SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCH BEEFS UP GLOBALSTAR SATELLITE FLEET - Six fresh spacecraft for Globalstar's mobile communications satellite fleet were deployed Wednesday by a Russian Soyuz rocket, propping up the company's degraded two-way voice service for more than 400,000 subscribers around the world. The successful launch continued Globalstar's campaign to replace aging satellites launched more than a decade ago. The satellites, each weighing 1,543 pounds at launch, will enter Globalstar's constellation circling a few hundred miles above Earth. Thales Alenia Space assembled the satellites in Rome and built their communications equipment in Toulouse, France.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jul 15)

PSLV TO PUT GSAT-12 IN ORBIT ON FRIDAY - With the 53-hour countdown for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) commencing at 11.48 a.m. on Wednesday, the stage is set for the rocket's lift-off from Sriharikota at 4.48 p.m. on Friday. The PSLV-C17 will put in orbit communication satellite GSAT-12, which weighs 1,410 kg. It is a more powerful version of the standard PSLV, called PSLV-XL that will put the satellite in orbit after a 20-minute flight.    More
(Source: The Hindu - Jul 15)

NEW SATELLITE HELPS SPACE EXPLORATION - China blasted off a new data relay satellite, Tianlian I-02, on Monday at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province. The new satellite will bolster the country's satellite communication network for space docking. The satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket at 11:41 pm, sources at the center told Xinhua News Agency.    More
(Source: China Daily - Jul 14)

NASA FINDS NO SHUTTLE DAMAGE AFTER TWO LIGHTNING STRIKES - Early data shows space shuttle Atlantis, poised for launch Friday, escaped damage from two lightning strikes Thursday afternoon, NASA said. One bolt emanating from a severe thunderstorm struck a water tower 515 feet from the pad; the second struck the beach nearby, the space agency said in a statement. Currently, the launch time of 11:26 a.m. Friday remains unchanged, despite only a 30% chance of favorable weather, according to NASA. Fueling was scheduled to start at 2:01 a.m. Friday. Ahead of that, engineers will determine whether the lightning affected systems, the external tank, main engines or other components.    More
(Source: CNN - Jul 8)

PSLV-C17 TO LAUNCH GSAT-12 ON JULY 15, 2011 - Preparations for the forthcoming launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) carrying India's communication satellite GSAT-12 are progressing well at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The launch of PSLV-C17/GSAT-12 mission is targeted for July 15, 2011. GSAT-12 Communication satellite with a mass of 1410 kg at lift-off, has 12 Extended C-band transponders. PSLV-C17 will inject GSAT-12 into an elliptical Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO) of 284 km perigee and 21,000 km apogee.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Jul 6)

LAUNCH OF ASTRA 1N SATELLITE POSTPONED - SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), announces that the launch of its new ASTRA 1N satellite has been postponed due to an anomaly that occurred during the final launch count-down. The launch service provider, Arianespace, having decided to conduct additional verifications, SES is currently not in a position to comment on the possible causes of the mission abort and is awaiting the results of the official investigation. Arianespace will reschedule the launch as soon as possible.    More
(Source: Business Wire - Jul 2)

SCIENTISTS USE 'HACK' TO REVIVE SATELLITE - European scientist say they've resorted to an unconventional "dirty hack" to bring a dead science satellite back to life. The European Space Agency said one of four of its Cluster mission satellites, intended to work together in studying Earth's space environment and its interaction with the solar wind, failed to switch on a vital scientific instrument in March, jeopardizing the entire mission.    More
(Source: UPI.com - Jul 2)

SUCCESSFUL ROCKET LAUNCH AT WALLOPS AFTER DELAY - After a one day delay due to the weather, and another brief delay Wednesday night, the ORS-1 satellite was launched into orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Virginia's Wallops Island. The Air Force launched the battlefield imaging satellite atop a four-stage, solid-fuel 70-foot-tall Minotaur 1 rocket, the largest ever launched from the Delmarva peninsula. The launch, which happened shortly after 11 p.m., was expected to be visible across the Mid-Atlantic region, with past launches seen as far away as New York, South Carolina and West Virginia.    More
(Source: The Baltimore Sun - Jun 30)

SPACE JUNK FORCES ASTRONAUTS TO TAKE SHELTER IN RUSSIAN SPACESHIPS - A piece of space junk zoomed uncomfortably close by the International Space Station today (June 28), so close that the outpost's six-man crew had to take shelter in Russian space capsules in case of a collision. The space debris made its closest approach to the space station at 8:08 a.m. EDT (1208 GMT), coming within 850 feet (260 meters) of the space station, where it posed a slim chance of hitting the station. However, the debris passed by the station without incident and the spaceflyers were able to re-enter the station after about a half hour.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 28)

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