STATION RAISES ORBIT FOR VISITORS AS EXPERIMENTS CONTINUE - The International Space Station raised its orbit Wednesday after the Zvezda service module fired its engines for 1 minute, 53 seconds. The reboost puts the station in a good configuration for a second orbital boost on Oct. 26. Both firings will put the station at the proper altitude for the upcoming dockings of the ISS Progress 45 supply ship and the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft carrying three new Expedition 29 crew members.    More
(Source: Space Fellowship - Oct 21)

HISTORIC LAUNCH DELAYED OF RUSSIAN ROCKET CARRYING 2 SATELLITES FOR EUROPE’S GPS SYSTEM - The launch of the first two satellites of the European Union’s Galileo navigation system was postponed Thursday because of technical problems at the base in French Guiana, according to officials. Officials hope to delay the launch of the Russian Soyuz rocket by only 24 hours, although a new date will be announced once the investigation is complete, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the commercial arm of the European Space Agency. Authorities postponed the launch after they discovered a leak inside a valve, he said.    More
(Source: The Washington Post - Oct 21)

VIASAT-1 HIGH-CAPACITY SATELLITE LAUNCH SUCCESSFUL - ViaSat Inc. has announced that International Launch Services has successfully launched ViaSat-1, the highest capacity satellite in the world. The Proton M launch vehicle lifted off from pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 11:48 am (PDT) October 19, followed by spacecraft separation from the launch vehicle at 9:12 pm, signal acquisition shortly thereafter, and finally deployment of both the north and south solar arrays. ViaSat-1 is designed to transform the economics and quality of service that satellite broadband can provide.    More
(Source: MarketWatch - Oct 21)

FALLING GERMAN SATELLITE MAY CRASH INTO EARTH THIS WEEKEND - Pieces of a retired German satellite hurtling toward the atmosphere may crash to earth this weekend, the German Aerospace Center said Thursday. Scientists have now honed their initial estimate of when the satellite would hit from a span of four days to either Saturday or Sunday. As it nears, they will eventually be able to estimate impact within a window of about 10 hours. Parts of the satellite, which is the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) could crash into the Earth with a speed of up to 280 mph (450 kph).    More
(Source: The Washington Post - Oct 21)

ORBCOMM ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF AIS-ENABLED SATELLITE - ORBCOMM Inc., a global satellite data communications company focused on two-way Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, today announced the successful launch of VesselSat1, an Automatic Identification Service (AIS) enabled satellite built by LuxSpace Sarl (LuxSpace), an affiliate of OHB System AG. VesselSat1 launched from the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh near the Bay of the Bengal at 1:30 AM EDT. The satellite has been successfully separated from the PSLV launch vehicle in a proper equatorial orbit.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Oct 16)

NPP SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH OCT. 27 - The launch of the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 27. Liftoff from NASA's Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Calif., is targeted during a nine-minute, 10 second launch window that opens at 2:48:01 a.m. PDT (5:48:01 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's final circular polar orbit will be 512 miles (824 kilometers) at an inclination of 98 degrees.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Oct 15)

NASA CONFIRMS RUSSIAN SOYUZ FAILURE FINDINGS - An independent NASA panel reviewing data related to the Aug. 24 failure of the Russian Soyuz rocket transporting cargo to the International Space Station has confirmed that the Russian space agency correctly identified the cause of the problem and is taking appropriate steps to resolve it before the rocket’s next launch scheduled for Oct. 30, said William H. Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.    More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 15)

NASA TO LAUNCH NEW SATELLITE TO TRACK EARTH'S WEATHER, CLIMATE - A new NASA satellite that will be the first geared at observing key aspects of both Earth's climate and its weather is slated for launch on Oct. 27, the space agency announced today. The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) is the first mission designed to collect critical data to improve weather forecasts in the short-term and increase our understanding of long-term climate change.    More
(Source: Space.com - Oct 14)

FALLING GERMAN SATELLITE GREATER THREAT THAN UARS - Less than a month after NASA's falling UARS satellite grabbed the headlines, the German space agency says one of its abandoned satellites will dive back to Earth later this month, but no one knows where it will land. The ROSAT X-ray astronomy observatory is smaller and less massive than NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite, or UARS, which fell back to Earth on Sept. 24. But officials predict it will spread three times more debris and pose a greater threat to people than UARS.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Oct 14)

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