ELON MUSK'S SPACEX HAS LANDED A $96.5 MILLION CONTRACT TO LAUNCH A MILITARY SATELLITE - Elon Musk's SpaceX has a new mission: Launch a military satellite into orbit. The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that it had awarded the company — a relative newcomer to military space launches — a $96.5 million dollar contract to support the launch of a next generation global positioning system satellite called GPS III. SpaceX beat out another contractor for the work, according to a Department of Defense press release, and will provide "launch vehicle production, mission integration, launch operations, spaceflight worthiness and mission unique activities for a GPS III mission."   More
(Source: CNBC - Mar 15)

HIGH WINDS SCRUB SPACEX LAUNCH FROM FLORIDA; NEXT WINDOW SET FOR THURSDAY - High winds forced SpaceX to cancel this morning’s Falcon 9 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center. “Standing down due to high winds; working toward next available launch opportunity,” the company posted on Twitter. The launch window was scheduled to open at 1:34 a.m., but on Monday the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which is based on the coast, said there was only a 40 percent chance of lift off. A backup window opens at 1:35 a.m. on Thursday.   More
(Source: Orlando Sentinel - Mar 15)

A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE! ASTRONAUT REUNITED WITH SAXOPHONE IN SPACE - Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a flight engineer on the International Space Station, and a music aficionado, received a surprise birthday gift from his crewmates last month — his beloved old saxophone. Pesquet hoped to bring it along when he launched to the space station on Nov. 17, but to his dismay, the instrument did not make it onto the flight. NASA decided to surprise him by sending it up with a cargo flight. The saxophone arrived on SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft on Feb. 23, and Pesquet's crewmembers hid it until his 39th birthday on Feb. 27.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 15)

ARISS MOVES CLOSER TO LAUNCHING NEW RADIO SYSTEM TO SPACE STATION - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) reports it has met a major milestone and now is “one giant step” closer to flying its new interoperable radio system to the International Space Station. Eventual plans call for installing a new JVC Kenwood TM-D710GA-based radio system on the station as part of an overall approach that will allow greater interoperability between the Columbus module and the Russian Service Module. Lou McFadin, W5DID, and Kerry Banke, N6IZW, travelled to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in mid-February for preliminary testing of Banke’s “breadboard” version of the ARISS multi-voltage power supply that’s essential to the upgrade.    More
(Source: ARRL - Mar 15)

CAS-4A AND CAS-4B LAUNCH EXPECTED – FREQUENCIES COORDINATED - CAMSAT has worked closely with a Beijing Government aerospace contractor to build two satellites with amateur radio linear transponder payloads. IARU record a launch had been planned for March 31, 2017 from Taiyuan into a 524 km orbit with an inclination of 42 degrees. Both will carry a 435/145 (U/V) 20 dBm (100 milliwatt) SSB/CW linear transponder, a 2m CW 17 dBm (50 mW) telemetry beacon and an AX.25 4.8 kbps GMSK 20 dBm (100 mW) telemetry downlink.   More
(Source: AMSAT-UK - Mar 14)

SPACEX TO LAUNCH ECHOSTAR 23 SATELLITE EARLY TUESDAY: WATCH IT LIVE - SpaceX plans to launch a commercial communications satellite in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (March 14), and you can watch the liftoff live. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the EchoStar 23 satellite is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida Tuesday during a 2.5-hour window that opens at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT). You can watch the spaceflight action live at http://www.spacex.com/webcast. You can also view the launch here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX. Unlike most of SpaceX's recent launches, Tuesday's liftoff will not feature a landing attempt by the Falcon 9's first stage.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 14)

THE MOST STUNNING SHOTS OF NEW ZEALAND FROM SPACE - Nasa's footage of New Zealand from space is a beautiful thing. Here we recall the best shots of the country from astronauts, satellites and the International Space Station, proving NZ is not only a beautiful country on the ground but it also looks incredible from the sky.   More
(Source: New Zealand Herald - Mar 14)

CHINA GEARING UP FOR LAUNCH OF FIRST CARGO SPACECRAFT TO SUPPORT FUTURE SPACE STATION - The Long March 7 rocket that will launch the Tianzhou-1 spacecraft arrived last week at the Wenchang launch site for a launch planned for the latter half of April. Tianzhou-1 will dock with the uncrewed Tiangong-2 module currently in orbit and test the ability to transfer propellant between the spacecraft and the module. The launch will be the first for the Long March 7 since its inaugural flight last June carrying a set of experimental payloads.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Mar 14)

NASA TESTS SPACEX CREW DRAGON CAPSULE'S LIFE-SUPPORT SYSTEMS - NASA engineers are evaluating the life-support system planned for SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule to make sure it will keep astronauts safe while they're traveling to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX built the ECLSS (pronounced EE'-cliss, and short for "environmental control and life support system") Module to test the essential life-support systems for the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which could fly crewed missions to the orbiting lab as soon as 2018. The module is a prototype spacecraft designed "as close to the specifications of operational spacecraft as possible," allowing engineers to work out all the kinks before flight versions of the Crew Dragon are manufactured, NASA officials said in a statement.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 13)

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