ATLAS 5 LAUNCH SLIPS TO AUG. 14 - An Atlas 5 rocket’s next try for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base won’t come until Aug. 14 at the earliest after mission managers were forced to scrub the first countdown. A new launch time was not yet available. The delay of more than a week gives Western Range crews more time to resolve a problem with instrumentation deemed mandatory for the flight.    More
(Source: Lompoc Record - Aug 4)

THREE FIRMS SHARE $1.1 BILLION OF NASA SPACE TAXI WORK - NASA will pay more than $1 billion over the next 21 months to three companies to develop commercial spaceships capable of flying astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency said Friday. The lion's share of the $1.1 billion allotted for the next phase of NASA's so-called ?"Commercial Crew" program will be split between Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, a privately held firm run by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.    More
(Source: Reuters - Aug 4)

AVANTI ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF ITS HYLAS 2 SATELLITE - Avanti Communications Group plc, the satellite operator, announces the successful launch of HYLAS 2 from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Ariane Flight VA208 at 5.54pm local time (9.54pm UK time). The Ariane 5 launch was perfect, injecting HYLAS 2 into the correct orbit precisely on schedule. HYLAS 2 separated from the Ariane 5 on time and telemetry was received at the control centre at the European Spaceport.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Aug 4)

INDIA TO LAUNCH THREE SATELLITES NEXT MONTH - India will launch three satellites next month and two more by the end of this year, said a senior official here. "We will be launching Spot-6, a French satellite and a small Japanese satellite on board PSLV-C21 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket, next month," P.S.Veeraraghavan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told .    More
(Source: Zee News - Aug 4)

RUSSIA TESTS NEW SPACE ROUTE AND SETS RECORD TIME - A Russian spacecraft has slashed the usual time taken to reach the International Space Station. The achievement has set a new record and standard for future missions. Six hours was all it took for the ISS to welcome its newest guest, fresh from its Earthly takeoff. Using a new approach maneuver, the unmanned Russian spacecraft Progress docked at the ISS slightly ahead of schedule.    More
(Source: Deutsche Welle - Aug 3)

SPACE FREIGHTER UNDOCKS FROM SPACE STATION - A Russian spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station for a three-week scientific mission before it is buried in the Pacific, officials said. The Progress M-15M unmanned cargo spacecraft undocked early Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported. "The undocking was carried out at 01.16 Moscow time," Russia's Mission Control said. "The spacecraft will conduct a series of scientific experiments under the Radar-Progress project."    More
(Source: UPI.com - Aug 2)

US AIR FORCE PREPARES TO LAUNCH SPY SATELLITE THURSDAY - Ready to take a classified national security payload and a batch of hitchhiking cubesats into space early Thursday from California, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is in the final days of preparations for blastoff. The middle-of-the-night launch is slated to occur at 12:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. EDT) Thursday. The mission will originate from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 3-East, a "classic pad" with a retractable service gantry and fixed umbilical tower.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Aug 2)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES SHIP ON SAME-DAY TRIP TO SPACE STATION - A robotic Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station Wednesday to deliver a fresh load of supplies and test a new same-day docking plan that, if successful, will make it the first spacecraft ever to arrive at the orbiting lab within hours of liftoff. The unmanned Progress 48 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia. It was early Thursday morning local time at the site of the Russian spaceport.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Aug 2)

ESA... GIOVE-B GOING SOON (SATELLITE) - ESA’s GIOVE-B experimental navigation satellite is gradually raising its orbit as it prepares for well-earned retirement at the end of its four-year mission paving the way for Europe’s Galileo constellation. Last Tuesday, an initial thruster firing raised GIOVE-B’s orbit by about 30km. This will be followed by others in the next three weeks so that by mid-August the satellite will be in a graveyard orbit some 600km above its original 23,222km orbit.    More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Jul 31)

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