CHINA'S TIANGONG-1 SATELLITE ISN'T THE ONLY SPACE JUNK ABOVE US - It's not just China's Tiangong-1 space station that poses a potential threat. An informal census of debris in orbit finds lots of explosive potential floating around up there. Out-of-control Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is set to fall to Earth in the next few weeks, but it's unlikely to cause much damage should it make it all the way to the surface of the planet. There are, however, a number of disturbing hazards among the thousands of pieces of space junk orbiting high over our heads that we wouldn't want falling in our direction anytime soon.   More
(Source: CNET - Mar 23)

ROCKET LAB’S DISCO BALL SATELLITE HAS PLUNGED BACK TO EARTH — AND SOME AREN’T SAD TO SEE IT GO - In January, US spaceflight startup Rocket Lab stealthily launched a small “disco ball” satellite into orbit as part of a cosmic art project aimed at inspiring people to come together and look up at the sky. But after just two months in space, the satellite — called the Humanity Star — has fallen back to Earth and burned up in the planet’s atmosphere. It brings a premature end to the probe’s life, which turned out to be more controversial than the company had hoped. No satellite in lower Earth orbit lasts forever.   More
(Source: The Verge - Mar 23)

SOYUZ TAKES OFF WITH THREE BOUND FOR SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off and shot into orbit Wednesday, carrying a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts, all veteran space fliers, on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. With Soyuz MS-08/54S commander Oleg Artemyev at the controls in the spacecraft’s center seat, flanked on the left by flight engineer Drew Feustel and on the right by Ricky Arnold, the workhorse booster’s main engines ignited with a crackling roar at 1:44 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 11:44 p.m. local time) and quickly throttled up to full thrust.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 22)

60 YEARS IN ORBIT FOR ‘GRAPEFRUIT SATELLITE’ – THE OLDEST HUMAN OBJECT IN SPACE - Sixty years ago, a grapefruit-sized aluminium sphere with six antennas and some tiny solar cells was launched into Earth orbit. The Vanguard 1 satellite is still up there and is the oldest human-made object in space. It’s our first piece of space archaeology. Other early satellites – such as Sputnik 1, the first satellite to leave Earth in 1957, and Explorer 1, the first US satellite – have long since re-entered the atmosphere and burnt up.   More
(Source: The Conversation AU - Mar 22)

ESA TO INVESTIGATE LINKS BETWEEN DEBRIS REMOVAL AND SATELLITE SERVICING - The European Space Agency is no longer proceeding full speed ahead with its campaign to send a 1,600-kilogram satellite into low Earth orbit to grab its defunct Earth observing Envisat and bring it back into the atmosphere around 2023. Instead, the agency has revised its e.Deorbit program plan to study the synergies between the mission and satellite servicing vehicles. “What we are implementing at the moment is a study to find out whether we should modify the mission design to make the vehicle more flexible and able to perform a variety of servicing missions including removing objects from orbit,” said Luisa Innocenti, head of EASA’s Clean Space Office.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 22)

NASA’S ON-AGAIN, OFF-AGAIN SATELLITE - A satellite lost 13 years ago was just, briefly, found. Now a group of optimistic technicians may have a chance to bring it back into the fold. In January, amateur astronomer Scott Tilley of British Columbia sat in his home, scanning radio frequencies for the U.S. Air Force satellite lost after a January 7 SpaceX launch. Tilley indeed found a lost satellite, but not the one he intended. Using a satellite catalog, he looked up its transmitter frequency and spin rate, and realized he had to alert NASA.    More
(Source: Air & Space Magazine - Mar 22)

RUSSIAN SOYUZ SET TO CARRY CREW TO SPACE STATION - Engineers readied a Russian Soyuz rocket for launch Wednesday to ferry a veteran cosmonaut and two NASA shuttle fliers to the International Space Station for a five-month stay. Soyuz commander Oleg Artemyev, flight engineer Andrew "Drew" Feustel and Richard "Ricky" Arnold are scheduled for launch aboard the Soyuz MS-08/54S spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 11:44 p.m. local time).   More
(Source: CBS News - Mar 21)

THE CONTROVERSIAL ‘HUMANITY STAR’ IS COMING BACK TO EARTH EARLY - Humanity will come crashing down earlier than expected. The Humanity Star, a satellite launched into space in January, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate sometime this week, according to websites that track the movement of objects in orbit around the planet. The satellite was always going to come back down. But it was supposed to remain in orbit for nine months, according to Rocket Lab, the U.S. spaceflight company, based in New Zealand, that built the satellite.   More
(Source: The Atlantic - Mar 21)

VERNAL EQUINOX 2018: SATELLITE SEES FIRST DAY OF SPRING - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) celebrated a crisp start to spring today (March 20) in the Northern Hemisphere with a stunning view of Earth from sunset to sunrise. NOAA officials tweeted the view of sunset on March 19 through sunrise March 20, taken with the agency's GOES-East weather satellite. "Happy Spring #Equinox and happy #firstdayofspring!" NOAA officials wrote. "Today the length of night and day are nearly equal. The days will now become longer at the higher latitudes because it takes the sun longer to rise and set."   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 21)

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