HURRICANE IRMA CAUSES KENNEDY SPACE CENTER TO CLOSE - NASA has closed Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, FL. as the state braces for the impact of Hurricane Irma. Arguably NASA's most important launch site, Kennedy will be closed from Sept. 8 to at least Sept. 11, because of the approaching storm. "The storm currently is expected to make its closest approach to the Kennedy/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station area during the weekend," NASA said in a blog post. "Currently a Category 5 hurricane, Irma could potentially bring heavy rain and strong winds to the spaceport."   More
(Source: Fox News - Sep 11)

ASTRONAUT TWEETS SOBERING PHOTO OF HURRICANE IRMA FROM SPACE - "Too many people in Irma's path," says ISS commander Randy Bresnik as he shares a view of the storm few of us would ever have the chance to see. Viewing Hurricane Irma's immense size on your nightly news weather report is one thing. Seeing it from space, as an enormous white swirl dominating a portion of our fragile planet, is quite another.   More
(Source: CNET - Sep 10)

HURRICANE WATCH: HOW SATELLITES TRACK HUGE STORMS FROM SPACE - Sophisticated satellites are helping scientists monitor the volatility of Hurricanes Irma, Katia and Jose in the Atlantic basin. As the spacecraft capture data on the massive storms, weather agencies can merge the different observations to create accurate forecasts about where the hurricanes are traveling, the strength of their winds and which communities should start emergency preparations. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed satellites through NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) to carry instruments into low-Earth orbit that can make nuanced detections of rainfall, cloud formations and the microphysics of these hurricanes.   More
(Source: Space.com - Sep 9)

ERRANT ECHOSTAR-3 SATELLITE RETIRED INTO GRAVEYARD ORBIT - An EchoStar satellite that stopped obeying commands this summer has since been boosted into a graveyard orbit 350 kilometers above the geostationary belt, EchoStar said Sept. 6. EchoStar-3, a 20-year-old television broadcast satellite from Lockheed Martin, stopped responding to commands in late July during a relocation maneuver and began drifting around the geostationary arc, triggering warnings to satellite operators with nearby spacecraft.   More
(Source: SpaceNews.com - Sep 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES U.S. MILITARY SPACE PLANE ON SECRET MISSION - SpaceX successfully launched the U.S. Air Force's reusable robotic space plane on its latest secret mission today. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), built by Boeing, is an unmanned spacecraft that has spent up to 700 days orbiting the Earth on previous missions. This is its fifth mission, but the first aboard a SpaceX rocket. The space plane was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center at 10 a.m. ET.   More
(Source: CBC News - Sep 7)

NEW VIDEO SHOWS HURRICANE IRMA FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A monster storm brewing in the Atlantic Ocean looks even more fearsome from space. Cameras on the International Space Station caught sight of Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 beast of a storm, from about 240 miles up on Tuesday. A new video shows the storm swirling beneath the station from a few different angles during one of the space laboratory's recent orbits.    More
(Source: Mashable - Sep 7)

GLORY SATELLITE FAILS TO MAKE ORBIT - A rocket carrying the Glory Earth-observing satellite launched on Friday but failed to place the satellite into orbit, sending both plummeting into the Pacific, Nasa said on Friday. The space agency said a protective covering on the Taurus XL rocket did not separate as planned three minutes after launch at 5:09am EST/1009 GMT. With the covering intact, the rocket was too heavy to get the satellite into orbit. “We failed to make orbit and all indications are that the satellite and rocket are in the South Pacific Ocean somewhere,” Nasa launch director Omar Baez said at a news conference.    More
(Source: Independent Online - Sep 7)

NEXT-GENERATION WEATHER SATELLITE SHIPPED TO LAUNCH BASE IN CALIFORNIA - A new weather observatory that will track storms across the globe as it orbits from pole to pole has been trucked to its launch site in California for a long-awaited ascent into space this November. The first spacecraft in the Joint Polar Satellite System, JPSS No. 1, is targeting a liftoff Nov. 10 at 1:47:03 a.m. local time (4:47:03 a.m. EST; 0947:03 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. JPSS is the next American polar-orbiting weather satellite series that will collect data needed for long-range forecasts and track environmental trends. It is is a collaboration between NOAA for operational weather needs and NASA for climate research.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 7)

STUDENTS FROM INDIA AND RUSSIA BUILD SSTV CUBESAT - The Times of India reports students from Russia and India are building an amateur radio satellite that will transmit SSTV images from space. The 1U CubeSat Iskra-5 is being built by 20 students from Moscow Aviation Institute and 9 from Indian cities like Chennai and Bangalore through Space Kidz India to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between the two countries.   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Sep 6)

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