EUROPE’S THIRD CARGO VEHICLE DOCKS WITH THE SPACE STATION - Edoardo Amaldi has completed the first stage of its docking with the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station. The docking occurred smoothly when ATV’s docking probe was captured by Zvezda’s docking cone at 00:31 CEST ( 22:31 GMT). The docking probe is now retracting, to be followed by the hooks between the two craft closing. The data and electrical connections will then be established. More (Source: ESA - Mar 29)
COMMUNICATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED FOR INTELSAT - Intelsat's global broadband maritime & aeronautical network enhanced by successful rocket launch Intelsat S.A., a provider of satellite services, with International Launch Services (ILS) announced that an ILS Proton vehicle successfully launched the Intelsat 22 satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After a 15 hour and 30 minute mission, the Breeze M successfully released the Intelsat 22 satellite, weighing 6199 kg, into supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) at a 65,000 km apogee. More (Source: MarineLink - Mar 28)
RUSSIA... METEOR-1 TO MAKE WAVES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN - Meteor 1, the Soviet Union’s first fully operational weather satellite, will on Monday night re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after more than four decades in orbit, according to the U.S. Strategic Command's website. The Meteor satellite series was developed in the Soviet Union during the sixties. On March 26, 1969, a Vostok rocket launched Meteor -1, the very first version of the Soviet Meteor satellite network, into orbit. More (Source: SatNews - Mar 28)
U.S. NAVY'S NEWLY LAUNCHED SPACECRAFT IS FLYING HIGH - The U.S. Navy's new satellite to provide more agile communications for forces on the move has successfully maneuvered itself into a perch 22,300 miles above Earth and unfurled its giant umbrella-like mesh antennas. Launched by ULA's Atlas 5 rocket on Feb. 24 from Cape Canaveral into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, the Mobile User Objective System 1 satellite has executed eight firings of its liquid apogee main engine to ascend from that dropoff point. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 27)
GET A PEEK AT HUGE SPACE CARGO SHIP ORBITING EARTH - Skywatchers around the world have two more chances to spot a huge robotic cargo ship that is currently orbiting Earth, but time is running out. By Wednesday, the spacecraft will arrive at the International Space Station, and both spacecraft may be visible together just before docking, weather permitting. More space news from msnbc.com NASA Finding life on Mars: Been there, done that? Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: NASA's next Mars mission could conceivably confirm the Viking probe's controversial findings about Red Planet life, one of the Viking mission's veterans says. One last show for Venus, Jupiter and moon Get a peek at space cargo ship orbiting Earth Two small asteroids zip by Earth ..The giant space delivery truck is the Automated Transfer Vehicle 3 (ATV-3), a massive unmanned freighter carrying nearly 7 tons of cargo for astronauts on the space station. It launched into orbit last week on a mission for its builder, the European Space Agency. More (Source: MSNBC - Mar 27)
RUSSIAN SATELLITE DESTROYED DESPITE PROMISE FOR SCIENTISTS - Engineers on Sunday intentionally crashed a Russian Express communications satellite stranded in space by an August rocket mishap, declaring the mission a total loss despite efforts by a start-up company to purchase the craft to serve the Antarctic research community. The Express AM4 satellite was guided on a controlled descent by engineers at EADS Astrium, the spacecraft's prime contractor. After firing its engine at about 1033 GMT (6:33 a.m. EDT), the 6.3-ton satellite plummeted into Earth's atmosphere, burning up and spreading debris over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 26)
SOUTH KOREA CLAIMS NORTH KOREA HAS MOVED ROCKET TO LAUNCH SITE - North Korea has moved a long-range rocket to its northwestern launch site in preparation for a launch next month, South Korean officials said Sunday, as Pyongyang pushes ahead with plans that Washington says are a cover for testing long-range missile systems. South Korean Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff officials said Sunday that the information comes from the South Korean and U.S. militaries. They provided no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules. More (Source: Fox News - Mar 25)
SECOND LIFE FOR FAILED RUSSIAN SATELLITE? - It's not dead yet! A Russian satellite on the brink of being de-orbited could still have a second life—as communications support for scientists in Antarctica. That's the idea of William Readdy and Dennis Wingo, co-founders of Polar Broadband Systems Ltd., a company created last December exclusively to repurpose the satellite for Antarctic broadband communications. More (Source: Science Now - Mar 25)
SPACE STATION CREW SCRAMBLES AS DEBRIS PASSES NEARBY - Crew members aboard the International Space Station temporarily scrambled into spacecraft capable of returning them to Earth early on Saturday as remnants of a discarded Russian satellite passed nearby, the latest episode spotlighting the growing amount of space debris encircling the planet. The crew — three Russians, two Americans and a Dutch astronaut — climbed into the two spacecraft as the debris passed within about nine miles of the space station, at 2:38 a.m. Eastern time. Soon afterward, NASA officials allowed the astronauts to return to the station. More (Source: New York Times - Mar 24)
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