CHINA WANTS TO BUILD A NEW SPACE STATION. A PLANNED LAUNCH IN APRIL WILL SET THE STAGE - China's space program is planning a launch in April to prepare for building the country's next space station. A Long March 5B rocket will carry a "trial version" of China's new spaceship, which is designed to carry crews of up to six people, state media source Xinhua said. Previous Chinese spaceships carried up to three taikonauts, the term used to describe Chinese astronauts. More (Source: Space.com - Feb 23)
NASA SATELLITE CAPTURES ANTARCTICA MELTING DURING HEAT WAVE - Antarctica, home to the coldest place on Earth, experienced a worrying heat wave earlier in February, possibly even setting a record high temperature for the normally frigid continent. A NASA satellite has taken stock of what that heat meant to the local ice cap and glaciers. NASA's Earth Observatory released two images from the agency's Landsat 8 satellite. They highlight dramatic changes in the ice and snow along the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula. More (Source: CNET - Feb 22)
GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE ORDERS BOUNCING BACK - Manufacturers are hopeful that 2019 marked the beginning of a turnaround for geostationary satellite orders, even though their market remains fraught with uncertainty. After booking just 14 orders in 2017 and 2018 combined, satellite manufacturers reported 2019 orders for 15 commercially competed geostationary communications spacecraft and two military comsats awarded without open bidding. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 22)
CONSTRUCTION OF CHINA'S SPACE STATION ABOUT TO START - The maiden flight of the Long March-5B rocket carrying a trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship is expected to take place in April, indicating the imminent start of construction of China's space station. The rocket, the prototype core capsule of the space station and the experimental manned spaceship are undergoing tests at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south China's island province of Hainan. More (Source: Space Daily - Feb 21)
SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES RUSSIAN MILITARY SATELLITE AFTER ONE-MONTH DELAY - A Russian military communications satellite rode a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage Thursday into an orbit stretching nearly 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) above Earth, successfully launching after a one-month delay to replace a suspect third stage on the Soyuz booster. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off with a Meridian M communications satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 0824:54 GMT (3:24:54 a.m. EST) Thursday, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 21)
LONG MARCH-2D CONDUCTS MAIDEN LAUNCH FROM XICHANG WITH FOUR SATELLITES - Taking precautions with the coronavirus outbreak in all orbital and space launch centers, China returned to its launch activities after the Chinese New Year festivities with a new launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This was the first use of a Long March-2D (Chang Zheng-2D) launch vehicle from Xichang. The mission orbited four satellites that will be used to carry out inter-satellite link networking and new ground observation technology tests in orbit. The launch took place from the LC3 Launch Complex at 21:07UTC. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Feb 20)
A SATELLITE MADE IN ST. LOUIS WILL BE LAUNCHED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WEDNESDAY - A six-pound satellite built right here in St. Louis will be launched from the International Space Station Wednesday. The Argus-2 satellite was built by students at Saint Louis University's Parks College of Engineering and sent to the International Space Station in November. The spacecraft will be launched into orbit at 10 a.m. More (Source: KSDK.com - Feb 20)
AZTECHSAT-1 SOON TO DEPLOY FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The launch of one very small spacecraft marks a big success for the first collaboration between NASA and the Mexican Space Agency on a spaceflight project. It's also important for the team of students in Mexico who designed and built the satellite. Called AzTechSat-1, it will demonstrate satellite-to-satellite communications for applications in space and on Earth. Specifically, it will "talk to" a network of telecommunications satellites already orbiting the Earth and contribute new data about this transmission strategy to developers of small satellites called CubeSats. More (Source: Space Daily - Feb 20)
IMAGE: INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TRANSITS THE MOON - Say cheese. Amateur astrophotographer Javier Manteca captured the International Space Station as flew in front of the moon on 5 February. While most eyes were on the change of command ceremony taking place inside the Space Station ahead of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano's return to Earth, Javier set up his gear to track the Station from the small town of Campo Real in Madrid, Spain. More (Source: Phys.org - Feb 20)
Previous Next
