RUSSIA DETERMINES CAUSES OF BACK-TO-BACK LAUNCH FAILURES - Investigators have identified the causes of consecutive launch mishaps with the Proton and Soyuz rockets, clearing a major hurdle in preparing to return the workhorse launch vehicles to flight. In an announcement Monday, the Russian space agency said the investigation into the Soyuz launch failure Aug. 24 was focusing on a malfunction in the rocket's third stage gas generator. The launch was carrying an automated Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station, and debris from the mission crashed in the Altai region of southern Russia. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Aug 31)
ASTRONAUTS MAY HAVE TO ABANDON SPACE STATION - Astronauts will abandon the International Space Station, probably in mid-November, if rocket engine problems that doomed a Russian cargo ship last week are not diagnosed and fixed. Even if unoccupied, the space station can be operated by controllers on the ground indefinitely and would not be in immediate danger of falling out of orbit. More (Source: New York Times - Aug 29)
PRIVATE US SUPPLY SHIP FOR SPACE STATION ARRIVES AT LAUNCH SITE - A private U.S. rocket company building robotic spaceships to carry space station supplies for NASA has delivered the first of its cargo ships to its launch site in Virginia. The company Orbital Sciences Corp. delivered the first cargo module for its Cygnus spacecraft fleet to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., on Aug. 23 to prepare for a test flight to the International Space Station in February. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 29)
ALASKA ROCKET SATELLITE SET FOR SEPTEMBER - A research satellite is set to be launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Sept. 27. The Kodiak Daily Mirror says (http://bit.ly/rlgqB3 ) the satellite is a Naval Research Laboratory project that has been in the works for several years. Naval Research Laboratory spokesman Tim Duffy says the satellite is smaller than a typical military satellite, weighing in at just under 1,000 pounds. Duffy says the satellite is designed to be effective at high latitudes and in mountains, unlike most satellite communications systems. More (Source: Houston Chronicle - Aug 29)
RUSSIA ORDERS EXTRA TESTS BEFORE SATELLITE LAUNCH - Russia will go ahead with the launch of a navigation satellite on Friday only after it has carried out additional safety checks following the crash of a supply craft, the Russian space agency said on Thursday. An unmanned Progress spacecraft using a Soyuz booster rocket failed to reach orbit and burned up in the atmosphere shortly after launch on Wednesday. It had been carrying food and fuel to the International Space Station. More (Source: Reuters - Aug 25)
RUSSIAN SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP CRASHES IN FAILED ROCKET LAUNCH - An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying tons of supplies for astronauts on the International Space Station suffered a major malfunction after launching today (Aug. 24) and ultimately crashed back to Earth, NASA officials say. The robotic Progress 44 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz U rocket at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) from the central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and was due to arrive at the space station on Friday. "Unfortunately, about 325 seconds into flight, shortly after the third stage was ignited, the vehicle commanded an engine shutdown due to an engine anomaly," NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters today. "The vehicle impacted in the Altai region of the Russian Federation." More (Source: Space.com - Aug 24)
NATION LAUNCHES FIRST SATELLITE BUILT BY AFRICANS - Nigeria successfully launched NigeriaSat-X, the first satellite to be designed and built by Africans, into orbit this week (17 August). NigeriaSat-X was launched along with another small satellite, NigeriaSat-2, from Yasny in southern Russia. More (Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Network - Aug 23)
RUSSIAN PROGRESS SPACE FREIGHTER SET TO UNDOCK FROM ORBITAL STATION - Progress M-11M space freighter will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday to be buried in the Pacific after conducting a nine-day scientific mission, Russia's Mission Control said. "Russian members of Expedition 28 [on ISS] have finished loading the spacecraft with waste products from the orbital station," the Mission Control said in a statement. The undocking is scheduled for 01:35 pm Moscow time (09:35 GMT). More (Source: RIA Novosti - Aug 23)
LOST RUSSIAN SATELLITE FOUND IN WRONG ORBIT - A Russian telecommunications satellite that was launched on Thursday disappeared from the view of ground controllers and the U.S. space surveillance network, along with the rocket upper stage that carried it into orbit, according to industry officials and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. After the 5,800-kilogram Express-AM4 satellite separated from the Proton rocket's Breeze-M upper stage, neither object could be found, officials said. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network of ground radars was tracking a single object that one official said was neither the Breeze-M nor the Express-AM4, but rather an auxiliary propellant tank from the Proton rocket. More (Source: MSNBC - Aug 21)
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