DISCOVERY FUELED FOR THURSDAY LAUNCH - It's taken four months to get this far, but the space shuttle Discovery is finally set for launch this Thursday afternoon. The shuttle's 39th and last flight will take a cargo carrier to the International Space station. NASA says the weather forecast gives an 80 percent chance that the launch will - finally - go ahead as planned. All six astronauts for Discovery's final mission, STS-133, are now at the Kennedy Space Center for prelaunch preparations, and commander Steve Lindsey and pilot Eric Boe have been practicing landing approaches in a Gulfstream II jet modified to simulate a shuttle's cockpit, motion and handling qualities.    More
(Source: TG Daily - Feb 23)

MSU SMALL SATELLITE SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH - A small research satellite built by Montana State University students is scheduled to launch into space early Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base along with a larger NASA satellite on a mission to study fine airborne particles. Montana State's "Explorer-1 Prime" is meant to replicate the 1958 scientific mission that detected the existence of a band of charged particles held in place by the Earth's magnetic field. The band was named the Van Allen radiation belt after the late James Van Allen.    More
(Source: KULR-TV - Feb 23)

NASA TO LAUNCH NEWEST EARTH-OBSERVATION SATELLITE - NASA is ready to launch its newest Earth-observing satellite. The satellite dubbed Glory is scheduled to blast off early Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. Once in orbit, it will join a constellation of satellites already collecting climate data. Glory will study tiny airborne particles and their influence on climate change. The $424 million mission was supposed to fly last year, but a problem with the satellite's solar arrays delayed the launch.    More
(Source: The Associated Press - Feb 23)

RUSSIAN DEFENSE SATELLITE IN WRONG ORBIT - A Russian defense satellite sent into the wrong orbit can't perform its mission, said First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin. Popovkin made the comments Sunday at the IDEX 2011 arms show in Abu Dhabi, ITAR-Tass reported. The Geo-IK-2 defense satellite was launched from the Plesetsk spaceport earlier this month by a Rokot rocket.    More
(Source: UPI - Feb 22)

NASA DISCUSSES LAUNCH OPTIONS FOR SHUTTLE DISCOVERY'S FINAL FLIGHT - After an hours-long meeting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's top officials unanimously cleared the space shuttle Discovery for its final launch next Thursday (Feb. 24). NASA shuttle managers made the decision today (Feb. 18) during the mission's Flight Readiness Review, where they discussed the current state of Discovery, the International Space Station, and the astronauts who will fly the orbiter on its 39th and final flight. Following the meeting, NASA officially set the shuttle's launch date and time for Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT). "I can't say enough about the work the teams have done, they did a tremendous job," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said in a news briefing today.    More
(Source: Fox News - Feb 21)

YAHSAT'S FIRST SATELLITE ARRIVES SUCCESSFULLY AT LAUNCH SITE - Satellite Y1A, the first satellite of Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PrJsc (Yahsat), has arrived at The European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Y1A, which will be the first satellite owned and operated by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, arrived according to schedule for the satellite's Q1 launch. Y1A was air-freighted using the biggest aircraft in the world (Antonov) from the EADS Astrium construction facility in Toulouse, France on February 15th and is now in the hands of Arianespace, the world's leading launch service and solutions company.   More
(Source: AME Info - Feb 21)

SATELLITE TO STUDY SUN'S INFLUENCE ON EARTH - The A Train of Earth-observing satellites that NASA leads is set to get a new member with the Feb. 23 launch of Glory. The $424 million mission focuses on the subtle ways solar radiance influences the planet’s climate. While climatologists have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the role that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide play in climate change, they are less certain about how solar variability and aerosols factor into the climate-change equation.    More
(Source: Aviation Week - Feb 21)

EUROPE'S SPACE FREIGHTER, JOHANNES KEPLER, HAS LIFTED OFF FROM FRENCH GUIANA ON AN ARIANE 5 ROCKET. - The robotic truck is heading to the space station with new supplies of food, air, fuel, and experiments, as well as other equipment. Kepler weighed just over 20 tonnes at launch, making it the biggest payload ever lifted into the sky by an Ariane. It was a historic moment for the rocket, too - the 200th Ariane since the vehicles were initiated in 1979. The launch from the Kourou spaceport occurred at 18hr 50min and 55sec local time (21:50.55 GMT) - the instant needed to put the truck on the right path to catch the International Space Station (ISS) in eight days' time.    More
(Source: BBC News - Feb 16)

NEW LAUNCH ATTEMPT OF ATV-2 SET FOR THIS EVENING - Following a measurement anomaly in the liquid oxygen propellant tank of the cryogenic main stage for Flight 200's Ariane 5 launcher, yesterday's countdown was stopped. The new launch time has been set for this evening at 22:50:55 CET. Yesterday's final countdown was stopped 4 minutes and 1 second prior to the planned lift-off time. The launch vehicle and its payload, ATV Johannes Kepler, remain in a safe mode awaiting restart of the final countdown operations.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Feb 16)

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