SATELLITE SETS SAIL TO SURVEY SALTINESS OF EARTH'S OCEANS - Seeking a missing ingredient to understanding Earth's environmental changes, a new satellite conceived through unique international collaborations was launched today to map the planet's salty seas from space. The Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-D spacecraft blasted off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket at 7:20 a.m. local (10:20 a.m. EDT; 1420 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jun 11)

RUSSIAN SOYUZ LAUNCHES NEW SPACE STATION CREW INTO ORBIT - Three spaceflyers are on their way to the International Space Station, after launching toward the orbiting complex today (June 7) in a Russian-made Soyuz capsule. NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), are set to become the newest space station residents, and will live and work at the orbiting outpost for roughly five-and-a-half months.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 7)

RUSSIA TO ACCELERATE GLONASS NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCHES - Russia will accelerate the pace of communications satellite launches to give its GLONASS navigation system full global coverage capacity by the end of the year, a senior government official said Wednesday. Russia’s national space agency is planning to place into orbit six new GLONASS navigation satellites by the end of 2011, said Anatoly Shilov, a spokesman for Russia’s National Space Agency. GLONASS is a Russia-developed satellite-navigation system similar to the U.S.-developed GPS. The Russian network currently operates 23 satellites, giving coverage of Russia and the former Soviet Union. It needs between 25 and 30 aloft to provide global coverage, according to news reports.    More
(Source: The Hindu - Jun 3)

SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR LANDS SAFELY IN FLORIDA - The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew returned safely to the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Fla., at 2:35 a.m. EST, completing the 134th flight of the 30-year-old space shuttle program. Endeavour's commander, Mark Kelly, is married to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from an assassination tempt earlier this year. Kelly's fellow astronauts on this mission all wore the blue bracelets reading "Peace Love Gabby" during this 16-day flight, a sign of solidarity and support. "The space shuttle is an amazing vehicle to fly though the atmosphere … on behalf of the entire crew I want to thank all of the people that worked on the mission," Kelly said upon landing.    More
(Source: ABC News - Jun 1)

SHUTTLE LEAVES SPACE STATION TO BEGIN TRIP HOME - Space shuttle Endeavour has departed the International Space Station, clearing the way for a final cargo run to the outpost before NASA retires its three-ship fleet. As the spacecraft sailed 215 miles above Bolivia, pilot Greg Johnson gently pulsed Endeavour's steering jets at 11:55 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0355 GMT on Monday) to back away from the docking port that has anchored the shuttle since its arrival on May 18. Endeavour delivered the station's premier science experiment -- the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector -- and a pallet of spare parts intended to tide over the orbital outpost after the shuttle program ends.    More
(Source: Reuters - May 31)

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC PUTS ST-2 SATELLITE INTO ORBIT - Mitsubishi has announced the successful injection of the ST-2 communications satellite into geostationary orbit. The satellite, built for a joint venture between Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited (Chunghwa Telecom), was launched from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana at 17:38 on May 20 (local time) using an Ariane5 launch vehicle.    More
(Source: Space Daily - May 31)

SOYUZ CREW RETURNS TO EARTH AFTER SHUTTLE PHOTO OP - Outgoing space station commander Dmitry Kondratyev, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Catherine "Cady" Coleman undocked and returned to Earth Monday, pausing briefly to snap long-sought pictures of the station with a space shuttle attached before dropping out of orbit and landing in Kazakhstan to close out a 159-day voyage. Sailing 220 miles above eastern China, the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft undocked from the Russian Rassvet mini-research module at 5:35 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), backing straight away from the space station.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - May 24)

ENDEAVOUR ASTRONAUTS TALK WITH TUCSON ELEMENTARY STUDENTS - The elementary school classmates of a young girl killed in the January shootings in Tucson spoke with astronauts aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour late Sunday to get a glimpse of what life in space is like. About 400 students from Mesa Verde Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz., stayed up late Sunday night (May 22) for the chance to talk to Endeavour shuttle commander Mark Kelly and mission specialist Mike Fincke as the astronauts sailed 216 miles (347 km) above Earth. The cosmic call was organized by NASA for Kelly, the husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in the Jan. 8 attack that killed six people. Among those killed was 9-year-old Christina Taylor-Green, a student at Mesa Verde.    More
(Source: Space.com - May 24)

SOYUZ UNDOCKING COULD BE SHUTTLE PHOTO OPP - For the first time, a Russian space taxi is scheduled to leave the station while a shuttle is docked there. The departure presents what may be the only opportunity to take pictures NASA and many space fans covet of the shuttle, on the eve of its retirement, parked at the $100 billion outpost that is its greatest legacy. "Hopefully those pictures will show up in textbooks for years to come," said Kenny Todd, NASA's station manager for operations and integration.    More
(Source: USA Today - May 24)

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