INDIA PLANNED AS LAUNCH SITE FOR ESTONIA'S FIRST SATELLITE - The satellite developed by a group of Tartu and Tallinn students is to test a solar sail invented by Helsinki University professor Pekka Janhunen, ETV reported. Mart Noorma, a teacher at the University of Tartu, says the best offer for launching the satellite has come from India. The launching would cost 60,000 euros, said Noorma.    More
(Source: ERR News - Jan 25)

DELTA 4-HEAVY'S HUSH-HUSH PAYLOAD FOUND AND IDENTIFIED - The clandestine cargo carried into polar orbit Thursday aboard the first California-launched Delta 4-Heavy rocket was a crucial replacement satellite for the nation's surveillance and security network, amateur sky-watchers say. The sophisticated imaging bird follows a long line of Keyhole-type spacecraft that provide ultra-high resolution imagery for the U.S. intelligence community, according to hobbyists who track orbiting satellites with remarkable precision.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jan 25)

NASA WILL LAUNCH SATELLITE GLORY FROM THE BASE OF VANDENBERG AIR FORCE - NASA will send the satellite “Glory” into space next month with a mission to gather information to help scientists understand how the Sun and tiny particles called aerosols influence Earth’s climate. Another of its tasks will be to gather data to consider what measures should be taken “to address key uncertainties about climate change,” NASA said in a statement.   More
(Source: Coffetoday - Jan 23)

SUCCESS IN SPACE: NASA'S TINY SOLAR SAIL GETS SECOND WIND - Talk about a comeback story: A tiny NASA satellite once teetering on failure has successfully unfurled its solar sail while orbiting the Earth, the space agency announced Friday. The NanoSail-D satellite — which ejected from its mothership just this week, more than a month late — deployed its sail late Thursday and is operating as planned. The unfurling marks the first time a NASA craft has ever opened a solar sail in low-Earth orbit, according to agency officials.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jan 23)

NASA GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR ADDITIONAL SHUTTLE FLIGHT - NASA doesn't know yet where it will get the money, but on Thursday the space agency officially added another space shuttle launch to its schedule — the final one for the fleet. The space agency set a target launch date of June 28 for the shuttle Atlantis and started preparations for the 135th and last shuttle flight. The four-member crew will take up supplies to the International Space Station, make one spacewalk, and return a faulty pump that has bedeviled engineers. Now three missions remain before NASA retires its shuttle fleet this year. The shuttle Discovery's last mission is slated for Feb. 24, and Endeavour's is set for April.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jan 21)

VANDENBERG ROCKET: LARGEST AMERICAN ROCKET BLASTED OFF TODAY ON WEST COAST - The unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:10 p.m. PST (4:10 p.m. EST) carrying a secret satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office. Making the Vandenberg rocket the largest rocket launch ever from the country's West Coast. The largest American rocket currently in use blasted off from the California coast today (Jan. 20) carrying a new U.S. spy satellite on a classified mission, making it the biggest rocket launch ever from the country's West Coast.    More
(Source: Christian Science Monitor - Jan 21)

ZENIT ROCKET CLIMBS TO ORBIT WITH WEATHER SATELLITE - A Zenit rocket lifted off Thursday from Kazakhstan with a Russian weather satellite to snap real-time images of clouds and storm systems. The Ukrainian Zenit 3F booster blasted off at 1229 GMT (7:29 a.m. EST) from pad 45 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was the first space launch anywhere in the world in 2011. The 20-story rocket disappeared into low clouds hanging over the snow-covered space center a few seconds after launch. The launcher released the Electro-L 1 weather satellite into orbit at 2128 GMT (4:28 p.m. EST).    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Jan 21)

NASA SEEKS AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS' AID TO LISTEN FOR NANOSAIL-D - On Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets.    More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 20)

NASA'S CHANCE FOR EXTRA SHUTTLE FLIGHT IN DOUBT - The most recent delay of the space shuttle Discovery's mission over issues with its fuel tank has raised some questions over whether NASA will be able to fly an extra shuttle mission later this year as planned. NASA has two more shuttle trips planned before the aging three-orbiter fleet is retired. A third, final mission was approved last year by Congress in a NASA authorization bill signed by President Obama. Yet, funding for that bill has not been appropriated. Instead, the country is working under a continuing resolution – a stopgap measure put in place until lawmakers can agree on a formal budget – that freezes NASA and the rest of the government at 2010 funding levels.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Jan 16)

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