ROCKET LAB COMPLETES FIT CHECK FOR NASA VCLS ELANA XIX MISSION - Early this month, Rocket Lab performed a successful fit check of the CubeSat dispensers for the NASA Venture Class Launch Service flight of the CubeSat Launch Initiative Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XIX mission. The fit check was carried out at Rocket Lab’s Huntington Beach payload integration cleanroom. Venture Class launches aim to provide dedicated launches for CubeSats that would normally fly as secondary payloads, enabling these science missions to get exactly where they need to go on orbit. More (Source: Rocket Lab - Feb 11)
ELON MUSK'S SPACEX TO LAUNCH SPAIN'S FIRST MILITARY SPY SATELLITE - Named Paz [Peace], the €160 million unit will lift off from the Vandenberg Airbase in California, United States (US) aboard one of the flamboyant billionaire's Falcon 9 rockets. Built by Airbus Defence and Space, a division of aeroplane manufacturer Airbus, the satellite is owned by Madrid firm Hisdesat, although the Ministry of Defence and a number of private individuals provided most of the funding. The Spanish Armed Forces Intelligence Center, CIFAS, will receive 30 of the 100 high-resolution images captured daily by Paz, with customers for the other 70 being sought. More (Source: Euro Weekly News - Feb 11)
SOYUZ ROCKET POSITIONED ON LAUNCH PAD FOR STATION RESUPPLY FLIGHT - A Russian Soyuz booster and an automated Progress resupply ship reached their launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, two days before firing into orbit test out a new expedited rendezvous sequence that will culminate in the Progress spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station just three-and-a-half hours after launch. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket, a modernized version of Russia’s venerable Soyuz launcher, rolled out of its assembly hangar — known by the Russian acronym MIK — at the Baikonur Cosmodrome before sunrise Friday. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 10)
SIERRA NEVADA'S MINISHUTTLE IS GO FOR SPACE STATION SUPPLY DELIVERIES IN 2020 - The International Space Station will have a new spacecraft visitor starting in 2020 now that Sierra Nevada has received NASA approval to send its Dream Chaser cargo carrier to the orbiting laboratory. The Nevada-based commercial space company said Wednesday that it has the go-ahead from NASA to finalize the spacecraft, which looks like a mini space shuttle, for cargo resupply missions beginning in late 2020. More News Headlines 'Starman' in Tesla heads toward sun SpaceX Falcon 9 booster at sea likely destroyed, sources say Small asteroid will pass very close to Earth on Friday “SNC has been successfully completing critical design milestones as approved by NASA, and having a timetable for the first launch is another important step achieved for us,” Sierra Nevada Corp. CEO Fatih Ozmen said. More (Source: WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando - Feb 10)
SPACE STATION SUPPORTERS PREPARE FOR BUDGET BATTLE - As the administration prepares to release a fiscal year 2019 budget proposal that may call for ending International Space Station operations in the mid-2020s, advocates for the station in Congress and industry are making the case for keeping the station operating well beyond that. The budget proposal, scheduled for release Feb. 12, is rumored to contain language calling for the end of NASA funding for ISS operations by 2025, based on a draft of a budget document leaked last month. Neither NASA nor the administration have confirmed those plans. More (Source: SpaceNews - Feb 10)
QTUM TO LAUNCH CUBESAT FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM - Qtum Foundation announced a collaboration with the SpaceChain Foundation to launch a standardized CubeSat, which will carry Qtum‘s blockchain software technology on a Raspberry Pi device. The electricity required for cryptocurrency mining — or tallying cryptocurrency transactions in exchange for a small fee — has increased exponentially over the years. According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin mining power consumption had increased 56.2 percent over four months to hit 47.07 TWh, costing $2.3 billion per year and consuming 0.21 percent of the world’s electricity. More (Source: Satellite Today - Feb 9)
NASA TO AIR RUSSIAN SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP LAUNCH AND DOCKING - Loaded with three tons of food, fuel and supplies, a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 3:58 a.m. EST (2:58 p.m. Baikonur time) Sunday, Feb. 11, to resupply the International Space Station. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docking to the space station will be carried live on NASA Television the agency’s website beginning at 3:30 a.m. More (Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Feb 9)
UNIQUE DANISH NANO-SATELLITE IN ORBIT AROUND THE ARCTIC - A new Danish nano-satellite has been launched into space to test its ability to monitor ships and aircraft in the Arctic. The satellite Ulloriaq (meaning “star” in Greenlandic) was launched successfully into space on February 2. Ulloriaq weighs approximately eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) and measures 300 x 200 x 100 millimeters (11.8 x 7.9 x 3.9 inches). The satellite will fly over the Arctic 16 times a day, once every hour and a half, from an orbital path approximately 540 kilometers (336 miles) above the Earth. More (Source: The Maritime Executive - Feb 8)
EUROPE’S STATION LAB IN SPACE 10 YEARS; CREW STUDIES EYES AND MUSCLES - To commemorate today’s event, ESA’s former Director of Human Spaceflight Feustel Beuchl called up to astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei today and asked about the status of Columbus operations. Scientists Lars Karlsson and Alexander Stahn inquired about a pair of ESA-sponsored experiments researching airway inflammation and circadian rhythms. Wednesday’s science onboard the station looked at how living in space affects vision and muscles. Two cosmonauts used special optical equipment to peer inside each other’s eyes this morning. More (Source: NASA - Feb 8)
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