RUSSIAN ROBOTIC SUPPLY SHIP DOCKS AT SPACE STATION - An unmanned Russian supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Sunday (April 22) carrying tons of fresh supplies in an Earth Day delivery for the orbiting lab's crew. The robotic Progress 47 cargo ship docked with the space station at 10:39 a.m. EDT (1439 GMT), ending a two-day flight that began with an eye-catching launch. The two spacecraft were sailing 249 miles (400 kilometers) over northern China, just south of the Mongolia border, when Progress 47 parked itself at the orbiting lab. More (Source: MSNBC - Apr 23)
HUGE, MYSTERIOUSLY SILENT SATELLITE SPOTTED BY ANOTHER SPACECRAFT - A massive European satellite the size of a school bus that has mysteriously stopped communicating with Earth has been spotted by another satellite in orbit. The giant Envisat satellite, which is the world's largest imaging satellite for civilian use, was photographed in stunning detail by a French spacecraft that is also designed to snap high-resolution images of Earth, officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) said Friday (April 20). More (Source: Space.com - Apr 22)
PROGRESS FREIGHTER TO DOCK WITH SPACE STATION - Russia’s Progress M-15M cargo spacecraft launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on April 20 will dock with the International Space Station on Sunday, a mission control spokesman said. “The docking of the Progress M-15M with the ISS is scheduled to take place at 6:41 pm Moscow time [14:41 GMT] in automatic mode,” the spokesman said. The Soyuz-U rocket carrying the space freighter blasted off from the Baikonur space center late on Friday afternoon. More (Source: RIA Novosti - Apr 22)
RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP ON ITS WAY TO SPACE STATION - A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft launched toward the International Space Station Friday to ferry tons of gear for the orbiting lab's crew, a flight that comes just 10 days before an American private spaceship is expected to make a historic supply run of its own. The unmanned Progress 47 supply ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan at 8:50 a.m. EDT Friday, reaching its preliminary orbit less than 10 minutes later, NASA officials said. More (Source: MSNBC - Apr 21)
NORTH KOREA TO LAUNCH SATELLITES 'ONE AFTER ANOTHER' - North Korea has vowed to launch satellites "one after another", vigorously rejecting international condemnation of an April 13 launch that was seen overseas as a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket, which Pyongyang said was intended to put a satellite into orbit, disintegrated some two minutes after blast-off. The UN Security Council strongly condemned the launch and said it would tighten existing sanctions. More (Source: The Telegraph - Apr 21)
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY MAKES FINAL FLIGHT OVER WASHINGTON D.C. - A spectacular aerial tour pulled Washingtonians out of their offices Tuesday morning as the space shuttle Discovery, riding piggy-back on a 747, flew low and slow over the Capitol, White House, the Mall and much of the Potomac River. The duo touched down at Dulles International Airport, just a few miles from Discovery’s retirement home, the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly. More (Source: Washington Post - Apr 18)
GREAT TIME TO SPOT THE SPACE STATION - Skywatchers across most of North America and Europe are getting a chance to see the manned International Space Station (ISS) make a series of very bright flybys in the evening sky over the next couple of weeks. As long as you have some clear skies through the 26th, the orbiting laboratory will appear as a bright white star traversing the overhead sky in a matter of 2 to 5 minutes. More (Source: National Geographic - Apr 17)
1ST PRIVATE MISSION TO SPACE STATION SET TO LAUNCH APRIL 30 - A private spaceship mission to the International Space Station is on track for a planned April 30 launch, which will mark a historic first for the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials announced today (April 16). The launch will kick off a pivotal demonstration flight for the unmanned Dragon capsule built by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. During the mission, the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft will rendezvous with the space station, be captured by astronauts operating a robotic arm and offload some cargo. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 17)
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY PLACED ATOP JUMBO JET FOR ITS LAST RIDE - NASA mounted the space shuttle Discovery on a jumbo jet on Sunday in preparation for the retired orbiter's delivery to the Smithsonian. The paired air- and spacecraft are expected to fly out of Florida for Virginia on Tuesday morning, weather permitting. Discovery's mating to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, NASA's modified Boeing 747 jetliner, came a day later than the space agency had planned. On Saturday, wind gusts at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility set the 167,000-pound (75,300-kilogram) Discovery swaying under its lift sling, posing a risk that it could impact the Mate-Demate Device, the gantrylike steel structure used to hoist the shuttle onto the jetliner. More (Source: MSNBC - Apr 16)
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