SOYUZ CRAFT READIED FOR SPACE STATION MISSION - A Russian-made Soyuz rocket was erected into place Sunday, ahead of the start of a mission to take a three-man crew to the International Space Station. For the first time since 1984, the manned launch will take place from Baikonur cosmodrome launch pad 31, while the pad that is normally used, from which Yury Gagarin began his landmark space mission, is undergoing modernization.    More
(Source: NBCNews.com - Oct 22)

NASA... GOES-13 GOING AGAIN - The GOES-13 spacecraft, which had its sounder and imager instruments taken out of service because of technical trouble in late September, returned to full operations on Thursday, October 18, 2012. The trouble stemmed from a motor vibration, which caused a lubricant buildup that obstructed the spinning motion of the filter wheel in the sounder. A team of engineers from NOAA, Boeing and ITT suppressed the vibration, the filter wheel restarted and is running smoothly, with improved performance.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Oct 20)

SPACE STATION OPENS LAUNCH PAD FOR TINY SATELLITES - Astronauts on the International Space Station have transformed their high-flying laboratory into a new kind of launch pad for tiny satellites in a bid to boost student interest and access to space. This month, the space station's Expedition 33 crew launched five tiny Cubesats, each only a few inches wide, using a small satellite orbital deployer from Japan's space agency JAXA. They were the first Cubesat satellites ever launched from the International Space Station, coming 2 1/2 years after NASA announced the CubeSat program.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Oct 18)

NAVIGATION SATELLITE TO BE LAUNCHED IN LATE OCT - A new satellite for China's homegrown Beidou navigation system will be launched at the end of October to join 15 satellites already in orbit, the Beijing News reported on Monday. The new satellite will complete a network that can offer services to customers in the Asia Pacific region. China has sent five civilian satellites into space since the beginning of the year to speed up the completion of the network for the Beidou navigation and positioning system.    More
(Source: China Daily - Oct 16)

SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR ROLLS INTO NEW HOME AS CROWDS CHEER - The space shuttle Endeavour's journey of 123 million miles ended Sunday afternoon when it rolled into its final resting place at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will go on public display later this month. It took more than two days for the shuttle to inch its way across the 12 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport to the science center, navigating around trees and light poles along the narrow path.    More
(Source: CNN - Oct 15)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES US TELECOMS SATELLITE - Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket with a US telecoms satellite, Intelsat-23, blasted off on Sunday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman said. “Proton-M with the Intelsat-23 satellite was launched at the designated time - 12:37 p.m. Moscow time [8:27 GMT]. The separation of the spacecraft from the Briz-M upper stage is scheduled for 22:07 p.m. Moscow time [18:07 GMT],” the spokesman said.    More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Oct 15)

CHINESE DEMO SATELLITES SHOT INTO SPACE BY LONG MARCH - China successfully launched a Long March 2C rocket Sunday, orbiting a pair of engineering research satellites to test new technologies in space, according to state-run media reports. The Long March 2C launcher lifted off at 0325 GMT Sunday (11:25 p.m. EDT Saturday) from the Taiyuan space center in northern China's Shanxi province, a remote site about 265 miles southwest of Beijing. Launch occurred at 11:25 a.m. Beijing time.    More
(Source: Spaceflight Now - Oct 15)

ORBCOMM SATELLITE LAUNCHED BY FALCON 9 HAS FALLEN TO EARTH - The satellite that was launched to orbit as a secondary payload by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 7, 2012 has deorbited, falling back to Earth. The ORBCOMM OG2 satellite was a prototype communications satellite that was launched along with the Dragon capsule for the CRS-1 resupply mission to the International Space Station.    More
(Source: Phys.Org - Oct 13)

ORBCOMM'S OG2 SATELLITE DEORBITS - Orbcomm declared its OG2 prototype spacecraft a total loss Oct. 11 after the second-generation communications satellite that flew as a secondary payload on SpaceX's first cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was dropped into a lower orbit than intended. The New Jersey-based satellite messaging services provider said it had filed a claim against an insurance policy that covered the spacecraft for up $10 million, which Orbcomm said would largely offset the expected cost of the satellite and its launch.    More
(Source: Aviation Week - Oct 13)

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