IRAN BUILDS NEW SPACE CENTER TO LAUNCH SATELLITES - Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country's defense minister said Saturday. The remarks by Gen. Ahmad Vahidi's were the first confirmation that Iran is building a new space facility amid the standoff with the West over Iran's controversial nuclear program. More (Source: Fox News - Jun 4)
BACK ON EARTH, SPACEX PLANNING MORE PRIVATE FLIGHTS TO SPACE - SpaceX, the upstart Hawthorne company that shot a capsule to the International Space Station and back this week, won't have much time to savor its first major success. It must now ready its Dragon spacecraft with life-support systems to ferry astronauts as well as cargo. And some analysts are skeptical that it can be a government contractor while maintaining its Silicon Valley-style of doing business. More (Source: Los Angeles TImes - Jun 3)
INTELSAT 19 SATELLITE FAILS TO DEPLOY SOLAR ARRAY - The Intelsat IS-19 satellite launched May 31 has failed to deploy one of its two solar arrays, Intelsat announced late June 1 – an anomaly that has affected other Space Systems/Loral (SS/L)-built satellites and is likely to have ripple effects on two others preparing for launch in the coming weeks. Luxembourg- and Washington-based Intelsat, in its statement, said only that there was a “delay” in the deployment of one of the arrays. More (Source: Space News - Jun 3)
ENTEL TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TV THIS YEAR - Chile's leading telecommunications operator, Entel SA ENT.SN, plans to launch a satellite television business this year in the face of growing competition, and is eyeing expansion opportunities in Peru and Colombia, its chief executive said on Friday. Entel, Chile's No. 1 mobile telephone operator, is facing a stiff challenge from rivals such as cable TV operator VTR, which has expanded into mobile services, Mexican giant America Movil and Spain's Movistar. More (Source: Reuters - Jun 3)
ASTRONAUT HAS CAMERA READY FOR TRANSIT OF VENUS - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will have a unique vantage point for next week's transit of Venus, a stunning and rare event when Venus will appear as a tiny black dot on the sun as it crosses in front of our nearest star. The transit will take place June 5, and will not occur again for more than a century, in the year 2117. To add to the historical nature of the day, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, one of six members of the station's Expedition 31 crew, plans to be the first person to photograph the transit of Venus from space. More (Source: MSNBC - Jun 2)
SPACEX'S DRAGON SPLASHES DOWN, ENDING HISTORIC SPACE MISSION - SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule parachuted to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean today, ending the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station. The 19-foot-long (6-meter-long), gumdrop-shaped Dragon made history last week as the first U.S. craft to reach the orbital station since last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet, and it made history today as the first commercial craft to return a shipment from orbit. More (Source: MSNBC - May 31)
SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE PREPARES FOR RETURN TO EARTH - The International Space Station crew closed the hatch Wednesday on the first commercial spacecraft to visit the station, preparing for its departure early Thursday. "Only a few countries have done this before, so we're not taking this lightly at all," John Couluris, SpaceX mission manager, said of the re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere during a news briefing Wednesday morning. More (Source: USA Today - May 31)
IRAN DELAYS LAUNCH OF OBSERVATION SATELLITE - Iran announced Tuesday it has delayed the launch of an experimental observation satellite that was supposed to have happened a week ago, saying it would now take place sometime within the next 10 months. The country's space agency chief, Hamid Fazeli, announced the new window for launch to the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). More (Source: Phys.Org - May 30)
KAZAKHSTAN BLOCKS RUSSIAN SATELLITE LAUNCHES - Kazakhstan, which hosts Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, is blocking three upcoming Russian satellite launches because of a dispute over the drop zone for rocket debris, reports said on Monday. The first stages of the Soyuz rockets that were scheduled to launch a total of seven satellites were due to fall down over a region of north Kazakhstan that is only occasionally used as a drop zone for debris. More (Source: The Sun Daily - May 29)
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