A NASA SATELLITE ENDS THE SILENT TREATMENT - NASA has re-established contact with an errant spacecraft. In October 2006, the space agency sent twin satellites into orbit to study the Sun. The satellites follow Earth’s orbit around the sun, one ahead of us and one behind: STEREO-A and STEREO-B. The devices were expected to last two years, but they lasted longer. Scientists realized there would come a time when they would each be in a position where the sun would interfere with their transmissions for almost four months. During this time, the spacecraft would reset every 72 hours — a hard-wired function that could not be changed.   More
(Source: New York Times - Aug 30)

WHO WILL BUY THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION? - As early as 2023, and by 2024 at the latest, Russia intends to abandon the International Space Station. And not only that, they're taking their half of the station when they go. That leaves America and its astronauts in somewhat of a bind because, as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin recently pointed out, "the Russian segment [of the ISS] can exist independently from the American one, but the American segment cannot exist without the Russian." So, what will America do when its most important roommate moves out of the space apartment next decade?   More
(Source: Motley Fool - Aug 29)

DRAGON SPACECRAFT SPLASHES DOWN WITH STATION RESEARCH SPECIMENS - A SpaceX-owned Dragon cargo craft left the International Space Station on Friday and flew back to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with a dozen mice and more than 3,000 pounds of experiment specimens and space hardware. The homecoming concluded a 37-day stay by the Dragon spacecraft at the orbiting research lab. The unpiloted supply ship launched from Cape Canaveral on July 18 and arrived at the station two days later. Astronauts Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi took control of the space station’s robotic arm to release the Dragon cargo capsule at 6:11 a.m. EDT (1011 GMT) as the complex sailed 251 miles over the Timor Sea north of Australia.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 26)

CIA WANTS TO TRAIN A.I. TO UNDERSTAND SATELLITE PHOTOS - On a clear day, the sky hides nothing from space. For more than half a century, spy satellites have circled the globe, taking pictures of the world below. First launched by the United States and the Soviet Union as ways to keep tabs on each other, satellite photography progressed from a state secret to a common mapping tool, with public photos taken from space available to anyone with an internet connection. But what if satellites did more? What if, instead of just showing us what the world looks like from above, they interpreted those images to identify buildings and other objects?   More
(Source: Popular Science - Aug 26)

SPACEX DRAGON SPACECRAFT LEAVING SPACE STATION FRIDAY: WATCH IT LIVE - Early Friday morning (Aug. 26), SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo spaceship will separate from the International Space Station, ferrying essential science specimens on a nearly 6-hour journey back to Earth. You can watch the spacecraft leave the station live online on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. NASA's coverage begins at 5:45 a.m. EDT (0945 GMT), and astronauts are scheduled to release the spacecraft from the station's robotic arm at 6:10 a.m. EDT (1010 GMT). Afterward, in a deorbit burn and landing process that will not be aired on NASA TV, the uncrewed Dragon will move a safe distance away from the station...   More
(Source: Space.com - Aug 26)

INTELSAT CELEBRATES DOUBLE SUCCESS WITH ARIANE 5 LAUNCH - Two U.S.-built Intelsat communications satellites destined for different missions fired into space from French Guiana just after sunset Wednesday, vaulting due east over the Atlantic Ocean before separating from their Ariane 5 launcher right on target in geostationary transfer orbit. Running 21 minutes late after a boat ventured into restricted waters in the Atlantic Ocean, the dual-payload mission took off at 2216:08 GMT (6:16 p.m. EDT; 7:16 p.m. French Guiana time) from the ELA-3 launch pad at the French-run Guiana Space Center quickly climbed into the sky atop 2.9 million pounds of thrust, then steered eastward and picked up speed.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 25)

ESA’S PROBA-3 SATELLITE TO CREATE ITS OWN SOLAR ECLIPSE - A new satellite will launch to form a solar eclipse on its own. The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced its plan to launch the Proba-3, a double satellite that would allow them to induce solar eclipses. The satellite will be launched in 2019 with the goal of studying the Sun's corona. According to ESA officials, the Proba-3 will be composed of an "occulter" satellite will fly 150 m ahead of a second" coronagraph satellite, which will cast a precise shadow to reveal the "ghostly tendrils" of the corona - the sun's outer atmosphere - down to a measurement of 1.2 solar radii.   More
(Source: Nature World News - Aug 25)

TINY STELLENBOSCH SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH FROM ISS - Cape Town - It is ready, set, go for a nanosatellite developed in Stellenbosch that will be launched along with 49 others from the International Space Station (ISS) early in 2017. Weighing just 2kg, the ZA-Aerosat was developed by at Stellenbosch University's electronic systems laboratory by the university's engineers and incubation company CubeSpace. It was the only satellite to form part of the international QB50 project. The project involves launching 50 satellites, each smaller than a shoebox, from the space station to gather research on the largely unexplored lower thermosphere, between 200km and 400km above Earth.   More
(Source: News 24 - Aug 25)

FACEBOOK’S INTERNET SATELLITE SET TO BLAST INTO ORBIT SEPT. 3 - Facebook’s first satellite, which would beam Internet service from space to unconnected residents of Africa, is scheduled to blast off Sept. 3 aboard a rocket launched by SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial space company. French satellite operator Eutelsat confirmed the launch date Wednesday, tweeting that the satellite would deliver a “powerful new broadband platform for Eutelsat and #Facebook in Africa.” Facebook representatives declined to comment, instead citing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s October post announcing the Menlo Park company’s deal with Eutelsat and its plans to beam Internet access from space to “large parts of West, East and Southern Africa.”   More
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle - Aug 25)

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