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)
CHINA SATELLITE ABORTS MISSION AFTER 'MALFUNCTION' - An "experimental" satellite launched by China failed to reach its designated orbit after its rocket malfunctioned, according to state media. Orbiter SJ-11-04, which was propelled by a Long March II-C rocket, was launched on Thursday but was unable to complete its mission "due to a malfunction of the rocket", the official Xinhua news agency said. The report said the satellite was an "experimental orbiter" but did not disclose further details. More (Source: AFP - Aug 20)
RUSSIANS UNVEIL SPACE HOTEL - "Getting away from it all" may be a travel marketing cliché, but the phrase might take on a whole new meaning come 2016. Russian firm Orbital Technologies plans to open the first space hotel in history in five year's time. The space hotel, or "Commercial Space Station," as it's officially called, will float 250 miles above Earth. The hotel can accommodate a maximum of seven people at a time. To check in, tourists will have to undergo special training that can take up to three months, depending on the type of spacecraft they fly to the hotel. More (Source: CNN International - Aug 19)
RUSSIA 'LOSES CONTACT' WITH SATELLITE AFTER LAUNCH - Russia has lost contact with a major new telecommunications satellite hours after its launch into orbit, reports said on Thursday. The Express-AM4 satellite was launched in the early hours of Thursday morning from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and was due to provide digital television, telephone and Internet services across Russia. "The radio systems are not detecting the satellite in its fixed orbit. There are no signals from the satellite," a source in the space industry told the Interfax news agency. More (Source: AFP - Aug 18)
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