ORBITAL ATK BUYS SECOND ATLAS ROCKET LAUNCH FOR SPACE STATION RUN - Orbital ATK Inc is buying a second Atlas rocket launch to fly supplies to the International Space Station for NASA while it redesigns its Antares booster following a launch accident last year, the aerospace company said on Wednesday. The Oct. 28 accident, which occurred seconds after launch from Virginia’s Wallops Island, destroyed a Cygnus capsule filled with cargo bound for the space station. A final report on the accident is pending. In December, Orbital said it had bought an Atlas rocket launch from United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, to help fulfill its $1.9 billion cargo delivery contract with NASA while it recovers from the accident. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. The launch is targeted for early December from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to the space station, a permanently staffed, $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. More (Source: Reuters - Aug 13)
CYGNUS SEGMENT ARRIVES TO BEGIN PROCESSING FOR ISS RESUPPLY MISSION - A pressurized cargo module that soon will take four tons of materials and supplies to the International Space Station began the intensive processing for launch when it arrived Monday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Cygnus spacecraft - developed and produced by Orbital ATK - will be assembled at Kennedy and launched for the first time in December on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The unpiloted spacecraft will be the fourth operational mission for the Cygnus line of resupply spacecraft for the orbiting laboratory. This model, the Enhanced Cygnus, will be the largest ever flown and will carry some 3,000 pounds more to the station than the previous versions, enabling a delivery to the station of about 8,000 pounds of important research and supplies. More (Source: NASA - Aug 13)
ASTRONAUTS MUNCH ON SPACE-GROWN LETTUCE - Amid a Russian spacewalk to carry out routine maintenance and inspections outside the International Space Station, two NASA astronauts and a Japanese crewmate staged a culinary first in orbit — harvesting and eating a few leaves of leafy, space-grown red romaine lettuce. Astronaut Scott Kelly later tweeted the snack represented “one small bite for man, one giant leap” for future flights to Mars. Floating in the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory module, Expedition 44 flight engineer Kjell Lindgren harvested the lettuce from its experiment enclosure, cleaned the leaves with a citric acid-based sanitizing solution and passed out samples to Kelly and Kimiya Yui. “Bon a petit,” Kelly quipped before taking a bite. A moment later, he reported “tastes good. Kind of like arugula.” More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 12)
RESERVE A LAUNCH FOR YOUR SATELLITE ONLINE? ROCKET LAB CAN MAKE IT SO - The CubeSat revolution has come to this: Now you can make an online reservation for a nanosatellite launch almost as easily as booking a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. L.A.-based Rocket Lab unveiled its launch booking system today at the annual SmallSat conference in Logan, Utah. “It’s really about trying to break down the barriers and make space more accessible,” Peter Beck, the company’s CEO, explained during a GeekWire interview. It’s one more small step toward turning the satellite business into a turnkey operation for researchers, entrepreneurs, students and Kickstarter-savvy enthusiasts. More (Source: GeekWire - Aug 11)
PERSEID METEOR SHOWER: MOON AND ISS LINE UP TO MAKE YEARLY SHOW EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL - The moon and the International Space Station are lining up to make this year’s Perseids meteor shower even more stunning than usual. The moon is planning to get out of the way, since it will be in its new phase and at its darkest. That will let people see yet more of the lights as they rain across the sky. The moon and the International Space Station are lining up to make this year’s Perseids meteor shower even more stunning than usual. The moon is planning to get out of the way, since it will be in its new phase and at its darkest. That will let people see yet more of the lights as they rain across the sky. More (Source: The Independent - Aug 11)
ATLAS 5 ROCKET AWARDED COMMERCIAL LAUNCH FOR ECHOSTAR - A powerhouse Internet-from-space communications satellite will be launched from the Cape next year atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, officials announced Wednesday. The commercial EchoStar 19 spacecraft is targeting a late 2016 launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket flying in its 431 configuration with a 14-foot-diameter nose cone and three strap-on solid-fuel boosters. The deal was made with Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, which markets the Atlas 5 rocket. ULA will build the vehicle and perform the mission. “The Atlas program brings unmatched performance, reliability and schedule assurance for EchoStar and Hughes,” said Steve Skladanek, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 10)
INMARSAT RESCHEDULES GLOBAL XPRESS SATELLITE LAUNCH FOR END-AUGUST - Britain's Inmarsat plc said on Thursday the satellite needed to complete its new Global Xpress network would launch at the end of this month after its rocket partner quickly recovered from a failure in May which upset schedules. The provider of communications for shipping and aircraft had to delay the start of the service, which its says will deliver $500 million in annual revenue within five years, when a rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned and burnt up over Siberia minutes after launch in May. Inmarsat's third Global Xpress satellite was already at the Proton launch site in Kazakhstan when the failure occurred. More (Source: Economic Times - Aug 9)
PENTAGON GIVES BOEING $6.6M TO BUILD SATELLITE-LAUNCHING SPACE DRONE - The Pentagon has awarded a $6.6 million contract to Boeing to design a mini space shuttle that can launch military satellites and space weapons. The craft, called the XS-1 program (eXperimental Spaceplane 1) is meant to defend against the growing threat of Russian and Chinese space weapons and could launch as early as 2019 for its first test mission, Defense Systems reported. The Pentagon has been looking to reduce the cost of satellite launches for some time and hopes the new shuttle-like, reusable unmanned vehicle will achieve that goal. More (Source: Washington Times - Aug 9)
NASA TO KEEP PAYING RUSSIA TO SEND ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION - “Congress, while incrementally increasing annual funding, has not adequately funded the Commercial Crew Program to return human spaceflight launches to American soil this year, as planned,” Bolden wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “This has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and international partner crews to the ISS.” Now, Bolden said 2017 appears to be at best a long shot given that lawmakers are expected to provide no more than $1 billion for the program in the 2016 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 — about $250 million less than Obama is seeking. The Commercial Crew program is funding ventures by two private companies — Boeing and SpaceX — to develop a fleet of domestic rockets to resume ferrying astronauts to the space station. The last space shuttle flight to the orbiting lab was in July 2011. More (Source: USA Today - Aug 7)
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