FOX-1CLIFF/AO-95 RECEIVER SUFFERS APPARENT FAILURE - The receiver on the newly launched Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 CubeSat seems to have suffered a receiver failure that could render the satellite unusable, AMSAT said over the weekend. Efforts continue by AMSAT Engineering to establish the cause of the problem and determine if a fix is possible. AMSAT Vice President-Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, reported over the weekend that the issue cropped up during efforts to commission Fox-1Cliff/AO-95. “After a few days of tests, analysis, and discussion, it appears that Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 Amateur Radio satellite,” Buxton said. Commissioning began on December 4, right after the CubeSat’s successful launch a day earlier.   More
(Source: ARRL - Dec 12)

JORDAN’S FIRST CUBESAT, JY1SAT, IS DESIGNATED AS JO-97 - JY1Sat, launched on December 3 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the SpaceX SSO-A: SmallSat Express launch, has been designated as Jordan OSCAR 97 (JO-97). The 1U CubeSat is a project of the Crown Prince Foundation of Jordan. Telemetry has been received and decoded around the world since the launch.   More
(Source: ARRL - Dec 12)

THIS IMAGE OF SPAIN IS THE FIRST FROM AN ALL-SEEING SATELLITE CONSTELLATION BY STARTUP ICEYE - Satellite startup ICEYE is riding a wave of success this year. Just days after its launch, the company got back its first image from ICEYE-X2, its second satellite. The company gave CNBC an exclusive look at the image on Monday. The first ICEYE-X2 image shows the mountainous areas of Spain's Basque Country at night. Forest, roads and agriculture are visible in the image, which contains over 500 square kilometers, captured at a resolution of 3 by 3 meters. That's the expected, medium resolution for a high-powered satellite, but ICEYE packed that power into a suitcase-sized satellite. The X2 satellite was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last week on the record-breaking "SmallSat Express" mission for Spaceflight Industries.   More
(Source: CNBC - Dec 11)

SPACEX MAKES ANOTHER SPACE STATION CARGO DELIVERY - A commercial supply ship owned and operated by SpaceX arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, delivering a pair of NASA experiments to demonstrate satellite refueling techniques and monitor changes in Earth’s forests, along with a special holiday menu of turkey, candied yams, cranberry sauce and shortbread cookies. The arrival of the Dragon cargo capsule Saturday marked another event in a busy schedule for the space station’s six-person crew, following the docking of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three fresh residents Dec. 3, and ahead of a spacewalk Tuesday to inspect the exterior of a different Soyuz capsule that developed a pressure leak in August.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 11)

RUSSIANS PREPARE FOR SPACEWALK, AIMING TO SOLVE A SPACE STATION MYSTERY - The two men will spend six hours examining and repairing a tiny hole that roiled space relations between the United States and Russia. On Tuesday, Russian astronauts hope to gather clues in a whodunit at the International Space Station. The astronauts, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev, are to conduct a spacewalk to examine the outside of a Soyuz capsule currently docked at the space station and used for transporting astronauts. They, as well as officials at NASA and the Russian space agency, want to know why there is a hole in the Soyuz. That small cavity roiled space relations between the United States and Russia this summer, leading to speculation in Russian media about an act of sabotage aboard the station.   More
(Source: New York Times - Dec 11)

RAAF FUNDS SATELLITE MISSIONS WITH SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN MIND - If all goes to plan, Mission 1 (M1), the first of two Royal Australian Air Force-funded small satellite efforts, will soon be placed into space by a US launch vehicle. The M1 and later M2 missions are being funded by the air force and conducted in partnership with the University of NSW Canberra, with the aims of developing a cadre of expertise in satellite capabilities and demonstrating innovative space technologies and rapid small-satellite development.   More
(Source: The Australian - Dec 10)

ISRO TO LAUNCH DEDICATED SATELLITE FOR IAF IN 3RD WEEK OF DECEMBER - After the heaviest satellite Gsat-11 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up to launch a dedicated communication satellite for the Indian Air Force. Talking to TOI, Isro chairman K Sivan said, “Isro will launch a communication satellite Gsat-7A dedicated for the IAF in the third week of this month. In January, there will be a PSLV launch and then communication satellite Gsat-31 will be launched from French Guiana that will replace INSAT 4CR, whose end of life is expected soon. And then we have the Chandrayaan-2 mission in January, whose launch window is from January 3 to February 13.”   More
(Source: Times of India - Dec 10)

RUSSIA'S CRUMBLING BAIKONUR SPACEPORT IS EARTH'S ONLY LAUNCH PAD FOR MANNED FLIGHTS - The landscape approaching Russia’s spaceport in Baikonur is otherworldly. The yellow steppe of southern Kazakhstan where it is located is effectively desert, unbroken flatlands for hundreds of miles covered by a layer of scrub. In December, the freezing winds that blow across it encase the scrub plants in ice, making them look like silver coral sprouting out of the sand. Established at the dawn of the Cold War space race in the 1950s, Baikonur is Russia’s chief spaceport and, for now, the only launchpad in the world sending manned flights into space. Since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, Russia’s Soyuz rockets -- launched from Baikonur -- are the only option for astronauts headed to the International Space Station.    More
(Source: ABC News - Dec 10)

DELTA 4-HEAVY COUNTDOWN ABORTED MOMENTS BEFORE LAUNCH - A dramatic automatic abort 7.5 seconds before the planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket Saturday night kept the towering launcher on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with a top secret spy payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The 233-foot-tall (71-meter) rocket was counting down to launch at 8:15 p.m. PST Saturday (11:15 p.m. PST; 0415 GMT Sunday), but an automated sequencer detected a technical issue and triggered an abort.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 9)

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