SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY READIED FOR FINAL MISSION - NASA attached the space shuttle Discovery to its fuel tank and twin rocket boosters over the weekend to gear up for the spacecraft's final voyage to orbit later this year. Discovery was firmly attached its 15-story external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters Saturday after a slight delay due to a loose attachment nut that slipped into the spacecraft's aft compartment on Friday. The 100-ton shuttle was hanging vertically near its external tank inside NASA's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when the nut slipped loose.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Sep 15)

JAPAN LAUNCHES FIRST GPS SATELLITE - The Japanese Space Agency (Jaxa) has launched a rocket carrying the country's first GPS satellite. The H-IIA rocket was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying the satellite named "Michibiki", which means to "to lead" in Japanese. It will work with the existing GPS system but will sit in a different orbit to allow it to stay above Japan for eight hours a day.    More
(Source: BBC News - Sep 13)

SPACE STATION CARGO VESSEL LAUNCHED FROM BAIKONUR - A robotic Russian resupply ship to service the International Space Station successfully soared into orbit today carrying two-and-a-half tons of cargo, food and water for the high-flying laboratory.The Progress freighter blasted off atop a Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:22 a.m. EDT (1022 GMT) and quickly disappeared into the overcast sky. The liftoff had been delayed two days because of high winds at the remote launch site.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Sep 10)

GOCE GRAVITY SATELLITE 'CAUGHT THE COLD' - The flagship European Earth Observation satellite Goce was knocked offline because some of its onboard systems got too cold as it circled the planet. The spacecraft is on a mission to make the most precise maps yet of how gravity varies across the world. But when a fault appeared in its one fully functional computer, the flow of science data to the ground stopped. Controllers managed to recover the situation only when they turned the heat up inside the satellite.    More
(Source: BBC News - Sep 8)

CHINESE BROADCASTING SATELLITE PLACED IN ORBIT - A Chinese communications satellite launched Saturday on a Long March rocket, beginning a mission to broadcast civil television and radio signals across China. Bolted on top of a 180-foot-tall Long March 3B rocket, the Chinasat 6A satellite lifted off from the Xichang space center in southwestern China's Sichuan province at 1614 GMT (12:14 p.m. EDT) Saturday. According to state-run media, the three-stage launcher deployed Chinasat 6A in a super-synchronous transfer orbit with a high point of more than 26,000 miles, a low point of 122 miles and an inclination of 25 degrees.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Sep 6)

CHINESE SATELLITES BUMP DURING SECRET MANEUVERS - A Chinese satellite may have intentionally nudged another spacecraft during secretive space maneuvers in near-Earth orbit, according to analysts. Such close encounters could allow China to practice rendezvous procedures between its future space station and other spacecraft, as well as learn about satellite formation flying, said Brian Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force orbital analyst and now technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation.    More
(Source: MSNBC - Sep 4)

MILITARY SATELLITE RELYING ON BACKUP PLAN TO SAVE ITSELF - A rescue plan is being implemented to salvage the U.S. military's pricy new communications satellite despite a serious malfunction that knocked out its main engine and stymied the craft's maneuvering ability. The Advanced Extremely High Frequency 1 spacecraft was launched into a preliminary orbit by an Atlas 5 rocket on August 14 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The United Launch Alliance-built booster performed its job as designed and successfully deployed the 13,420-pound payload into a supersynchronous transfer orbit with a high point of 31,200 miles, low point of 140 miles and inclination of 22.2 degrees.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Aug 31)

NEW LOCKHEED MARTIN SATELLITE FACES ORBIT DELAY AS ENGINE SHUTS DOWN EARLY - The U.S. Air Force is investigating a technical flaw that may keep a new Lockheed Martin Corp. military communications satellite from reaching its required orbit as scheduled, according to service and Pentagon documents. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center formed a team to examine what it’s calling a “maneuver anomaly” to determine why a satellite engine intended to help boost the vehicle into so-called geosynchronous orbit shut down after nine seconds of operation, according to the documents. The engine shut down prematurely during the initial phase of boosting the satellite from its current orbit of about 200 miles to the 22,236 miles it’s supposed to reach by Nov. 12, the Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command said.    More
(Source: Bloomberg - Aug 30)

CHINESE MAPPING SATELLITE DEPLOYED IN EARTH ORBIT - A Chinese mapping satellite is circling Earth after launching on a Long March rocket Tuesday, according to official media reports. The Tianhui 1 satellite was released in a circular orbit more than 300 miles above Earth following liftoff aboard a Long March 2D booster at 0710 GMT (3:10 a.m. EDT). The 13-story rocket took off from the Jiuquan launching base near the border of northern China's Inner Mongolia and Gansu provinces, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Liftoff occurred at 3:10 p.m. Chinese time.    More
(Source: Space Flight Now - Aug 26)

Previous Next