NASA SEEKS AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS' AID TO LISTEN FOR NANOSAIL-D - On Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 20)

NASA'S CHANCE FOR EXTRA SHUTTLE FLIGHT IN DOUBT - The most recent delay of the space shuttle Discovery's mission over issues with its fuel tank has raised some questions over whether NASA will be able to fly an extra shuttle mission later this year as planned. NASA has two more shuttle trips planned before the aging three-orbiter fleet is retired. A third, final mission was approved last year by Congress in a NASA authorization bill signed by President Obama. Yet, funding for that bill has not been appropriated. Instead, the country is working under a continuing resolution – a stopgap measure put in place until lawmakers can agree on a formal budget – that freezes NASA and the rest of the government at 2010 funding levels.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jan 16)

VIASAT DELAYS LAUNCH OF SATELLITE - ViaSat said Thursday that it will delay the launch of its high-capacity broadband satellite until this summer after it was damaged while being moved at Space Systems Loral, where the $400 million satellite is being built. The Carlsbad company had originally planned to launch the satellite early this year, possibly in March or April. The company did not give an exact time frame for the new launch. A ViaSat spokesman declined further comment.    More
(Source: San Diego Union Tribune - Jan 16)

IRAN TO LAUNCH NEW SATELLITE SOON - Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taqipour has announced that Iran will put into orbit a new domestically manufactured satellite named Fajr (Dawn) in the current Iranian calendar year, which will end on March 20 this year. “We have planned to send the domestically made satellite Fajr into space by the end of the year,” Taqipour told reporters after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Reportedly, there are many differences between the new satellite and the previous ones.    More
(Source: Tehran Times - Jan 14)

NASA DETERMINES CAUSE OF CRACKS - NASA said Tuesday that it had figured out what caused the cracking in the fuel tank of the space shuttle Discovery, which has been grounded repeatedly because of technical problems. John Shannon, the shuttle program manager, said Tuesday that inferior material and assembly problems were to blame for the trouble, which included cracks in five aluminum alloy struts in the center of the tank. Those have been patched, NASA said, and technicians will reinforce the dozens of remaining struts as a precaution.    More
(Source: New York Times - Jan 13)

NASA DELAYS LAUNCH OF SHUTTLE DISCOVERY AGAIN FOR MORE REPAIRS - NASA has delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery's final flight yet again in order to allow more time repair the spacecraft's beleaguered fuel tank, the space agency announced late Thursday (Jan. 6). The decision came after a meeting of top space shuttle program managers earlier in the day to evaluate the progress of Discovery's fuel tank repairs. From their analysis, the officials opted to push the next launch attempt further back from the previously scheduled Feb. 3 liftoff.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 9)

TURKEY PUSHED FOR ITS OWN ASTRONAUT ON SPACE SHUTTLE - In exchange for buying Boeing jets, Turkey wanted a Turkish astronaut to fly on a NASA space shuttle, according to a classified U.S. State Department message recently released by the organization WikiLeaks. The leaked cable, published by the New York Times, was written in January 2010 by James Jeffrey while he was U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Jeffrey (now ambassador to Iraq) was apparently urging Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish government, to purchase planes from Boeing rather than its European competitor Airbus.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 6)

NIGERIA'S SATELLITE PASSES PRE-LAUNCH TEST - The replaced Nigerian satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1R, has undergone and passed a major performance test and activities are in top gear for its launch in 2011, an official has said. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, the managing director of NIGCOMSAT told a management and media dinner on Thursday in Abuja that the satellite had undergone vibration tests while a simulation of the outer space had been used to test its ability to survive the harshness of the outer space.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 5)

SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL-BUILT SATELLITE FOR HISPASAT GROUP SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMS POST-LAUNCH MANEUVERS - Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), the leading provider of commercial satellites, today announced that the Hispasat 1E satellite, designed and built for the HISPASAT Group, is performing post-launch maneuvers according to plan. The satellite deployed its solar arrays Wednesday afternoon, following its successful launch from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Later today, it will fire its main thruster in order to begin maneuvering into geosynchronous orbit.    More
(Source: Space Ref - Jan 4)

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