COVERAGE SET FOR EUROPEAN CARGO DELIVERY TO SPACE STATION - NASA Television will broadcast live the flight of the European Space Agency's third Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ship to the International Space Station. Coverage will begin with its launch on Thursday. The 13-ton "Edoardo Amaldi" spacecraft, named in honor of the 20th-century Italian physicist who is regarded as one of the fathers of European spaceflight, will carry 7.2 tons of propellant, water and supplies to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Mar 21)

NORTH KOREAN MISSILE COULD BE IN JAPANESE CROSS HAIRS - The last time this happened, when North Korea said it was launching a satellite using a long-range missile, Japan said it had the right to shoot the thing down. Tokyo is again considering a similar warning, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing unidentified government officials. Lee Jin-Man/Associated Press A South Korean veteran attended a rally in Seoul in protest of North Korea’s plan to launch a rocket carrying a satellite.North Korea announced last week that it would launch “a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite’’ to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founding president.    More
(Source: New York Times - Mar 20)

DELICATE RESCUE SAVES STRANDED $1.7B US SATELLITE - Air Force ground controllers delicately rescued a $1.7 billion military communications satellite last year that had been stranded in the wrong orbit and at risk of blowing up — all possibly because a piece of cloth had been left in a critical fuel line during manufacture. During the 14-month effort, the satellite had to battle gravity and dodge space junk while controllers improvised ways to coax it more than 21,000 miles higher to its planned orbit.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Mar 18)

NORTH KOREA ANNOUNCES PLAN TO LAUNCH LONG-RANGE ROCKET MOUNTED WITH SATELLITE - North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a provocative move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions. The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but it argues that its satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from any international disarmament agreements.    More
(Source: Fox News - Mar 17)

INDIA'S SPY SATELLITE TO BE LAUNCHED IN APRIL - A wholly Indian-built spy/surveillance satellite - Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) - that can see through clouds and fog and has very high- resolution imaging is slated for launch in April, a senior official of the Indian space agency has said. An official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said thorough tests were being done on the Risat-1. "The Risat-1 is put to thermal vacuum test (a test to check the satellite's functioning in space environment).    More
(Source: Space Daily - Mar 16)

EUROPE'S ROBOTIC CARGO SHIP TO LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION NEXT WEEK - A robotic European cargo ship will launch to the International Space Station next week, after a minor packing glitch forced officials to delay an earlier liftoff. The European Space Agency's third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) is slated to launch into orbit on March 23 at 12:31 a.m. EST (0431 GMT) from Kourou, French Guiana. The 20-ton unmanned cargo freighter will ride into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 15)

SPACEX AIMS FOR APRIL 30 LAUNCH OF MILESTONE SPACE STATION MISSION - SpaceX's president says the California-based rocket company is preparing to launch the first commercial cargo ship to the International Space Station as early as April 30 — but whether that date holds will depend on what happens between now and then. The new "no earlier than" date came out on Tuesday during the Satellite 2012 conference in Washington. "I’m happy to say we have a launch date scheduled on the range and a berthing date with the ISS," New Space Journal quoted SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell as saying during a panel. "The launch date is April 30, and we hope to berth on May 3."    More
(Source: MSNBC - Mar 15)

SPACEX SIGNS UP TWO MORE SATELLITE LAUNCH CUSTOMERS - Space Exploration Technologies, a privately held firm founded and run by entrepreneur Elon Musk, has signed up two more customers for launches on its Falcon 9 rockets, the company announced on Tuesday. Asia Broadcast Satellite and Satélites Mexicanos, also known as Satmex, hired SpaceX for two launches to deliver a total of four telecommunications satellites into orbit in late 2014 or early 2015, and in late 2015.    More
(Source: Chicago Tribune - Mar 15)

NEW DEBRIS-TRACKING 'SPACE FENCE' PASSES KEY TEST - A prototype "space fence" designed to track Earth's burgeoning orbital debris population passed a key test recently, locking onto objects in a demonstration run. The radar system, which is being developed by aerospace firm Lockheed Martin for the United States Air Force, has successfully detected orbiting space junk, company officials announced March 8. The Air Force also approved Lockheed's preliminary design for the system on Feb. 29, they added.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 13)

Previous Next