RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP ON ITS WAY TO SPACE STATION - A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft launched toward the International Space Station Friday to ferry tons of gear for the orbiting lab's crew, a flight that comes just 10 days before an American private spaceship is expected to make a historic supply run of its own. The unmanned Progress 47 supply ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan at 8:50 a.m. EDT Friday, reaching its preliminary orbit less than 10 minutes later, NASA officials said.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Apr 21)

NORTH KOREA TO LAUNCH SATELLITES 'ONE AFTER ANOTHER' - North Korea has vowed to launch satellites "one after another", vigorously rejecting international condemnation of an April 13 launch that was seen overseas as a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket, which Pyongyang said was intended to put a satellite into orbit, disintegrated some two minutes after blast-off. The UN Security Council strongly condemned the launch and said it would tighten existing sanctions.    More
(Source: The Telegraph - Apr 21)

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY MAKES FINAL FLIGHT OVER WASHINGTON D.C. - A spectacular aerial tour pulled Washingtonians out of their offices Tuesday morning as the space shuttle Discovery, riding piggy-back on a 747, flew low and slow over the Capitol, White House, the Mall and much of the Potomac River. The duo touched down at Dulles International Airport, just a few miles from Discovery’s retirement home, the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.    More
(Source: Washington Post - Apr 18)

GREAT TIME TO SPOT THE SPACE STATION - Skywatchers across most of North America and Europe are getting a chance to see the manned International Space Station (ISS) make a series of very bright flybys in the evening sky over the next couple of weeks. As long as you have some clear skies through the 26th, the orbiting laboratory will appear as a bright white star traversing the overhead sky in a matter of 2 to 5 minutes.    More
(Source: National Geographic - Apr 17)

1ST PRIVATE MISSION TO SPACE STATION SET TO LAUNCH APRIL 30 - A private spaceship mission to the International Space Station is on track for a planned April 30 launch, which will mark a historic first for the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials announced today (April 16). The launch will kick off a pivotal demonstration flight for the unmanned Dragon capsule built by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. During the mission, the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft will rendezvous with the space station, be captured by astronauts operating a robotic arm and offload some cargo.    More
(Source: Space.com - Apr 17)

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY PLACED ATOP JUMBO JET FOR ITS LAST RIDE - NASA mounted the space shuttle Discovery on a jumbo jet on Sunday in preparation for the retired orbiter's delivery to the Smithsonian. The paired air- and spacecraft are expected to fly out of Florida for Virginia on Tuesday morning, weather permitting. Discovery's mating to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, NASA's modified Boeing 747 jetliner, came a day later than the space agency had planned. On Saturday, wind gusts at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility set the 167,000-pound (75,300-kilogram) Discovery swaying under its lift sling, posing a risk that it could impact the Mate-Demate Device, the gantrylike steel structure used to hoist the shuttle onto the jetliner.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Apr 16)

NORTH KOREAN ROCKET SAID TO FAIL MOMENTS AFTER LIFTOFF - Defying weeks of international warnings of more censure and further sanctions, North Korea launched a rocket on Friday, a belligerent act that the United States called a cover for developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that one day might be able to carry a nuclear warhead. But the three-stage rocket appeared to break up and collapse moments after the launch.    More
(Source: New York Times - Apr 13)

STATION CREW TO CELEBRATE GAGARIN ANNIVERSARY - A multinational crew aboard the International Space Station will take time Thursday to share special meals and celebrate the 51st anniversary of the world’s first human spaceflight. On April 12, 1961, Russian Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin rocketed into the history books, launching into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. “That was a momentous for all of humankind,” U.S. astronaut Dan Burbank said in a space-to-ground news conference Wednesday. “It basically set the foundation a very wonderful and robust space program that now we enjoy cooperatively, internationally.”    More
(Source: Florida Today - Apr 12)

NORTH KOREA OPENS ITS WINDOW FOR ROCKET LAUNCH - As the window opened for North Korea's latest rocket launch opened Thursday morning, the nation's neighbors were watching developments at the remote base nervously. Japanese Patriot missile defense systems scanned the clear skies in Tokyo and an air base in Okinawa, underlining the regional tensions. ''We would like to call (on North Korea) for restraint until the very end," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said outside his office as he arrived Thursday, according to news agency Kyodo.    More
(Source: CNN - Apr 12)

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