LAUNCH OF AIR FORCE'S SECRET X-37B SPACE PLANE DELAYED A DAY BY BAD WEATHER - Bad weather in Florida thwarted the U.S. Air Force's attempts to launch its latest secret X-37B space plane Friday (March 4), forcing a one-day delay for the robotic reusable mini-shuttle. The unmanned X-37B space plane — known as Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) — was supposed to take to the skies from Cape Canaveral at 3:50 p.m. EST (2050 GMT) today atop an Atlas 5 rocket. But cloudy, windy conditions caused officials to scrub that attempt, as well as a second try around 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Mar 5)
NASA'S LOST GLORY SATELLITE: WHY IT FAILED AND WHY IT MATTERS - NASA's Earth-observing satellite, called Glory, launched this morning (March 4), but within minutes, scientists realized the rocket would not make it into orbit. The failed launch has implications for the study of Earth's climate and the changes that are shifting it. Glory launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on a Taurus XL rocket. The nose cone of the rocket covering the satellite failed to separate, making it too heavy and too slow to achieve orbit. The failed launch comes after a week of delays due to technical difficulties, and is the second consecutive failure for a Taurus XL rocket. NASA has established an investigation board to determine the cause of the launch failure. More (Source: Space.com - Mar 4)
U.S. MILITARY'S SECOND X-37 SPACE PLANE DUE FOR LAUNCH - An Atlas 5 rocket crowned with a covert U.S. Air Force space plane rolled to a Florida launch pad Thursday to begin final preps for blastoff with a secret cache of military experiments. The metallic gold-colored rocket, topped by a bulbous white nose cone, rolled from an integration building to the launch pad at Complex 41 Thursday afternoon. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for a launch window opening at 2039 GMT (3:39 p.m. EST) Friday. The exact launch time will be announced around 8 a.m. EST Friday, according to the Air Force. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Mar 4)
NASA'S EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITE TO LAUNCH FRIDAY - NASA has picked a new launch date for its newest Earth-orbiting satellite more than a week after a glitch led to a last-minute scrub. The Glory satellite will now lift off before dawn Friday aboard a Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Engineers spent the past week troubleshooting an error with the ground equipment. NASA said Tuesday that the problem has been fixed. Once in orbit, Glory will spend three years studying tiny airborne particles and their effect on climate. More (Source: The Associated Press - Mar 3)
NASA SATELLITE NANOSAIL-D WILL BE VISIBLE ABOVE U.S. THIS WEEK - NASA's solar-powered NanoSail-D satellite will be visible over much of North America nightly through next Monday, March 7. The satellite powered by a sail 100 square feet in size, or about the size of the bottom of a large family camping tent. It is testing solar technology for NASA. NASA and Spaceweather.com have teamed up to offer cash prizes for the best photos of the satellite as it crosses the sky. Several excellent images have already been recorded, and there are reports of the satellite over Alabama. More (Source: al.com - Mar 2)
NASA'S GLORY SATELLITE SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH ON MARCH 4 - NASA's Glory spacecraft is scheduled for launch on Friday, March 4. Technical issues with ground support equipment for the Taurus XL launch vehicle led to the scrub of the original Feb. 23 launch attempt. Those issues have been resolved. The March 4 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is targeted for 5:09:43 a.m. EST, in the middle of a 48-second launch window. Spacecraft separation occurs 13 minutes after launch. Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate. More (Source: NASA - Mar 1)
PROPOSED ULTIMATE SPACE STATION PHOTO OP REJECTED - Russian mission managers Tuesday rejected a NASA proposal to undock a three-man Soyuz spacecraft for a fly around of the International Space Station to capture unprecedented views of the complex with the shuttle Discovery and a full complement of European, Japanese and Russian spacecraft attached. Discovery's mission is the only time such a photograph would be possible before the shuttle fleet is retired later this summer. "The Mission Management Team has conferred and the program's official decision is the fly about is a no-go," Stan Love radioed the shuttle-station crew from mission control, shortly after the astronauts attached a final U.S. module -- the Permanent Multipurpose Module -- to the space station. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Mar 1)
SHUTTLE DISCOVERY DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION - The space shuttle Discovery successfully docked with the International Space Station Saturday, NASA said. Commander Steve Lindsey performed the maneuver at 2:14 p.m. EST, while the two spacecraft were orbiting 220 miles above western Australia. It was Discovery's 13th and final docking to the space station. More (Source: UPI - Feb 26)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES KEY SATELLITE ON SECOND ATTEMPT - Russia on Saturday successfully launched a satellite vital to the deployment of its own navigation system after the failure of an earlier attempt prompted the Kremlin to sack two top space officials. The Federal Space Agency said in a statement that the high-tech Glonass-K satellite reached its intended orbit about four hours after blasting off on top a Soyuz-2 rocket from Russia's northern Plesetsk launchpad. "We have established and are maintaining steady telemetry communications with the space craft," a spokesman for the defence ministry's space forces told the Interfax news agency. "The on-board systems of the Glonass-K satellite are functioning normally," the official said. More (Source: AFP - Feb 26)
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