RUSSIA LAUNCHES SHIP ON SAME-DAY TRIP TO SPACE STATION - A robotic Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station Wednesday to deliver a fresh load of supplies and test a new same-day docking plan that, if successful, will make it the first spacecraft ever to arrive at the orbiting lab within hours of liftoff. The unmanned Progress 48 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia. It was early Thursday morning local time at the site of the Russian spaceport.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Aug 2)

ESA... GIOVE-B GOING SOON (SATELLITE) - ESA’s GIOVE-B experimental navigation satellite is gradually raising its orbit as it prepares for well-earned retirement at the end of its four-year mission paving the way for Europe’s Galileo constellation. Last Tuesday, an initial thruster firing raised GIOVE-B’s orbit by about 30km. This will be followed by others in the next three weeks so that by mid-August the satellite will be in a graveyard orbit some 600km above its original 23,222km orbit.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Jul 31)

BOSTON-AREA FIRMS TO HELP RECYCLE SATELLITES - High above the Earth floats a graveyard — a growing fleet of moribund communications satellites jettisoned into retirement after they broke or became obsolete. Now, they may be about to get second lives as working satellites, with local laboratories developing ways to repurpose them 22,000 miles up in space. The laboratories are working for a Department of Defense program called Phoenix, which is built on the bold vision of recycling rather than replacing satellites.    More
(Source: Boston.com - Jul 31)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES GROUP OF 4 SATELLITES TO EXPANSIVE NETWORK IN SPACE - The Russian space program continues in high gear after launching a group of four satellites on a Rokot rocket into space on Saturday, officials said. The Aerospace Defence Force (ADF) says the Russian carrier rocket with a Cosmos class military satellite and three civilian satellites on board blasted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia at 5:35 a.m. Moscow time (9:35 p.m. EDT Friday), RIA Novosti reported.    More
(Source: Examiner.com - Jul 30)

RUSSIAN CARGO SPACECRAFT DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION ON 2ND TRY - An unmanned Russian cargo ship parked itself at the International Space Station tonight (July 28), in a second attempt to test an updated space docking system, NASA says. The robotic Russian Progress 47 spacecraft re-docked to the space station to test the new Kurs-NA docking system. The cargo ship safely approached the station and automatically attached itself to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the massive orbiting laboratory at 9:01 p.m. ET (0101 GMT July 29). Russia intends to use the Kurs-NA docking system on future unmanned Progress spacecraft and manned Soyuz vehicles.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jul 30)

JAPANESE CARGO SPACECRAFT DOCKS AT SPACE STATION - The third in a series of robotic Japanese spaceships safely arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, bearing a delivery of food, equipment and student science experiments for the orbital outpost. The unmanned, school bus-size H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), also called Kounotori 3 ("White Stork" in Japanese), flew to about 40 feet (12 meters) away from the ISS, where it was grabbed at 8:23 a.m. ET by the space station's 58-foot long (18 m) robotic arm, which was controlled from inside by astronauts Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency).    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jul 28)

RUSSIA TO TRY SPACE STATION DOCKING TEST AGAIN SATURDAY - Russia will try to test a new spacecraft docking system again Saturday with an unmanned cargo ship at the International Space Station, after a first attempt earlier this week failed and was prematurely aborted. A robotic Russian Progress 47 cargo ship undocked from the space station on July 22 for the test, and will attempt to automatically link up to the orbiting outpost tomorrow at 9 p.m. EDT.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jul 28)

NEW SATELLITES COULD MAKE GPS HARDER TO JAM - Without GPS, drones can’t fly, communications networks can’t function, and you don’t have a chance of figuring out how to get to your Aunt Sadie’s place in New Jersey. And right now, GPS is highly vulnerable because its weak signals are coming from an aging constellation of satellites. Lockheed Martin, the nation’s biggest military contractor, thinks the next generation of GPS satellites might be able to fix all that.    More
(Source: Wired News - Jul 28)

TINY JAPANESE SATELLITE TO WRITE MORSE CODE IN THE SKY - The robotic Japanese cargo vessel now en route to the International Space Station is loaded with food, clothes, equipment -- and a set of tiny amateur radio satellites, including one that will write Morse code messages in the sky. Japan's unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 launched July 20 and is slated to arrive at the station Friday (July 27).    More
(Source: CBS News - Jul 28)

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