INDIAN ROCKET ENGINE TEST SUCCESSFUL - India Saturday successfully tested the indigenous super cooled cryogenic engine that will be used to fire a heavier rocket to put a communication satellite in the geo-synchronous orbit later this year, the space agency said. "The acceptance test of the cryogenic stage of the heavy rocket was conducted for 200 seconds and the performance of the engine was as predicted," the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement here.    More
(Source: New York Daily News - May 14)

DEAD SATELLITE MAY POSE THREAT TO SPACECRAFT FOR 150 YEARS - An enormous Earth-observing satellite that was officially declared dead in space Wednesday may stay in orbit for the next 150 years, posing a threat to other spacecraft zipping around our planet. The $2.9 billion Envisat spacecraft, which is about the size of a school bus, went mysteriously silent about a month ago after 10 successful years of studying our planet from orbit. The European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday that it had given up hope of recovering the satellite, which died a year before its planned 2013 decommissioning.    More
(Source: MSNBC - May 13)

CHINESE SPY SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED - China launched an optical military reconnaissance satellite Thursday aboard a Long March 4B rocket, successfully orbiting another member in a fleet of spacecraft spying for Chinese intelligence agencies. The secretive Yaogan 14 satellite launched at 0706 GMT (3:06 a.m. EDT) from the Taiyuan space center in Shanxi province in northern China. Launch occurred at 3:06 p.m. Beijing time. The 150-foot-tall Long March 4B rocket flew south from Taiyuan to reach an orbit flying over Earth's poles.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 12)

ESA DECLARES HUGE ENVISAT SATELLITE DEAD IN SPACE - The European Space Agency declared the death of its massive Earth-observing satellite Envisat Wednesday after a month of mysterious silence from the school bus-size spacecraft. Envisat is the world's largest Earth-watching satellite for civilian use, with ESA officials touting its 10th anniversary in space earlier this year. The $2.9 billion satellite was originally designed to snap high-resolution photos of Earth for five years, but managed to last 10 years during its successful mission.    More
(Source: MSNBC - May 11)

AIR FORCE'S SECRET X-37B A 'SPECTACULAR SUCCESS' - The U.S. Air Force's secretive robotic X-37B space plane mission continues to chalk up time in Earth orbit, nearing 430 days of a spaceflight that — while classified — appears to be an unqualified success. The space plane now circuiting Earth is the second spacecraft of its kind built for the Air Force by Boeing’s Phantom Works. Known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, or OTV-2, the space plane's classified mission is being carried out by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.    More
(Source: MSNBC - May 10)

NEXT SOYUZ SPACE STATION CREW PREPARES FOR LAUNCH - The next residents of the International Space Station are making final preparations for a May 14 launch and NASA Television will provide live coverage of launch and docking. This week, NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and his two Russian crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, are completing their training, undergoing Soyuz spacecraft fit checks and taking part in traditional ceremonies.   More
(Source: Sacramento Bee - May 9)

NASA'S AQUA SATELLITE, BUILT BY NORTHROP GRUMMAN, CELEBRATES 10TH YEAR ON-ORBIT - Built by Northrop Grumman Corporation, NASA's Aqua satellite recently marked its 10th year on-orbit, delivering unprecedented data about the Earth's climate, water cycle and much more. Aqua launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on May 4, 2002. One of the primary satellites in NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), Aqua is designed to help scientists understand the Earth and make more accurate weather and climate predictions. In its decade on-orbit, Aqua has rendered detailed views of dramatic events such as hurricanes, wildfires, the continued retreat of sea ice in the Arctic, plumes from volcanoes in Chile and Iceland, and tropical cyclones and hurricanes.    More
(Source: MarketWatch - May 9)

SATELLITE FOR SECURE WAR-TIME COMMUNICATIONS GOES UP - Forging a new constellation of ultra-secure communications satellites that will ring the globe to link the president with military forces anywhere on the planet, an Atlas 5 rocket roared to space Friday to continue putting the pieces in place for the warfighter. Counting down to blastoff at 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 GMT), the million-pound rocket leaped from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 and thundered eastward carrying the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite, one of the Defense Department's most sophisticated and critical spacecraft.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)

SATELLITES AT RISK - NEXT WEEK, the Senate is set to spend considerable time figuring out how to pay for renewing an old campaign gimmick — keeping interest rates for certain federally backed student loans extra low at 3.4 percent. Doing so would be expensive; it would cost the government $6?billion to extend those low rates for just one year. That might not seem like much compared with the entire federal budget, but at a time when Congress has put tight limits on discretionary spending, many other, more worthy programs are fighting for every dollar.    More
(Source: The Washington Post - May 6)

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