SEA LAUNCH POSTPONES SATELLITE LAUNCH UNTIL DEC. 3 - The Sea Launch consortium has moved the date for the launch of its Zenit-3SL rocket carrying the EUTELSAT-70B satellite 24 hours due to the delayed arrival of the Odyssey platform to the launch site, the company said on Tuesday. The rocket, previously scheduled for a December 2 launch, will lift off at 12:44 Pacific Standard Time (20:44 GMT) on Monday.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Nov 29)

LONG MARCH 4C LAUNCHES YAOGAN WEIXING-16 SPY SATELLITE FOR CHINA - Following the postponement of the Zhongxing-12 (ChinaSat) communications satellite launch, the Chinese kept up their impressive launch pace with the lofting of the Yaogan Weixing-16 satellite by a Long March (Chang Zheng) 4C rocket on Sunday. The launch took place at 4:06am UTC from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Chinese media refer to the new satellite as a new remote sensing bird that will be used for scientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring.   More
(Source: NASASpaceflight.com - Nov 26)

LANKA'S SATELLITE LAUNCH DELAYED - The first ever Sri Lankan satellite launch, which was scheduled for today from a Chinese space centre, has been delayed due to unfavourable weather conditions. A new time for launch will be announced tomorrow, local media quoted President Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger son Rohitha Rajapaksa, who is a key engineer in the Sri Lankan Space Systems, as saying. With the launch of the satellite Sri Lanka will become the third South Asian nation, after India and Pakistan to own a communications satellite.    More
(Source: Business Standard - Nov 23)

WHAT SPACE STATION ASTRONAUTS WILL EAT FOR THANKSGIVING - Thanksgiving and other similar Fall Festivals are celebrated worldwide. It’s a day of feasting and fellowship that’s not only celebrated on Earth, but also at the International Space Station. Tomorrow, NASA Astronaut and Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford will sit down with Russian Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin to enjoy their own Thanksgiving feast. Of course, the astronauts aren’t capable of roasting a turkey in space, but they do have a variety of foods that can either be heated, rehydrated, or eaten as is.   More
(Source: Forbes - Nov 22)

CHINA’S LONG MARCH-2C SENDS SAT SOARING JOINS UP WITH FAMILY - China on Monday sent the third satellite in its "Environment I" family into the sky, sharpening its abilities in environmental monitoring and disaster forecasting. The launch marks the completion of a plan initiated by China in 2003 to create a small environmental monitoring satellite constellation, according to north China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The radar satellite will join the other two operating optical satellites "Environment I" satellites, which were launched in Sept. 2008, to form a network covering most of China's territory.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Nov 20)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TRIO COMES BACK TO EARTH - Three veteran space station fliers strapped into their Soyuz ferry craft, undocked and plunged back to Earth Sunday, making a fiery descent to a frigid pre-dawn landing in Kazakhstan to close out a 127-day stay in space. With Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko strapped into the descent module's center seat, flanked on the left by outgoing Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams and on the right by Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, the crew undocked from the station's Russian Rassvet module at 5:26 p.m. EST (GMT-5) as the two spacecraft sailed 250 miles above northwestern China.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 19)

SOYUZ SPACECRAFT WITH 3 CREWMEMBERS UNDOCKS FROM ISS - The Soyuz TMA-05M manned spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, beginning is voyage to bring three ISS crew members to Earth after 127 days in orbit. A mission control spokesman said the spacecraft undocked in the automated mode as scheduled, at 2:26 Monday. The deorbit burn will begin at 4.59 Moscow time (0:59 GMT), and the spacecraft will enter the atmosphere at 5:29 at the altitude of 102 km.    More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Nov 19)

CHINA TO LAUNCH SECOND AFRICAN SATELLITE - China Great Wall Industry Corp will launch the Democratic Republic of the Congo's first satellite, which will also be developed by China, before the end of 2015, according to a contract signed on Saturday. The Chinese company is the country's only authorised provider of commercial satellite launch services for international clients. The contract for CongoSat 1, a communications satellite to be developed and manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology for the National Network of Satellite Telecommunications of the African country, was inked in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.    More
(Source: AsiaOne - Nov 18)

SATELLITE DELAYS PROMPT CANADIAN DEFENSE CONCERNS - Canada's military defense capabilities are at risk due to a predicted two-year delay of a new fleet of Earth-watching radar satellites, critics say. But the country's defense department maintains it has a backup plan. The delayed Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) consists of three satellites meant to replace Radarsat-2, a five-year-old satellite that probes Canada's landmass, and that of other countries, with radar signals. Radarsat-2 is expected to last until 2015, and potentially longer.    More
(Source: NBCNews.com - Nov 18)

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