REUSED DRAGON CARGO CAPSULE LAUNCHED ON JOURNEY TO SPACE STATION - A refurbished robotic Dragon spaceship rocketed into orbit from Florida on Saturday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher, hauling nearly 6,000 pounds of crew provisions and biological, astrophysics and space technology experiments on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The unpiloted capsule soared into a late afternoon sky from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:07:38 p.m. EDT (2107:38 GMT) Saturday, two days later than planned after a thunderstorm prevented liftoff Thursday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 4)

EAST COASTERS -- WAKE UP EARLY FOR A LIGHT SHOW IN THE SKY, THANKS TO NASA - If you live along the Eastern Seaboard and wake up early Saturday you could be treated to a colorful sky hours before sunrise lights up the horizon. Blue-green and red clouds might be visible in the predawn sky from New York to North Carolina, thanks to a NASA rocket that will be launched from Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia. The Terrier-Improved Malumute sounding rocket is scheduled for launch between 4:26 a.m. and 4:41 a.m. ET. Sounding rockets, by the way, have been used for over 40 years to carry science payloads on brief, 5-20 minute missions to space.   More
(Source: CNN - Jun 3)

SOYUZ WITH TWO-MAN CREW LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN - Leaving crewmate Peggy Whitson behind in orbit for an extended mission, a Russian cosmonaut and his French co-pilot undocked from the International Space Station early Friday and plunged back to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 196-day mission. Under a clear early evening sky, Soyuz MS-03 commander Oleg Novitskiy and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, tightly strapped into their seats in the ferry ship’s crew module, descended under a large orange and white parachute before settling to a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown 90 miles east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 10:10 a.m. EDT (8:10 p.m. local time).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)

AMATEUR RADIO BIRDS-1 CUBESAT CONSTELLATION - The BIRDS-1 constellation consists of five 1U CubeSats (BIRD-B, BIRD-J, BIRD-G, BIRD-M and BIRD-N). They are planned to launch the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-11 on June 1, 2017. The satellites are made of the exactly same design including the radio frequencies to be used and will be deployed from the ISS later in the year.   More
(Source: AMSAT UK - Jun 2)

GIANT SATELLITE-CARRYING STRATOLAUNCH AIRCRAFT UNVEILED IN CALIFORNIA - A giant aircraft capable of launching satellite-laden rockets into space has been unveiled at a hangar in the Mojave desert in California. Stratolaunch, said to be the largest airliner ever built, weighs 500,000lbs (226,796kg) and has a wingspan measuring 385ft (117 metres) - the world's biggest. Backed by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the project has been worked on for the last six years and could see its first launch demonstration as early as 2019.   More
(Source: Sky News - Jun 2)

VIASAT-2: SATELLITE GOLIATH GOES INTO ORBIT - The most powerful commercial broadband satellite ever built has just gone into orbit on an Ariane rocket. ViaSat-2, which is to be stationed above the Americas, has a total throughput capacity of about 300 gigabits per second. The spacecraft was part of a dual payload on the Ariane flight. It was joined by Eutelsat 172B, a UK/French-built platform to go over the Pacific. Both satellites will be chasing the rampant market for wi-fi on aeroplanes. Airlines are currently in a headlong rush to equip their fleets with connections that will allow passengers to use their mobile devices in mid-air.    More
(Source: BBC News - Jun 2)

STORMS DELAY LAUNCH OF "USED" SPACEX CARGO SHIP - Stormy afternoon weather and a nearby lightning strike grounded a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, forcing a two-day delay for launch of a space station-bound Dragon cargo ship loaded with 6,000 pounds of supplies and equipment. The scrub was a disappointment to researchers awaiting the Dragon's arrival at the station to kick off a wide variety of experiments, including one to study fast-spinning neutron stars, or pulsars, to find out if they can be used as ultra-precise navigation beacons for future deep space missions.   More
(Source: CNS News - Jun 2)

JAPAN LAUNCHES ROCKET WITH SATELLITE TO BUILD ITS OWN GPS - Japan is building its own GPS in hopes of reducing location errors for drivers, drone operators and other users. A rocket launched Thursday from southern Japan is carrying a satellite that will form part of a Japanese GPS. An initial satellite was launched in 2010, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plan to launch two more satellites by next spring to complete the "Michibiki" system. Michibiki is the Japanese word for guidance.   More
(Source: ABC News - Jun 1)

SCIENTISTS MEET IN CANBERRA TO PREVENT ‘CATASTROPHIC’ SPACE JUNK COLLISION WIPING OUT VITAL SATELLIT - A potentially disastrous collision in space that could render the edge of Earth’s upper atmosphere unusable has been foreshadowed by global scientists. It’s a matter of when, not if, such a calamitous event will take place, they say. Space has become so crowded with old defunct satellites, spent rocket parts and other man made waste that a disastrous collision that damages valuable infrastructure is fast becoming inevitable.   More
(Source: NEWS.com.au - Jun 1)

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