ARISSAT-1/KEDR GOES SILENT - Reception reports indicate that ARISSat-1/KEDR has stopped transmitting on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. The last full telemetry captured and reported to the ARISSatTLM web site at 06:02:14 UTC on January 4 were received from ground stations as the satellite passed over Japan. Telemetry reports showed that the temperature aboard ARISSat-1/KEDR had been rising as atmospheric drag began to affect the satellite. Final temperatures received via ARISSatTLM reported this data: More (Source: AMSAT - Jan 5)
CHINA REVEALS SPACE PLANS THROUGH 2016 - China plans to launch space labs and manned ships and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released Thursday that shows the country's space program is gathering momentum. China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon. It has made methodical progress with its ambitious lunar and human spaceflight programs, but its latest five-year plan beginning next year signals an acceleration. More (Source: Fox News - Dec 30)
RUSSIAN ROCKET LAUNCHES 6 SATELLITES INTO SPACE - A Russian Soyuz rocket launched a pack of communications satellites into orbit Wednesday (Dec. 28) in a successful flight that comes less than a week after a similar rocket crashed somewhere in Siberia. The Soyuz 2 rocket launched six new satellites for Louisiana-based communications provider Globalstar at 12:09 p.m. EST (1709 GMT) in an apparently smooth liftoff from the snow-covered central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. More (Source: MSNBC - Dec 29)
SIX GLOBALSTAR SATELLITES ON TRACK FOR LIFTOFF WEDNESDAY - The launch of a Soyuz rocket with six Globalstar mobile communications will go forward Wednesday despite the failure of a similar booster last week, according to Globalstar and Russian officials. The satellites will replenish Globalstar's fleet of communications satellites linking customers through voice and data messaging services. Liftoff of the Soyuz 2-1a rocket is scheduled for 1709 GMT (12:09 p.m. EST) Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch will be at 11:09 p.m. local time at Baikonur. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 29)
LAUNCH OF RUSSIAN PROTON-M CARRIER ROCKET POSTPONED - The launch of a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with a Dutch telecommunications satellite SES-4 (NSS-14) onboard was called off on Monday due to "technical problems", a spokesman for the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said. He said the new date for launch was being discussed. He did not elaborate on the cause of the delay. More (Source: RIA Novosti - Dec 27)
MYSTERIOUS FIREBALL WAS PART OF SOYUZ - The mysterious fireball observed above Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France on Christmas Eve was the re-entry of the third stage of a Soyuz rocket that transported three astronauts to space, the Royal Observatory of Belgium said on Sunday. A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the astronauts - Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands and Don Pettit of the United States - to the International Space Station, lifted off on Wednesday from Kazakhstan's Baikonour space centre. More (Source: News24 - Dec 26)
ARISSAT-1 . . A FUN HAM SATELLITE! - David Pruett KF7ETX has released this video of the amateur radio satellite ARISSat-1. There are only a few days left to hear it before it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. The YouTube description reads: Tune your radios / scanners to 145.950 and listen into the signal from ARISSat-1. ARISSat-1/KEDR Deployed on August 3, 2011 from the International Space Station (ISS). More (Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Dec 26)
HOW ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IN SPACE - The six astronauts aboard the International Space Station can't come home for the holidays, but they're doing their best to make the season bright hundreds of miles above Earth's surface. The spacefliers have decked the halls of the $100 billion orbiting lab, and — like many of us Earthbound folks — they plan to celebrate Christmas with a party and a feast. More (Source: MSNBC - Dec 25)
RUSSIAN SATELLITE HITS SIBERIA'S 'COSMONAUT STREET' - A fragment of a Russian satellite that crashed into Siberia in the latest setback for Russia's space programme hit a residential house on a street named after cosmonauts, officials said Saturday. The Meridian communications satellite failed to reach orbit Friday due to a failure with its Soyuz rocket, raising new concerns over the Russian space programme which has now lost over half a dozen satellites in the last year. More (Source: AFP - Dec 25)
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