RUSSIA WILL REPLACE SOYUZ FOR NEXT ISS MISSION: SOURCE - Russia will replace the Soyuz spacecraft set to take the next crew to the International Space Station after a fault was found in testing, a space industry source said Wednesday. The Russian space agency had previously said that only a capsule used for the crew's re-entry to Earth would be replaced after tests found it was not hermetically sealed, delaying a mission originally set for March 30. More (Source: AFP - Feb 2)
RUSSIA TO DELAY SPACE MISSION DUE TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS - Russia plans to delay the next mission carrying US and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station by several weeks due to problems with the spaceship's descent vehicle, Interfax news agency quoted an industry source as saying Friday. The expected delay follows a series of technical mishaps that marred Russia's celebration of 50 years last year since Yuri Gagarin's pioneering first human space flight. More (Source: Times of India - Jan 30)
SPACE STATION’S ORBIT RAISED TO AVOID COLLISION WITH SPACE JUNK - Specialists of Russia’s Mission Control Center raised the orbit altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) in the early hours of Sunday to prevent a possible collision with a Chinese satellite fragment, a spokesman for the Center said. “The maneuver was performed using Zvezda service module engines,” the spokesman said. The altitude of the ISS orbit was raised by 1.7 kilometers to 391.6 kilometers, he said, adding that the maneuver lasted 64 seconds. More (Source: RIA Novosti - Jan 29)
RUSSIA PLANS TO LAUNCH U.S. SATELLITE IN FEBRUARY - Russia is preparing a Proton-M carrier rocket for the launch of the U.S. Sirius FM-6 telecoms satellite, Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said on Thursday. "The launch is tentatively scheduled for February 2012," Roscosmos said. The assembly of the upper stage of the rocket and the testing of a Briz-M booster is being carried out at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. More (Source: Space Daily - Jan 29)
RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP DOCKS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A robotic Russian cargo ship pulled up to the International Space Station Friday (Jan. 27), delivering tons of fresh fruit, clothing and other vital supplies for the orbiting lab's six-man crew. The Progress 46 cargo ship arrived at the space station at about 7:09 p.m. EST (0009 GMT Jan. 28) after a two-day spaceflight that marked Russia's first space mission of the year. More (Source: Huffington Post - Jan 29)
RETIRED SATELLITE'S FALL FROM SPACE WILL EXCEED NASA SAFETY RULES - The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, a NASA satellite retired from service Jan. 5, will present a 1-in-1,000 chance of harming someone when it makes an uncontrolled fall from Earth orbit some time after 2014, a level ten times riskier than NASA now requires for re-entering spacecraft, according to an agency spokesperson. More (Source: Space.com - Jan 28)
SPACE STATION RESUPPLY SHIP SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED - A Russian Soyuz booster successfully launched Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and propelled a resupply freighter on its two-day pursuit to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff of the unmanned Soyuz booster carrying the automated Progress vessel from the launch base in Kazakhstan occurred at at 6:06 p.m. EST (2306 GMT), beginning Russia's first of five cargo delivery missions in 2012 to the space station. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 26)
ONE RUSSIAN SHIP VACATES STATION PORT FOR NEXT VEHICLE - After 82 days docked to the International Space Station, a Russian Progress resupply freighter pulled away Monday afternoon to fly independently into a higher orbit for deployment of a science satellite and setting the stage for another cargo ship launching to the outpost later this week. The Progress M-13M spacecraft reached the station Nov. 2 to deliver three tons of equipment, food, rocket fuel, air and water. It was marked resumption of the Russian-provided supply chain after the August launch failure of the previous ship. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 24)
U.S. AIR FORCE OFFICIALS LAUNCH FOURTH WGS SATELLITE - Air Force officials launched an United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Medium rocket carrying the fourth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite Jan. 19 from Space Launch Complex 37 here. WGS-04 is the first craft in the program's upgraded Block 2 series, which adds a radio frequency bypass capability designed to support airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms requiring ultra-high bandwidth and data rates. More (Source: defpro - Jan 24)
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