STATION’S ORBIT RAISED; CREW FOCUSES ON SCIENCE - The Zvezda service module’s engines were fired Friday for 1 minute, 22 seconds to raise the altitude of the International Space Station one final time in preparation for the impending arrival of three additional Expedition 30 crew members. The reboost raised the station’s altitude at perigee, or lowest point of the orbit, by 2.8 statute miles and will leave the complex in an orbit of 259.9 by 231.5 statute miles.    More
(Source: Space Fellowship - Dec 11)

NEXT SPACE STATION TRIO COUNTING DOWN TO BLASTOFF - Three new flight engineers to return the International Space Station's resident crew to the full 6-person size traveled from their Russian training base outside Moscow to the Kazakhstan launch site Thursday. NASA's Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers made their trip from Star City to the Baikonur Cosmodrome to begin final preparations for liftoff aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M capsule on Dec. 21.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Dec 10)

NASA SETS DATE FOR DRAGON'S SPACE STATION DEBUT - A spaceship developed by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is scheduled for launch Feb. 7 on an unprecedented mission to the International Space Station, NASA announced Friday. The U.S. space agency has been working with two firms -- SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp -- to develop cargo ships that can ferry supplies to the space station, following the retirement of the space shuttles this summer. SpaceX debuted its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule during a two-orbit mission last December. It now has the green light from NASA to combine its next two demonstration missions into a single flight and berth at the space station, if all goes as planned during the flight.    More
(Source: Discovery News - Dec 10)

NOAA ACTIVATES GOES-15 SATELLITE; DEACTIVATES GOES-11 AFTER NEARLY 12 YEARS IN ORBIT - For 12 years, GOES-11, one of NOAA's geostationary satellites, tracked weather and severe storms that impacted the U.S. West Coast, Hawaii and the Pacific region. Today, NOAA began the process to deactivate the satellite, which is approaching the end of its useful life, and replace it with a new, more advanced spacecraft.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Dec 9)

SOLAR SAIL SATELLITE RETURNS TO EARTH - NanoSail-D2, the solar sail satellite deployed in low-Earth orbit, has successfully reentered into the Earth's atmosphere, says NASA. After analyzing data about its return, NASA has announced that the satellite NanoSail-D2 has reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up. Far from being merely the end of its usefulness, NanoSail's reentry was actually the main goal of its mission. Deorbit and reentry occurred on Sept. 17, six months later than initially predicted, and allowed NASA scientists to observe the behavior of small solar sail in low-Earth orbit and during reentry. Engineers hope to use small solar sail technology to control the future reentry of satellites and space debris.    More
(Source: DigitalJournal.com - Dec 3)

CHINA LAUNCHES NAVIGATION SATELLITE BEIDOU - China Friday successfully launched a satellite, the 10th one for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, authorities said. The satellite was launched at 5.07 a.m., the launch centre said. The satellite, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern Sichuan province, was boosted by a Long March-3A carrier rocket into a geosynchronous orbit, reported Xinhua.    More
(Source: Economic Times - Dec 3)

MILITARY SPACE SHUTTLE RECEIVES MISSION EXTENSION - Quietly orbiting Earth since March, the U.S. Air Force's second X-37B space plane will surpass its 270-day design life Wednesday with no sign the clandestine spacecraft is landing any time soon. The X-37B has been in orbit since March 5, when an Atlas 5 rocket hauled the two-ton, 29-foot-long spacecraft into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla. "On-orbit experimentation is continuing," said Air Force Maj. Tracy Bunko, an spokesperson for the Secretary of the Air Force. "Though we cannot predict when that will be complete, we are learning new things about the vehicle every day, which makes the mission a very dynamic process."    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Dec 1)

ATK-MADE ROCKET ENGINE LAUNCHES NAVY SATELLITE - A new Navy communications satellite is now orbiting high above the Earth, thanks in part to the Elkton-based company Alliant Techsystems. The TacSat-4 satellite, launched Sept. 27 in Kodiak, Alaska, will boost the communication abilities of soldiers on the battlefield. The rocket engine that launched the satellite was designed and manufactured in Elkton by Alliant Techsystems, better known as ATK.    More
(Source: Cecil Whig - Dec 1)

NIGCOMSAT TO LAUNCH REPLACEMENT SATELLITE IN DECEMBER - The Federal Government has concluded plans to launch the de-orbited Nigerian Communications Satellite, now NigComSat-1R on December 19, with a promise to use the resources to boost communications services in the country effectively. The launch will be done in Nigeria and China simultaneously after 29 months of putting it together.    More
(Source: BusinessDay - Nov 30)

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