SHUTTLE DISCOVERY'S LAUNCH DELAYED A FEW MORE DAYS - Work to repair the shuttle Discovery's external tank is going well, but more time is needed to complete an engineering review and to develop the necessary flight rationale, the justification for launching with a repaired tank after unexpected damage. As a result, NASA announced Thursday, the flight will remain on hold until at least Dec. 3, four days after the opening of a short end-of-year launch window. If Discovery is eventually cleared for launch, countdown clocks would begin ticking around 1 a.m. on Nov. 30, setting up a launch attempt at 2:51:59 a.m. EST on Dec. 3.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 19)

U. OF MICH. STUDENTS, PROFS AWAIT SATELLITE LAUNCH - University of Michigan engineering students and professors are close to making history. If all goes according to plan, the first satellite built completely by students from the Ann Arbor school will be sent into space on Friday night. "I certainly get goose bumps when I think about it," assistant aerospace engineering professor James Cutler told the Detroit Free Press. The 6.5-pound satellite is scheduled to share a ride on a 78-foot-tall rocket with six other satellites carrying 16 experiments for the military, NASA and universities.    More
(Source: Chicago Tribune - Nov 19)

SOLAR SAIL DEMO PACKED UP TO PROVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES - For less than $1 million, scientists are planning to show off an innovative solar sail experiment beginning with a blastoff from the Alaska frontier Friday, proving new propulsion technologies that could help rid space of unnecessary debris. The NanoSail-D mission will unfurl a 100 square foot polymer sail from a satellite the size of a loaf of bread. Researchers say the sail will harness light pressure from the sun to change its orbit, eventually slowing the craft's speed enough to drop from orbit and burn up in Earth's atmosphere.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 18)

ESSENTIAL EAVESDROPPING SATELLITE LAUNCHING FRIDAY - One cannot overstate the importance of Friday night's Delta 4-Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral to national security, a mission by the massive rocket that will deploy "the largest satellite in the world" to hear the whispers of evil. Countdown clocks are targeting a liftoff time of 6:06 p.m. EST (2306 GMT) from the Florida spaceport's Complex 37. The evening's available launch opportunity likely extends upwards of four hours.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 18)

INSPECTORS FIND FOURTH CRACK IN DISCOVERY SPACE SHUTTLE - Inspectors have found a fourth crack in support beams on the external fuel tanks of the space shuttle Discovery, whose final flight was delayed because of a hydrogen leak, NASA said. The latest crack was found while technicians were removing foam while inspecting the support beams, which are called stringers, in the aftermath of the hydrogen leak, the space agency said late on Monday. Two nine-inch (21-centimeter) cracks were found in an adjacent support beam on Friday, and a three-inch (7.5 centimeter) fissure was uncovered over the weekend.    More
(Source: AFP - Nov 17)

SPACE JUNK: A RISKY GAME OF SPACE INVADERS - Dead satellites and debris orbiting Earth pose a real threat to astronauts, warns Michael Day. When, in the early hours of February 10, 2009, an American communications satellite called Iridium 33 smashed into a Russian military satellite 500 miles above Earth's surface, the experts called it an "unprecedented event". A better description might have been "an accident waiting to happen".    More
(Source: Telegraph.co.uk - Nov 17)

SKYTERRA-1 SATELLITE SUCCEFULLY LAUNCHED - A satellite that promises to bring cellular voice and data coverage to remote parts of North America was successfully launched on Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The SkyTerra-1 satellite was carried into space on top of a Russian Proton Breeze M rocket at 11:29pm local time (5:29pm GMT).    More
(Source: PC World - Nov 16)

RUSSIA SET TO LAUNCH U.S. TELECOMS SATELLITE - Russian-U.S. company International Launch Services (ILS) will launch on Sunday a Proton-M heavy carrier rocket with a U.S. telecommunications satellite on board, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said. ILS, owned by the Khrunichev Center, RSC Energia and U.S. firm Space Transport Inc., provides spacecraft launch services for Proton-M heavy carrier rockets.    More
(Source: RIA Novosti - Nov 14)

STS-133 - UNLIKELY TO LAUNCH IN 2010 - It now appears likely that space shuttle Discovery, on its final mission, STS-133 might not launch this year. A series of slips in the first week of November (Discovery was set to launch on Nov. 1 – but that date was pushed back several time to Nov. 5) was capped-off with NASA learning that not only did the orbiter’s Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) have a leak – but there was a crack in the foam that covers the external tank (ET). It turned out that the crack in the foam – went far deeper – and represents a far greater challenge to get the shuttle off the ground during this calendar year.   More
(Source: Examiner.com - Nov 13)

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