's biggest mysteries. An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket and the new solar telescope — called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph satellite, or IRIS — left California's Vandenberg Air Force Base underneath a specially modified aircraft at 9:30 p.m. EDT Thursday (6:30 p.m. local time; 0130 GMT Friday). More (Source: Space.com - Jun 28)
CREW RETURNS FROM CHINA SPACE STATION - A space capsule with three astronauts has safely landed on grasslands in northern China after a 15-day trip to the country's prototype space station. The Shenzhou 10's descent module landed by parachute in Inner Mongolia early on Wednesday with the three crew members reported in good health. The two men and one woman taught lessons to Chinese schoolchildren while in space. More (Source: Independent Online - Jun 27)
NASA’S SUN SATELLITE LAUNCH DELAYED; NOW TARGETED FOR THURSDAY EVENING FROM CALIFORNIA - NASA has delayed the launch of a sun-observing satellite by a day so that technicians can restore power to launch range equipment. The Iris satellite was supposed to be carried aloft from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday. But the launch range recently lost electricity after an equipment failure at a utility substation darkened much of the central coast. The problem is expected to be fixed by Thursday evening. More (Source: Washington Post - Jun 27)
NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCH WORK PICKS UP STEAM - Hectic activity is on at Sriharikota for the lift-off of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C22) at 11.41 p.m. on July 1, which will put the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, IRNSS-1A into orbit. A PSLV-XL version, which uses six powerful strap-on booster motors, will put the 1,425-kg IRNSS-1A into orbit. “Everything is going well for the launch and the satellite has been integrated with the PSLV,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told The Hindu on Monday from New Delhi. More (Source: The Hindu - Jun 27)
RESURS P1 AVAILABLE FOR LIVE TRACKING - RESURS P1 is a Russian civil remote sensing satellite featuring a modernized high-resolution digital camera to collect imagery of Earth for Russian government agencies and international customers. The images will be used by emergency personnel, environmental scientists, urban planners and other officials, putting Russia in a league with commercial observation satellites owned by companies in the United States and Europe. More (Source: N2YO.com - Jun 27)
LIFT-OFF FOR O3B SATELLITE NETWORK - The O3b company has finally got its first four satellites in orbit. They were launched on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana after a day's delay due to unfavourable winds at the Sinnamary spaceport. The satellites' deployment marks the first phase in O3b's construction of a novel telecommunications network. It plans to put a constellation in the sky to handle voice and data traffic for mobile phone, internet and other service providers. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 26)
RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS BEGIN SPACEWALK OUTSIDE SPACE STATION - Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station today (June 24) to begin a six-hour spacewalk to test and upgrade systems on the orbiting lab's exterior. Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and his crewmate Alexander Misurkin floated outside to begin their work at 9:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT). This is the sixth career spacewalk for Yurchikhin and Misurkin's first. So far, Yurchikhin has logged 31 hours and 52 minutes of spacewalk time. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 25)
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