SHHH — AIR FORCES LAUNCHES SECRET US SPY SATELLITE - A new U.S. spy satellite launched into orbit Wednesday, kicking off a clandestine national security mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The NROL-38 reconnaissance spacecraft lifted off at 8:28 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket. It marked a milestone flight for the rocket company, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. "Congratulations to the NRO and to all the mission partners involved in this critical national security launch," Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president for Mission Operations, said in a statement. More (Source: MSNBC - Jun 21)
SHENZHOU-9 DOCKS WITH TIANGONG-1 - China's Shenzhou-9 capsule, with its crew of three, has docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The coupling of the vehicles occurred just after 14:00 Beijing time (06:00 GMT; 07:00 BST) over China itself. The latest Shenzhou mission was launched on Saturday, taking the nation's first female astronaut into orbit. Thirty-three-year old Liu Yang flies with Commander Jing Haipeng, 46, and fellow flight engineer, Liu Wang, 42. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 18)
AIR FORCE'S MINI SPACE SHUTTLE RETURNS AFTER 468-DAY FLIGHT - Capping a 15-month clandestine military mission circling the planet, the Pentagon's miniature spaceplane, one quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, returned to Earth just after dawn Saturday for a pinpoint touchdown at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Orbital Test Vehicle received the ground-issued command to come home, initiating a fully autonomous sequence of firing its propulsion system to brake from orbit, plunging through the atmosphere for a super-hot reentry over the Pacific Ocean, executing a series of turns to dissipate speed towards Vandenberg, then dropping its gear with dinner plate-sized wheels for a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:48 a.m. local (8:48 a.m. EDT; 1248 GMT) while flying on a sophisticated autopilot fed with GPS navigation. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Jun 16)
LIFT OFF: CHINA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST FEMALE ASTRONAUT INTO SPACE - China on Saturday launched its Shenzhou-9 spacecraft carrying three astronauts, including Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman to travel to space. The Long March-2F rocket lifted off successfully from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 6:37 p.m local time and the Shenzhou-9 capsule separated from its booster shortly thereafter and entered orbit. Known as Taikonauts in China, Liu and her male traveling companions are embarking on a 13-day mission to rendezvous with the country's Tiangong-1 space station module. More (Source: PcMag.com - Jun 16)
MYSTERY MINI SPACE SHUTTLE LANDING DELAYED - It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a mysterious unmanned mini-space shuttle on a classified mission. But it won't be landing today. The Air Force has delayed landing for the X-37B, an unmanned aircraft built by Boeing that has spent more than a year on a classified mission in space. Weather conditions were not favorable for the landing today. Officials said the craft could land Saturday. A landing window for the X-37b lasts through June 18. More (Source: Yahoo News - Jun 15)
AIR FORCE'S SECRETIVE X-37B SPACE PLANE MAY LAND FRIDAY - The U.S. Air Force is standing ready for this week's much anticipated return to Earth of a robotic space plane that has spent more than a year in orbit on a secret mission. Air Force officials say landing day for the unmanned X-37B space plane is imminent, and could occur on Friday (June 15). But weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors, will determine when the spacecraft's will ultimately land.... More (Source: Space.com - Jun 14)
AIR-LAUNCHED PEGASUS BOOSTS NASA TELESCOPE TO SPACE - A small X-ray telescope was boosted into orbit by an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket Wednesday, the first step in an ambitious low-cost mission to study supermassive black holes believed to be lurking at the cores of galaxies like Earth's Milky Way and to probe the creation of heavy elements in the cataclysmic death throes of massive stars. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Jun 14)
NASA ASTROPHYSICS SATELLITE PREPARES FOR LAUNCH FROM PACIFIC OCEAN - Orbital Sciences Corp. is in final preparations to launch NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite, the company said on Tuesday. NuSTAR was designed and manufactured at OSC’s production facilities in Dulles, Va. The satellite will be launched aboard Orbital’s Pegasus air-launched rocket in a mission that will originate from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands located near the Earth’s equator in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The targeted launch date and time is Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. EDT. More (Source: Examiner.com - Jun 14)
CHINA'S FIRST FEMALE ASTRONAUT TO FLY ON SPACE DOCKING MISSION - The first female Chinese astronaut will be among the crew launching on the nation's first manned docking mission this month, state media sources say. The upcoming Shenzhou 9 mission is expected to launch in mid-June, possibly as early as June 16, to dock with China's first space station test module, Tiangong 1, which is already in orbit. One of the three Chinese astronauts (called taikonauts) on the flight will be chosen from two women candidates — Liu Yang and Wang Yaping — according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Both candidates are members of the Chinese Air Force's Wuhan Flight Unit. More (Source: MSNBC - Jun 12)
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