LESSON OF A FALLING SATELLITE - Did you hear about the 6-ton NASA satellite expected to fall to on Earth on Friday? Don't panic, Chicken Little! All kinds of space debris -- both man-made and natural -- falls harmlessly to Earth each year, and like those bits and pieces, the debris of this satellite will probably fall into the oceans or onto uninhabited land. NASA puts the odds you will be hit by debris at 21 trillion to one. Still, this event is an example of the technical challenges humans continually face.    More
(Source: CNN - Sep 25)

SEA LAUNCH CONDUCTS FIRST SATELLITE LAUNCH SINCE BANKRUPTCY REORGANIZATION LAST YEAR - A European communications satellite was boosted into orbit Saturday by a rocket that blasted off from Sea Launch AG’s floating pad in the equatorial Pacific, marking the first mission since the company’s emergence from bankruptcy protection last year. The Zenit 3-SL rocket had no problems as it rose into space with the Atlantic Bird 7 satellite, according to a company webcast. The satellite will serve Eutelsat Communications’s broadcasting markets across the Middle East, North Africa and northwest Africa.    More
(Source: Washington Post - Sep 25)

ARIANE 5 ROCKET LIGHTS UP JUNGLE WITH PERFECT LAUNCH - Generating an exhilarating wave of sound and light spreading miles around, an Ariane 5 rocket rose into space at sunset Wednesday with a communications satellite for the Middle East and another craft to serve commercial and U.S. government customers over North America. Grounded for a day by a labor dispute at the launch base, the Ariane 5 rocket ignited its clean-burning hydrogen-fueled Vulcain 2 main engine at 2138 GMT (5:38 p.m. EDT), waited seven seconds for a computer-run health check, then fired two cylindrical solid rocket boosters and climbed away from the Guiana Space Center.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Sep 24)

JAPAN LAUNCHES NEW SPY SATELLITE - The Japanese H-2A rocket carrying a new information-gathering optical satellite lifted off at 1:36 pm (0436 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. "The rocket was launched successfully and the satellite was separated into an orbit around the earth later," Naoki Takarada, an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said by telephone from Tanegashima. The new satellite, equipped with optical sensors, can distinguish objects on the ground with a resolution of some 60 centimetres (24 inches) from an altitude of around 500 kilometres (310 miles), according to media reports.    More
(Source: PhysOrg.com - Sep 24)

NASA SAYS SATELLITE FELL TO EARTH OVER PACIFIC OCEAN - NASA's dead six-ton satellite fell to Earth early Saturday morning, starting its fiery death plunge somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean. Details were still sketchy, but the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center and NASA say that the bus-sized satellite first penetrated Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. That doesn't necessarily mean it all fell into the sea -- although most of it is believed to have burned up.    More
(Source: Fox News - Sep 24)

MILITARY SATELLITE PREPARED FOR LAUNCH - U.S. military researchers say they are preparing to launch a satellite intended to improve communications for troops on the ground anywhere in the world. The Tactical Satellite IV, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, will be launched Sept. 27 atop an Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur-IV+ launch vehicle from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation's launch complex in Kodiak, an NRL release said Tuesday.    More
(Source: UPI.com - Sep 22)

CHINA TO LAUNCH SPACE STATION TEST MODULE NEXT WEEK - China will launch a test module for its first space station next week between Sept. 27 and Sept. 30, state media reported today (Sept. 20). The unmanned module, called Tiangong-1 (which means "Heavenly Palace") will test autonomous docking procedures and other space operations in preparation for China's plan to build a 60-ton space station by the year 2020. The Chinese Long March 2F rocket set to launch Tiangong-1 has already been rolled out to its launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, according to state-run news service Xinhua.    More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 21)

SPACE STATION CAPTURES AMAZING TIME-LAPSE VIEW OF EARTH - Ever wonder how it feels to fly over planet Earth? Unless you're an astronaut, Superman or the Green Lantern, this is as close as you'll get. This time-lapse video was captured by a camera mounted in front of the International Space Station as it orbited Earth at night. According to the YouTube video's description, the clip "begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica."    More
(Source: CBS News - Sep 19)

SES-2 SATELLITE SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH TOMORROW ON BOARD ARIANE 5 - SES S.A. announces that the launch of its new satellite SES-2 is scheduled for tomorrow night, September 20, 2011. The satellite will be launched into space from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on board an Ariane 5 ECA rocket between 18:38 and 20:02 pm local time (17:38 -- 19)(23:38 -- 01)(23:2011 Central European Summer Time). The SES-2 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, is based on Orbital's space-proven Star 2.4 platform and carries 24 C-Band transponders and 24 Ku-Band transponders (36 MHz equivalents).    More
(Source: MarketWatch - Sep 19)

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