ESTONIA'S FIRST EVER SATELLITE BEGINS CIRCLING EARTH - Estonia's first satellite, ESTCube-1, was sent into orbit on Tuesday, making the small Baltic nation the 41st one in the world owning manmade object in space. Launched from the Guiana Space Center, the one-kilogram nanosatellite reached orbit at around 07:06 Estonian time (0606 GMT). It was accompanied by two other satellites, Europe's Proba V and Vietnam's VNREDSat 1A. Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) reported one of the project's leaders, senior researcher Mart Noorma, as saying, "I am very proud to be seeing all these students here who are watching their handiwork of five years."    More
(Source: Xinhua - May 8)

VIETNAM SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES FIRST REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE - After three days of delay due to the bad weather, Vietnam's first remote sensing satellite, VNRED Sat-1, was successfully launched Tuesday morning by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Center, French Guiana, local media reported. According to Tuoi Tre online, the earth observation satellite was launched by a Vega lightweight rocket at 9:06 a.m., Hanoi time. It is said that 1 hour 57 minutes and 24 seconds after taking off, the satellite would activate its propulsion engine to make its way to sun synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of nearly 670 km.    More
(Source: Xinhua - May 8)

GPS SATELLITE FITTED TO ATLAS 5 ROCKET FOR UPCOMING LAUNCH - An Atlas rocket and a Global Positioning System satellite were joined together for the first time in 28 years Monday, as the pairing of booster and payload were united for their May 15 launch from Cape Canaveral. Already shrouded in the launcher's 39-foot-tall, 14-foot-diameter aluminum nose cone, the spacecraft was hauled to the Atlas assembly building and hoisted atop the Centaur upper stage by United Launch Alliance workers. The fully assembled rocket, standing 189 feet tall for launch, will be wheeled out to the Complex 41 pad aboard a mobile platform on May 14.    More
(Source: Spaceflight Now - May 8)

BAD WEATHER POSTPONES EUROPE'S VEGA ROCKET LAUNCH - The latest outing for Europe's new small satellite launcher, Vega, has been postponed until an unspecified date because of bad weather conditions. The lift-off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana was originally scheduled for 23:06 local time on Friday (02:06 GMT, Saturday). Controllers decided the high altitude wind conditions were unacceptable. The mission is part of series planned by the European Space Agency (Esa) to demonstrate the rocket's capabilities.    More
(Source: BBC News - May 5)

VIETNAM TO LAUNCH FIRST REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Vietnam will launch the first remote sensing satellite, VNREDSat-1, into orbit on May 4 from the Kourou launch pad, Guyana, France, reported the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) on its website, quoting sources from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology as saying. Specifically, the VNREDSat-1 Project has a total investment of 55.8 million EUR (73.3 million U.S. dollars) in preferential Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) of the French government and 64,820 million VND (3.1 million U.S. dollars) in corresponding capital from Vietnam.    More
(Source: Xinhua - May 4)

TELEVISION BROADCASTING SATELLITE LAUNCHED BY CHINA - China launched a state-owned communications satellite into orbit Wednesday to beam television and data to commercial customers across Asia, Africa and Australia for the next 15 years. The Chinasat 11 satellite, owned by China Satellite Communications Corp., will link millions of customers in China and neighboring regions with direct-to-home television, digital broadband and streaming media services. The spacecraft is the heaviest and most powerful commercial communications ever built in China, according to its manufacturer, the China Academy of Space Technology.   More
(Source: Spaceflight Now - May 2)

RUSSIAN ASTRONAUTS TO TAKE OLYMPIC TORCH TO ISS - A team of Russian astronauts will take the unlit Olympic torch for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the relay route. The torch, which will be carried outside the ISS for a spacewalk, will not be lit at any point as carrying naked flames are strictly prohibited in the space station. “It will be the same as the torch at the Olympics,” the deputy head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Vitaly Davydov, was quoted as saying by a news agency.    More
(Source: Zee News - May 1)

HAM RADIO CUBESATS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED - At 0413 UT on Friday, April 26, two amateur radio CubeSats TURKSAT-3USAT and CubeBug-1 along with the NEE-01 Pegasus HD TV CubeSat were launched from the Jiuquan Space Center on a CZ-2D rocket. TURKSAT-3USAT is a 3U CubeSat (10x10x30cm) and carries a 145 to 435 MHz linear transponder built by the Turkish TAMSAT / AMSAT-TR group for SSB and CW communications.    More
(Source: AMSAT-UK - Apr 27)

SUCCESS! PROGRESS SPACECRAFT OVERCOMES STUCK ANTENNA, ARRIVES AT STATION - A software fix solved a sticky antenna problem on an unmanned cargo ship, a problem that threatened to interfere with the approach and docking to the International Space Station Friday. Progress 51 successfully docked with the massive orbiting complex at 8:35 a.m. EDT (12:35 p.m. GMT) Friday without the need of assistance from the station crew, which was standing by to take over the docking just in case.    More
(Source: Universe Today - Apr 27)

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