NASA OFFERS TO SEND NAMES AND DIGITAL PHOTOS FROM THE PUBLIC ON THE FINAL TWO SHUTTLE MISSIONS - NASA will be sending photos and names from the public to space on its two final shuttle missions. People can upload their information on a new website under the Face in Space program to have it go into orbit along with the astronauts on the last two times the reusable space planes will launch. In a statement released by NASA's space shuttle program chief John Shannon he said: "The Space Shuttle Program belongs to the public, and we are excited when we can provide an opportunity for people to share the adventure of our missions. This website will allow you to be a part of history and participate as we complete our final missions " More (Source: Examiner.com - Jun 19)
THREE-PERSON INTERNATIONAL CREW LAUNCHED INTO SPACE - Lighting up the pre-dawn Kazakhstan sky, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a veteran cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts roared to life and vaulted into orbit Tuesday, kicking off a two-day flight to the International Space Station. Station veteran Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock, a shuttle veteran, and rookie flight engineer Shannon Walker lifted off aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft at 5:35:19 p.m. EDT (3:35:19 a.m. Wednesday local time) from Yuri Gagarin's launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. More (Source: Space Flight Now - Jun 17)
SOUTH KOREA ROCKET 'EXPLODES' MOMENTS AFTER TAKE-OFF - South Korea rocket 'explodes' moments after take-off Page last updated at 10:36 GMT, Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:36 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version AdvertisementCommunication was lost just two minutes after the KSLV-1 took off A South Korean rocket appears to have exploded moments after take-off, ending the country's latest attempt to join the space-launch industry. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 is thought to have blown up 137 seconds after take-off, said science minister Ahn Byong-man. The rocket lifted off from Goheung's Naro Space Centre at 1701 (0801 GMT). But contact was lost as the rocket reached an altitude of 70 kilometres (44 miles). "Looking from the bright flash seen on the camera mounted on the tip of the rocket, it appears [the KSLV-1] exploded in flight during the first-stage ignition," said Mr Ahn. More (Source: BBC News - Jun 11)
MALFUNCTION DELAYS SOUTH KOREA SATELLITE LAUNCH - South Korea's space program suffered a setback Wednesday when the planned launch of a satellite was postponed due to malfunctioning firefighting equipment. The two-stage Naro rocket was supposed to blast off in the late afternoon carrying an observation satellite to study global warming and climate change. The process was halted, however, after fire retardant suddenly sprayed from one of three nozzles set up near the launch pad to extinguish any blaze, said Pyun Kyung-bum, a spokesman at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. More (Source: The Associated Press - Jun 10)
TECHNICAL GLITCH MAY DELAY ROCKET LAUNCH - The South Korean space agency's Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 (KSLV-1) reached its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, Monday. However, the completion of the rollout was delayed for several hours due to an unexpected technical glitch that engineers refused to explain specifically. The problem appears serious enough to possibly delay the launching of the rocket, with a control committee consisting of South Korean and Russian engineers expect to meet early today to determine whether to continue the liftoff as scheduled. More (Source: Korea Times - Jun 8)
FALCON 9 ROCKETS INTO SPACE IN DRAMATIC MAIDEN FLIGHT - Powered by nine first-stage engines and the vision of an internet entrepreneur, an untried Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Friday and thundered into space on a maiden voyage intended to help pave the way for commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station. In a major milestone for the commercial launch industry, the Falcon 9's first-stage Merlin engines, fueled by liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel, roared to life at 2:45 p.m. EDT. More (Source: CNET - Jun 4)
RUSSIAN SPACECRAFT LANDS SAFELY AFTER TRIP TO SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed safely in Kazakhstan late Tuesday to return a cosmonaut and two astronauts back home from the International Space Station after nearly six months in space. The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft touched down on at about 11:25 a.m. EDT on the central steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and two crewmates – one each from the United States and Japan – onboard. It was 9:25 a.m. Wednesday local time at the landing site. Recovery crews reported that the Soyuz capsule had tilted on its side after landing, which has happened before, but overall it was a smooth landing, NASA officials said. More (Source: Fox News - Jun 4)
CHINA LAUNCHES ANOTHER COMPASS GEO NAVIGATION SATELLITE - China lifted another Compass (Beidou-2) satellite into geostationary orbit (GEO) today (June 2) — its second such launch this year. It joins two other GEOs and a middle-earth-orbiting spacecraft in China’s second-generation GNSS system now under development. China hopes to have a regional satellite navigation system in place by 2012 to provide a regional service. Fourteen space vehicles (SVs) would comprise the regional constellation: five GEOs, four MEOs, and five inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites. The full GNSS constellation will include 27 MEOs, 3 IGSOs, and 5 GEOs. More (Source: Inside GNSS - Jun 4)
LAST SPACE SHUTTLE ROCKET BOOSTERS DELIVERED TO NASA - The last set of space shuttle rocket segments arrived in Florida Thursday after one final train ride from their Utah-based factory. The rocket pieces were delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from Promontory, Utah, where they were refurbished by NASA contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The 149-foot (45-meter) boosters are actually reserve rockets that would only be used to launch a rescue mission if NASA's final scheduled shuttle flight on Endeavour runs into an emergency. More (Source: Space.com - May 29)
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