ONE RUSSIAN SHIP VACATES STATION PORT FOR NEXT VEHICLE - After 82 days docked to the International Space Station, a Russian Progress resupply freighter pulled away Monday afternoon to fly independently into a higher orbit for deployment of a science satellite and setting the stage for another cargo ship launching to the outpost later this week. The Progress M-13M spacecraft reached the station Nov. 2 to deliver three tons of equipment, food, rocket fuel, air and water. It was marked resumption of the Russian-provided supply chain after the August launch failure of the previous ship. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 24)
U.S. AIR FORCE OFFICIALS LAUNCH FOURTH WGS SATELLITE - Air Force officials launched an United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Medium rocket carrying the fourth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite Jan. 19 from Space Launch Complex 37 here. WGS-04 is the first craft in the program's upgraded Block 2 series, which adds a radio frequency bypass capability designed to support airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms requiring ultra-high bandwidth and data rates. More (Source: defpro - Jan 24)
1ST PRIVATE ROCKET LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION DELAYED UNTIL MARCH - The launch of the first privately built spacecraft to the International Space Station has been delayed until late March at the earliest, the company building the spaceship revealed today (Jan. 20). The California-based company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) originally planned to launch its unmanned Dragon space capsule on a maiden flight to the space station on Feb. 7, but the company postponed the orbital test flight to allow time for more work on the spacecraft. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 23)
AIR FORCE LAUNCHES NEW MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - An unmanned rocket lit up the Florida night sky Thursday, Jan. 19, as it launched a vital new communications satellite into orbit for the U.S. military — the first major American space launch of the year. The Delta 4 rocket roared spaceward from a Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad carrying the Wideband Global SATCOM 4 satellite, the latest addition to the military's highest capacity communications system in history. Liftoff occurred on time at 7:38 p.m. EST (0038 Jan. 20 GMT). More (Source: Fox News - Jan 23)
SPACE STATION TO MOVE TO AVOID ONCOMING JUNK - The International Space Station is dodging a softball-sized piece of space junk. Mission Control told astronauts to fire the station's engines briefly Friday morning to avoid a piece of an old communications satellite. It will be only the 13th time since 1998 that the station has moved because of debris. Debris travels at such high speed in orbit that it could cause a deadly puncture to the space station. More (Source: Sacramento Bee - Jan 13)
RUSSIA SPACE CHIEF SAYS SOME OF NATION’S SATELLITES MAY HAVE BEEN SABOTAGED - Some recent Russian satellite failures may have been the result of sabotage by foreign forces, Russia’s space chief said Tuesday, in comments apparently aimed at the United States. Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin stopped short of accusing any specific country of disabling Russian satellites, but in an interview in the daily Izvestia he said some Russian craft had suffered “unexplained” malfunctions while flying over another side of the globe beyond the reach of his nation’s tracking facilities. More (Source: Washington Post - Jan 12)
THE FIGHT TO SAVE AEHF 1 PRODUCES REMARKABLE RESCUE - As the new year is ushered in, flight controllers are continuing with the detailed checkout of the U.S. military's newest ultra-secure communications satellite after a miraculous recovery saved the craft's life. Launched August 14, 2010 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster and expected to reach geosynchronous orbit 100 days later, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency 1 satellite's main engine failed to fire during two attempts to begin raising the altitude from the rocket's dropoff point. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 11)
LAND SURVEYING SATELLITE ORBITED BY CHINESE ROCKET - China launched a Long March rocket Monday with a high-resolution civil mapping satellite to survey natural resources and a craft to relay marine tracking data for U.S.-based Orbcomm Inc. The Long March 4B launcher lifted off at 0317 GMT Monday (10:17 p.m. EST Sunday) from the Taiyuan space center in Shanxi province, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 10)
RUSSIA'S PHOBOS-GRUNT PROBE HEADS FOR FIERY FINALE - Named after the bellicose god of war, Mars has claimed many a victim, and the latest one, a Russian space probe, looks likely to tumble to Earth very soon. Launched Nov. 8 from Kazakhstan, Russia's Phobos-Grunt (grunt is Russian for ground or soil) mission aimed for a first landing of a probe on the martian moon, Phobos. The $163 million spacecraft also carried a piggybacked Chinese Mars orbiter added late to the mission, and a Planetary Society microbe experiment. More (Source: USA Today - Jan 9)
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