FOUR REASONS YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO ISRO’S GSLV LAUNCH TODAY - ISRO will be launching a GSLV-MkII rocket on September 8, at 4.10 pm, from the second launchpad at its spaceport in Sriharikota. The rocket will be carrying the INSAT-3DR satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit around Earth. The mission designation is F05. The event will be the first time an indigenous cryogenic engine will be used on an operational GSLV flight – but that’s not all.   More
(Source: The Wire - Sep 8)

SPACEX EXPLOSION PROBABLY WILL DELAY TAIWANESE IMAGING SATELLITE - The first satellite developed by Taiwan’s space program probably will be delayed after an explosion last week destroyed the SpaceX rocket that was supposed to carry it into space. The island’s remote-sensing satellite may not get to enter orbit before the end of this year, H.P. Chang, director of the Formosat-5 program at Taiwan’s National Space Organization, told foreign correspondents on Tuesday. A launch originally had been set for the second quarter, Taiwan said in March. U.S. investigators are looking into why the Falcon 9 rocket, developed by billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., blew up on Sept. 1 before a scheduled test launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida.   More
(Source: Bloomberg - Sep 7)

STATION FLIERS RETURN TO EARTH WITH FLAWLESS LANDING - Less than a week after winding up a successful spacewalk, outgoing space station commander Jeff Williams, America’s most experienced astronaut, joined two Russian cosmonauts for a fiery return to Earth Tuesday, closing out a 172-day mission with an on-target landing in Kazakhstan. Descending under a billowing orange-and-white parachute, the charred Soyuz crew module completed a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown at 9:13 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 7:13 a.m. Wednesday local time). As sometimes happens, the capsule tipped over on its side after landing, but Russian recovery crews stationed nearby were on the scene in minutes to tilt the spacecraft upright and to help the station fliers, getting their first taste of gravity in five-and-a-half months, out of the cramped compartment.   More
(Source: CBS News - Sep 7)

ISRO TO LAUNCH ADVANCED WEATHER SATELLITE INSAT-3DR ON SEPTEMBER 8 - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the GSLV-F05 carrying advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR from the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 110 km from Chennai, on September 8. "GSLV-F05/INSAT 3DR mission is scheduled to be launched on September 8 at 1610 hours from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota," ISRO said on its website. The previous launch by ISRO on Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was of GSLV-D6 carrying communication satellite GSAT-6 on August 27, 2015.   More
(Source: NDTV - Sep 6)

STUNNING PHOTO SHOWS NEW YORK CITY FROM SPACE - Feast your eyes on New York City as it appears from the International Space Station, courtesy of this photo tweeted by NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Colonel Jeff Williams. It was taken several weeks ago, Williams shared. William’s Twitter feed is a popular destination for startling images of Earth’s iconic landscapes seen from a totally new vantage point. This week, he shared images of New York’s Hudson River, Ethiopia’s Ahmar Mountains, the Bahamas’ sand waves, and Iran’s Zagros Mountains.   More
(Source: CBS News - Sep 6)

SPACEX’S EXPLOSION REVERBERATES ACROSS SPACE, SATELLITE AND TELECOM INDUSTRIES - The explosion of a SpaceX rocket last Thursday will have an impact across the space industry, far beyond the losses on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. An Israeli satellite operator’s deal to sell itself to a Chinese company is imperiled. Planned launches of communications satellites that support international mobile phone service and digital television are delayed and put in doubt. NASA’s cargo deliveries to the International Space Station will probably be disrupted. All of them are customers of the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, whose rocket exploded in Florida. The private space launch company, led by the entrepreneur Elon Musk, has a generally solid safety record.   More
(Source: New York Times - Sep 6)

ISRO PLANS TO LAUNCH FIRST PRIVATELY BUILT SATELLITE BY MARCH - India’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), plans to launch a navigation satellite that it would build jointly with a private firm, by March next year, beginning a process to outsource satellite manufacturing and free its resources to focus on research and deep space missions. Isro has received over 40 responses to a tender floated to invite private firms to jointly build a satellite and eventually transfer satellite-making technology for local and global needs. The space agency plans to hand-hold vendors to jointly build, test and certify two navigation satellites that it would launch to join the fleet of seven Navic satellites already in space.   More
(Source: Business Standard - Sep 5)

RADAR BEAMS FROM S. JERSEY HELP FIND SPACE JUNK BEFORE A COLLISION - Nearly 500 miles in the sky above northern Siberia, two satellites collided with violent force Feb. 10, 2009, shattering into at least 2,000 fragments that continue to orbit Earth. And those are just the ones we know about. Scientists estimate there are hundreds of thousands of undetected objects in space resulting from collisions such as that one, and from the deterioration of old rocket boosters, dead satellites, and other stray hardware. That is the reason behind a squat, white structure that opened this year near Route 38 in Moorestown, at the South Jersey campus of Lockheed Martin Corp.   More
(Source: Philly.com - Sep 5)

CHINESE OFFICIALS SILENT AFTER LONG MARCH ROCKET FAILURE - A U.S. Air Force spokesperson said Friday that the military has not detected any objects deployed in orbit by a Chinese Long March rocket launch Wednesday, but China’s official media outlets still have not acknowledged the apparent failure. The Long March 4C rocket, standing 15 stories tall, was carrying the Gaofen 10 Earth imaging payload. The booster took off some time around 1855 GMT (2:55 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from the Taiyuan launch base in the Shanxi province of northern China.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 4)

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