RUSSIANS LAUNCH SPACE STATION RESUPPLY SHIP - It was a throwback of sorts Wednesday as a Russian Progress cargo craft launched on a two-day track in pursuit of the International Space Station, reverting to the old rendezvous style instead of the six-hour sprints employed recently, but one of its navigation antennas did not immediately deploy. Loaded with 3.1 tons of food, fuel and supplies, the freighter was boosted into orbit atop an unmanned Russian Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:12 a.m. EDT (1012 GMT). The space station was located over the South Atlantic at the moment of launch.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 25)

NASA LAUNCHES THREE SMARTPHONES INTO ORBIT - Talk about roaming charges. NASA has launched three smartphones into orbit as part of a low-budget, experimental satellite program that uses off-the-shelf components. The three Google-HTC Nexus One smartphones are circling Earth at an altitude of about 150 miles and will burn up on re-entry within the next two weeks, NASA said. The smartphones, which are encased in 4-inch metal cubes, are running the Android operating system.    More
(Source: Los Angeles Times - Apr 25)

ANTARES ROCKET BLASTS INTO ORBIT FOR FIRST TIME IN TEST FOR NASA - In its maiden flight to space, a commercially built 13-story rocket blasted off from a launch pad off the coast of Virginia in a test mission for NASA. The Antares rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences Corp., roared into orbit after launching Sunday at 2 p.m. Pacific time from the newly built Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Although it was simply a test flight to reach orbit, the successful launch was another crucial step in NASA’s plan to hand off space missions -- carrying cargo and crews -- to private industry now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired.    More
(Source: Los Angeles Times - Apr 22)

DEAD SATELLITE COMES ALIVE - What was given up as dead, turned out to be alive! The one that sprang a recent surprise was India's first IIT-made student satellite, Jugnu, a product of the students and staff of IIT-Kanpur. The three-kg student satellite was launched on October 12, 2011, along with SRMSat of SRM University in Chennai and VesselSat-1 of Luxembourg. The main satellite was the Indo-French Megha-Tropiques.    More
(Source: Times of India - Apr 21)

RUSSIA TO DEORBIT SPACE STATION’S PIRS MODULE IN 2013 - Russia plans to deorbit and sink its Pirs docking module of the International Space Station later this year, a high-ranking official with the Russian space corporation RKK Energia said on Friday. Alexander Kaleri, the head of the company’s scientific technical center, said undocking and deorbiting Pirs will take place before a new Russian module docks with the station. Alexander Derechin, RKK Energia deputy chief designer said in late March the launch of the multirole laboratory module (MLM) is tentatively scheduled for the end of 2013.    More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Apr 20)

WEATHER AGAIN DELAYS TEST LAUNCH OF PRIVATE ROCKET DESIGNED TO DELIVER SPACE STATION SUPPLIES - A test launch of an unmanned rocket that would eventually help carry supplies to the International Space Station has been rescheduled. NASA says the launch will take place no earlier than 5 p.m. Saturday, with a backup opportunity Sunday. A Friday attempt was called off due to wind and thunderstorms in the area of Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where the launch of the Antares rocket is slated to take place.   More
(Source: Washington Post - Apr 20)

RUSSIAN SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED WITH COSMIC CACHE OF CRITTERS - Russia launched a space capsule into orbit Friday packed with mice, geckos, gerbils, snails and fish to observe how the animals fare in a one-month, roundtrip voyage into the final frontier. The animals will spend the 30-day mission inside enclosures and cages, and scientists devised feeding procedures to ensure the critters survive the journey. The Bion M1 spacecraft lifted off on a Soyuz rocket at 1000 GMT (6 a.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, less than 20 hours after the booster rolled to the launch pad on rails.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 20)

NASA'S NEWEST SOLAR SATELLITE ARRIVES AT VANDENBERG AFB FOR LAUNCH - NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday, April 16, to begin its final preparations for launch currently scheduled no earlier than May 28. IRIS will improve our understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun's atmosphere, thereby increasing our ability to forecast space weather.    More
(Source: Wall Street Journal - Apr 19)

EUTELSAT 3D SATELLITE ARRIVES AT THE BAIKONOUR COSMODROME. - The EUTELSAT 3D satellite of Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) arrived on April 13 at the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is now undergoing final preparations for launch by a Proton Breeze M rocket supplied by ILS. Lift-off is planned on May 14 from 16.02 GMT (18.02 CET) with spacecraft separation scheduled to occur after a nine hour 13 minute flight.    More
(Source: Wall Street Journal - Apr 18)

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