SPACE SHUTTLE MOVES TO AVOID CHUNK OF SPACE JUNK - NASA has ordered the astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle-space station complex to move out of the way of a piece of space junk. Late Sunday afternoon, Shuttle Discovery's crew fired the ship's thrusters to reorient it so it is in front of the international space station. NASA says it will stay that way for three hours, resulting in a natural drag of about a foot per second. That will move the complex enough to avoid a chunk of a Chinese rocket that's about four inches in diameter. The closest approach was supposed to happen about two hours into a spacewalk planned for Monday. More (Source: Associated Press - Nov 30)
ORBITAL'S GLORY EARTH SCIENCE SATELLITE TO BE LAUNCHED ON TAURUS XL ROCKET - Orbital Sciences Corporation, a space technology company, revealed that the Glory satellite has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to be integrated with the company’s Taurus XL rocket that will launch the satellite into low-Earth orbit in late February. According to official sources, the satellite was built by Orbital for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Glory satellite is the latest in an extensive series of Earth science satellites that were designed, developed, built by Orbital and tested for NASA. More (Source: TMC Net - Nov 30)
EUTELSAT'S ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 SATELLITE SET FOR SEPTEMBER 24 LAUNCH - Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) announces that its ATLANTIC BIRD 7 satellite is set for launch on Saturday September 24. The satellite will be delivered into orbit by a Zenit-3SL rocket operated by Sea Launch AG from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform in international waters of the Pacific Ocean. Lift-off is planned for 13:18 pm Pacific Daylight Time (20:18 GMT, 22:18 CET), at the opening of a 74-minute launch window. More (Source: Sacramento Bee - Nov 30)
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