HOW ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IN SPACE - The six astronauts aboard the International Space Station can't come home for the holidays, but they're doing their best to make the season bright hundreds of miles above Earth's surface. The spacefliers have decked the halls of the $100 billion orbiting lab, and — like many of us Earthbound folks — they plan to celebrate Christmas with a party and a feast.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Dec 25)

RUSSIAN SATELLITE HITS SIBERIA'S 'COSMONAUT STREET' - A fragment of a Russian satellite that crashed into Siberia in the latest setback for Russia's space programme hit a residential house on a street named after cosmonauts, officials said Saturday. The Meridian communications satellite failed to reach orbit Friday due to a failure with its Soyuz rocket, raising new concerns over the Russian space programme which has now lost over half a dozen satellites in the last year.    More
(Source: AFP - Dec 25)

SES-4 SATELLITE SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH DECEMBER 26-27 - SES S.A. announces that the SES-4 satellite will be launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on board an ILS Proton Breeze M rocket at 00:41 a.m. local time on December 27th, 2011 (December 26th, 2011 at 19:41 p.m. CET, 13:41 p.m. EST). SES-4 is a 20-kilowatt satellite with 52 C-band and 72 Ku-band transponders. It has C-band beams serving the eastern hemisphere of Europe and Africa, full coverage of the Americas, and a global beam to support mobile and maritime customers.    More
(Source: MarketWatch (press release) - Dec 23)

3 ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT SPACE STATION FOR THE HOLIDAYS - Three astronauts arrived today (Dec. 23) at the International Space Station just in time for a zero gravity holiday party as they begin a five-month stay in orbit. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency (ESA), docked at the orbiting laboratory today at 10:19 a.m. EST (1519 GMT) as the two spacecraft sailed 240 miles over southern Russia. They arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launched Wednesday (Dec. 21) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. "The Soyuz crew arrives down the chimney of the space station with an early Christmas present for the station's crew," said NASA spokesman Rob Navias during the televised space rendezvous.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Dec 23)

RUSSIA SENDS MULTINATIONAL CREW TO ISS - Russia on Wednesday sent a multinational crew of three astronauts to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket from its Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, US NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers blasted off aboard a Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft at 1316 GMT in a spectacular night-time launch from the Kazakh steppe, an AFP correspondent reported. The launch, which filled the otherwise pitch-black steppe with blazing light, appeared to go smoothly and mission control said that the Soyuz went into orbit as planned 10 minutes after lift-off.    More
(Source: AFP - Dec 21)

NEW SPACE CREW TO LAUNCH FROM WINTER WONDERLAND ON WEDNESDAY - A diverse crew of veteran spacemen is poised to blast off toward the International Space Station on Wednesday (Dec. 21) to double the population of the orbital outpost just in time for Christmas. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, part of the European Space Agency (ESA) will join three men already living aboard the space station as Expedition 30 flight engineers.    More
(Source: Space.com - Dec 21)

NIGERIA LAUNCHES SATELLITE TO REPLACE EARLIER FAILED ATTEMPT - Nigeria on Monday launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in 2008, the country's satellite agency said. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China and the event was broadcast live on Nigerian state television. NigComSat-1R, is expected to help boost communications, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services across large swathes of Africa and parts of Europe and Asia.    More
(Source: AFP - Dec 21)

LOCKHEED MARTIN DELIVERS U.S. NAVY’S FIRST MOBILE USER OBJECTIVE SYSTEM SATELLITE - Lockheed Martin delivered the U.S. Navy’s first Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on December 15, where it will be prepared for a Feb. 16, 2012 liftoff aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle. The MUOS constellation is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system that will augment and replace the legacy Ultra High Frequency Follow-On system, providing significantly improved and assured communications for the mobile warfighter.    More
(Source: defpro - Dec 20)

POWERFUL NIGERIAN SATELLITE READY FOR LIFTOFF FROM CHINA - China will launch a massive Nigerian communications satellite Monday to link Africans with television programming, education services and navigation signals. Manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology, the Nigcomsat 1R satellite will replace a craft that lost power and failed in November 2008, less than 18 months after its launch on a Chinese rocket. Nigcomsat Ltd., a company chartered by the Nigerian government, will operate the satellite for up to 15 years.    More
(Source: Spaceflight Now - Dec 20)

Previous Next