CHINESE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE DELIVERED TO ORBIT - China launched a television broadcasting and broadband communications satellite Monday aboard a Long March rocket to replace an aging 12-year-old craft serving Asia. The Chinasat 10 satellite blasted off at 1613 GMT (12:13 p.m. EDT) Monday from the Xichang launching base in southwestern China's Sichuan province. The liftoff occurred at 12:13 a.m. local time Tuesday, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Jun 21)
CHINA TO LAUNCH NEW COMMUNICATION SATELLITE - China will launch a new communication satellite, Zhongxing-10, in the next few days at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. Sources with the center said Sunday that a Long March-3B rocket carrier will carry the satellite into space. Both the satellite and rocket carrier are launch-ready and preparations are going smoothly, the sources said. More (Source: Xinhua - Jun 20)
AFTER DELAY, IRANIANS LAUNCH A SATELLITE - Iran said it launched a satellite into orbit on Wednesday that Western aerospace experts said could be used for limited military reconnaissance and also to monitor crops and track damage from earthquakes, flooding and other natural disasters. It was the second time that an Iranian rocket had carried a satellite into orbit and took place more than two years after Iran joined the international space club by launching its first satellite. More (Source: New York Times - Jun 16)
NEW NSR REPORT PROJECTS OVER 1,600 SATELLITES TO BE LAUNCHED OVER THE NEXT 15 YEARS - According to NSR's newest market research report, Global Satellite Manufacturing and Launch Markets, the industry should launch satellites worth collectively over $250 Billion over the next 15 years. NSR expects that the stability offered by GEO ComSat replacements, the Ka-band/HTS "me too" syndrome, Government contracts and the steady stream of Science and Navigation missions should see over 1,600 satellites launched by 2025. More (Source: Space Daily - Jun 13)
TWO IPHONES TO BLAST INTO SPACE ON FINAL SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION - When Space Shuttle Atlantis makes the space shuttle program's final launch, it will be accompanied by two iPhones, which will be used in several experiments on the International Space Station. The iPhones will be loaded with Odyssey Space Research's SpaceLab for iOS app. Four experiments will be conducted; they are simulated in the App Store version, after the app checks for gravity. The app itself is identical to the one that will be used on the ISS. The yare: More (Source: The Examiner - Jun 12)
NASA SATELLITE SNAPS 3 BILLIONTH PHOTO OF EARTH - A 5-year-old NASA satellite has hit a mindboggling milestone high above Earth: The spacecraft snapped its 3 billionth image of the planet … that's right, 3 billion. The prolific Earth-observation satellite, called CALIPSO, took the image on June 2 using laser and infrared ranging instruments and has since gone on to take more imagery. A June 3 image from the satellite shows a vertical look at the massive smoke plume from the wildfires in Arizona. More (Source: Space.com - Jun 11)
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)
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