ATK-MADE ROCKET ENGINE LAUNCHES NAVY SATELLITE - A new Navy communications satellite is now orbiting high above the Earth, thanks in part to the Elkton-based company Alliant Techsystems. The TacSat-4 satellite, launched Sept. 27 in Kodiak, Alaska, will boost the communication abilities of soldiers on the battlefield. The rocket engine that launched the satellite was designed and manufactured in Elkton by Alliant Techsystems, better known as ATK.    More
(Source: Cecil Whig - Dec 1)

NIGCOMSAT TO LAUNCH REPLACEMENT SATELLITE IN DECEMBER - The Federal Government has concluded plans to launch the de-orbited Nigerian Communications Satellite, now NigComSat-1R on December 19, with a promise to use the resources to boost communications services in the country effectively. The launch will be done in Nigeria and China simultaneously after 29 months of putting it together.    More
(Source: BusinessDay - Nov 30)

GLONASS NAVIGATION SYSTEM BEEFED UP WITH SOYUZ LAUNCH - Another spacecraft to reinforce Russia's fleet of Glonass navigation satellites lifted off Monday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz booster. The 3,119-pound Glonass M satellite launched at 0826 GMT (3:26 a.m. EST) on a Soyuz 2-1b rocket. It was 12:26 p.m. Moscow time. The three-stage booster finished its job in less than 10 minutes, leaving a Fregat upper stage to propel the Glonass payload into a 12,000-mile-high orbit with three engine firings.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 29)

ILS AND SS/L'S EASY BREEZY...LAUNCH ASIASAT 7 ON A BREEZE - AsiaSat 7, a new communications satellite of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat), was launched at Hong Kong Time 3:10 a.m. on the 26th of November on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This was the fifth commercial mission of the year for ILS and the eighth Proton launch so far this year. A follow up report indicates that 9 hours and 13 minutes after liftoff, AsiaSat 7 successfully separated from the launch vehicle weighing over 3.8 metric tons, into the planned geostationary transfer orbit.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Nov 28)

SPACE JUNK ALERT CALLED OFF FOR SPACE STATION CREW - NASA said a piece of Chinese space junk would fly harmlessly past the International Space Station and called off an alert for the three crew members in orbit. On Tuesday afternoon, Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston told the station crew — commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin — that a piece of shrapnel from a Chinese weather satellite that was destroyed in 2007 might be coming a little too close for comfort.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Nov 24)

SOYUZ TMA-02M SPACECRAFT RETURNS TO EARTH WITH THREE CREWMEMBERS - The Russian Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft, also going by its US designation of 27S, has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth on Tuesday morning, carrying three members of the outgoing Expedition 29 crew. As the second of the new “digital” Soyuz TMA-M variants, a special attitude control test was performed post-undocking.    More
(Source: NASASpaceflight.com - Nov 22)

CHINA LAUNCHES TWO SATELLITES - After successfully docking two space modules in outer space for the first time as part of its efforts to build its own space station by 2020, China on Sunday launched two satellites, one of which is aimed at conducting "experiments with space technologies." The satellites, named Chuangxin 1-03 and Shiyan Satellite 4, were launched into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province by the Long March 2D carrier rocket.    More
(Source: Times of India - Nov 21)

SATELLITE PAIR LAUNCHED BY LONG MARCH ROCKET - An experimental technology demonstration satellite and a spacecraft to collect and relay data for disaster relief ascended into orbit on a Long March 2D rocket this weekend. The payloads lifted off at 0015 GMT Sunday (7:15 p.m. EST Saturday) from the Jiuquan launching base in northwestern China. A 134-foot-tall Long March 2D booster soared into the dawn sky from Jiuquan, where it was 8:15 a.m. Sunday local time. The two-stage, hydrazine-fueled launcher was expected to place the Shiyan 4 and Chuangxin 1-03 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. Chinese state media reported the launch was successful.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 21)

CHINESE CRAFT RETURNS FROM SPACE DOCKING MISSION - An unmanned Chinese spacecraft returned to Earth on Thursday night after it docked twice with an orbiting module in preparation for the country launching its own space station. The Shenzhou 8 craft landed by parachute in China's western desert after more than two weeks in space. It docked twice with the Tiangong 1 module, which remains in orbit, during a mission proving China capable of successfully docking by remote control. Early U.S. astronauts did so manually.    More
(Source: The Associated Press - Nov 18)

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