RETURN OF THE DRAGON: COMMERCIAL CRAFT BACK HOME - A commercial capsule built by SpaceX descended from orbit Sunday with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, bringing back nearly one ton of precious experiment samples and other gear from the International Space Station. The 14-foot-tall, 12-foot-diameter Dragon spaceship splashed down several hundred miles west of Baja California at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) under the canopy of three 116-foot parachutes. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Oct 29)
HURRICANE SANDY NASA VIDEO: INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CAPTURES STUNNING VIDEO OF SANDY FROM SPACE - NASA released stunning video Thursday of Hurricane Sandy captured from the International Space Station. The video shows Sandy as it approaches the United States. As of Friday morning, Sandy was still a Category 1 hurricane and was passing near Great Abaco Island. NASA officials said the International Space Station took this photo when "The storm was located about 85 miles south-southeast of Great Exuma Island." More (Source: ABC2 News - Oct 28)
SPACEX CAPSULE, PACKED WITH SUPPLIES, SET TO RETURN FROM STATION - SpaceX's Dragon space capsule, currently on the first contracted mission to resupply the International Space Station, is scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday afternoon. At 12:20 p.m. PDT, the capsule is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 250 miles west of Southern California. It will be the culmination of the mission carried out by the Hawthorne company, which is officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The spacecraft delivered 882 pounds of cargo to the station earlier this month. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - Oct 28)
CHINA LAUNCHES SATELLITE FOR NAVIGATION - China successfully launched another satellite into space for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network at 11:33 pm Beijing Time Thursday, the launch center said. The satellite, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was boosted by a Long March-3C carrier rocket. More (Source: China Daily - Oct 27)
ROCKET LAUNCH DELAYED AFTER FUEL-LINE LEAK FOUND - South Korea delayed its third attempt to launch a satellite-carrying rocket on Friday after technicians discovered an apparent leak in a fuel line to the rocket’s first stage. The launch was scrubbed until at least Monday, officials initially said, because the rocket needed to be removed from the launch pad to replace a seal in the fuel connection. Even if that could be done in one day, the countdown process resets with at least two days of preparation time. More (Source: Wall Street Journal - Oct 27)
SOYUZ SPACECRAFT DOCKS AT SPACE STATION WITH NEW US-RUSSIAN CREW - A Russian Soyuz space capsule linked up with the International Space Station Thursday (Oct. 25) to deliver three new residents to the orbiting laboratory. The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft docked at the space station's rooftop Poisk module at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) after a two-day orbital chase. Riding on the Soyuz were American astronaut Kevin Ford of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who are beginning a five-month mission to the space station. More (Source: Space.com - Oct 25)
ROCKET EXPLOSION RAISES WORRIES OVER SPACE DEBRIS - A Russian Breeze M rocket stage, left with loaded fuel tanks after an August launch failure, exploded in orbit Oct. 16, raising concerns of the U.S. military, NASA and global satellite operators on the lookout for collision threats from hundreds of new space debris fragments. More (Source: Spaceflight.com - Oct 25)
SOUTH KOREA’S SATELLITE LAUNCH AND NORTH KOREAN SATELLITE ENVY - South Korea tries for the third time to successfully launch its own satellite into earth orbit using Russian technology this Friday, October 26, 2012. A new essay by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Clay Moltz analyzes South Korea’s space strategy in a new U.S.-Korea program essay. The essay analyzes South Korea’s program achievements and strategic challenges in the context of rapidly advancing Chinese, Indian, and Japanese programs. More (Source: Council on Foreign Relations - Oct 23)
THREE-MAN CREW LAUNCHES FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Two rookie cosmonauts and a NASA shuttle veteran rocketed into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft Tuesday and set off after the International Space Station. Joining them were 32 medaka fish, bound for a zero-gravity research aquarium aboard the lab complex. Under a clear afternoon sky, the workhorse Russian rocket roared to life at 6:51:11 a.m. EDT (GMT-4; 4:51:11 p.m. local time) and smoothly climbed away from its launching pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Oct 23)
Previous Next
