ARISS SSTV COMMEMORATIVE ACTIVITY COMING SOON - In commemoration of our 20th anniversary, the ARISS team is planning to transmit a set of 12 SSTV images that capture the accomplishments of ARISS over that time. While still to be scheduled, we anticipate the SSTV operation to occur around the weekend of July 15. We are planning for at least a 2 day operation, but are working for a potential longer operation. Note that all of this tentative and may change based on crew scheduling and ISS operations.   More
(Source: AMSAT - Jun 20)

UPPER STAGE MALFUNCTION LEAVES CHINESE SATELLITE IN LOWER-THAN-PLANNED ORBIT - An upper stage malfunction has left a Chinese satellite in a lower-than-planned orbit after a launch Sunday. The Long March 3B lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 12:12 p.m. Eastern carrying the Chinasat-9A satellite. It was not until early Monday, though, that Chinese officials announced that the third stage of the rocket malfunctioned, leaving the satellite in a lower orbit than planned.    More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 20)

SES’S AMC-9 SATELLITE DRIFTING AFTER ANOMALY - SES is moving customers off a 14-year-old geostationary communications satellite that’s drifting in orbit following a “significant anomaly” discovered over the weekend. “SES has taken immediate action in contacting all customers and is working to transfer services to alternative satellite capacity in order to minimize disruption,” the company said in a June 19 statement. Most of that traffic is being switched to other SES satellites, according to SES spokesperson Markus Payer, but might involve teaming up with other satellite operators where an SES substitute won’t fit. He declined to say how much of AMC-9’s capacity was in use at the time of the anomaly.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jun 20)

LONG MARCH 3B LOFTS CHINASAT 9A – MISSION SUCCESS UNKNOWN - Three days after the successful launch of the Huiyan (HXMT) X-ray space telescope, China was back in action with the launch of a new communications satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Launch of Zhongxing-9A (also designated ChinaSat-9A) took place at 16:08 UTC using a Long March-3B/G2 (Chang Zheng-3B/G2) launch vehicle from the LC2 launch complex. However, there wasn’t any official Chinese statement of mission success raising questions on the status of the spacecraft.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 19)

NASA SCRAPS ROCKET LAUNCH ON FATHER’S DAY - The NASA Wallops Flight Facility scheduled a rocket launch Sunday night that would have been visible in the D.C. region, but it has been postponed once again. It was canceled due to high winds. The launch has been postponed eight times before this due to vessels in the impact hazard area and weather. Updates can be obtained online at NASA’s website and NASA Wallops Flight Facility’s Twitter feed.    More
(Source: WTOP - Jun 19)

HOW LONG WOULD A FIDGET SPINNER SPIN IN SPACE? - Like most parents of young children, I've been forcibly made aware of the "fidget spinner" fad. Despite FiveThirtyEight declaring them "over," my kids brought home two new ones from a birthday party on Saturday, adding to three others that we currently own, plus a couple more that were lost at school. Inevitably, bloggers have used fidget spinners as a jumping-off point to talk about science, notably Rhett Allain's two posts measuring the spin time and measuring the moment of inertia.   More
(Source: Forbes - Jun 19)

FALCON 9 LAUNCH DELAY SETS UP POTENTIAL SPACEX ‘DOUBLEHEADER’ NEXT WEEKEND - SpaceX has pushed back the liftoff of a Bulgarian television broadcast satellite on the company’s second previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket until at least Friday, giving ground crews time to replace a valve on the launcher inside a hangar at its Florida launch pad. The schedule slip sets up a potential SpaceX “doubleheader” with another Falcon 9 rocket being prepared for launch next Sunday, June 25, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 19)

EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE WORLD’S FIRST SUICIDE SATELLITE - The world’s first “suicide” satellite, whose destruction will help prevent the spread of more damaging belts of space debris, will launch later this month. The Italian company D-Orbit will launch a mission June 23 to test out a self-decommissioning satellite called D-Sat, a first for the satellite industry. After the satellite’s mission is complete, it will use a rocket system to lower itself back into Earth’s atmosphere so it can self-destruct. D-Orbit hopes that a similar system could help prevent future satellites from becoming new space debris.   More
(Source: The Daily Caller - Jun 19)

CHINA'S ROBOTIC CARGO SHIP COMPLETES 2ND AUTO-REFUELING TEST IN SPACE - China's Tiangong-2 space lab and Tianzhou-1 vehicle have completed a second refueling test, Chinese space officials said. This second robotic refueling trial wrapped up Thursday (June 15) after about two days "and cemented technical results from the first refueling," according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo spacecraft, was lofted into Earth orbit on April 20 from the Wenchang spaceport in south China’s Hainan Province.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 18)

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