NASA SATELLITE HEADS TO ORBIT -- AND YOU CAN WATCH - A strategically placed video camera aboard an upper-stage rocket motor captured NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP, spacecraft as it scooted off toward an operational orbit 425 miles above the planet. The footage, courtesy of NASA’s spaceflight services company, United Launch Alliance, provides a birds-eye view of the orbital action, backdropped against the marble blue beauty of Earth. The satellite, which is designed to map the amount of moisture in topsoil worldwide, can be seen unfolding its solar panel wings before the video feed ends.   More
(Source: Discovery News - Feb 5)

GERMANY JOINS SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS PROGRAM - Germany is to receive space situational information and services from the U.S. Air Force under an agreement signed recently with the U.S. Strategic Command. The Air Force said the deal will enable and enhance each nation's awareness within the space and increase the safety of their spaceflight operations. "Space Situational Awareness requires cooperation, and arrangements such as this allow us to partner more effectively," said STRATCOM commander U.S. Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney. "As more countries, companies and organizations field space capabilities and benefit from the use of space systems, it is in our collective interest to act responsibly, promote transparency and enhance the long-term sustainability, stability, safety and security of space."   More
(Source: Space Daily - Feb 5)

INMARSAT LAUNCHES SECOND GLOBAL XPRESS SATELLITE - The UK satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat has launched the second of its I5 series of spacecraft. The 7m-long, 6.1-tonne platform went into orbit on a Proton M rocket, despatched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The I5s - there will be four in total - make up Inmarsat's next-generation constellation called Global Xpress. And with an investment of £1bn ($1.5bn), they represent the single biggest commercial space project in Britain right now. The I5-F2 was released into its super-synchronous transfer orbit at 04:02 GMT on Monday, following a mammoth 15-and-a-half-hour journey aboard the Proton and its Breeze upper-stage. Currently, this orbit takes the satellite out to a distance of 65,000km from the Earth.   More
(Source: BBC News - Feb 3)

AMATEUR RADIO PAYLOADS SHARE RIDE INTO SPACE WITH SOIL MOISTURE MONITORING SATELLITE - Four NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA-X) CubeSats carrying Amateur Radio payloads launched successfully January 31 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The primary payload for the Delta II launcher was the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. SMAP's onboard radar will share Amateur Radio spectrum at 1.26 GHz. Amateur Radio is secondary on the 23 centimeter band, which covers 1240 to 1300 MHz. “This is a good example of a compatible sharing partner,” ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, observed. “Any interference to amateur communication in the band will be brief as the satellite passes overhead.”   More
(Source: ARRL - Feb 3)

STATE TELEVISION REPORTS IRAN LAUNCHES SATELLITE CALLED 'FAJR' INTO SPACE AMID ROCKET TESTS - State television in Iran is reporting the Islamic Republic has launched a new satellite into space, its fourth in recent years to orbit the Earth. The report Monday quoted Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan saying the satellite, designed and built in Iran, is named "Fajr," or dawn in Farsi. The report did not elaborate. The satellite's launch comes amid negotiations with world powers over Iran's contested nuclear program. International observers worry that Iran's space program could help it design rockets that could carry nuclear weapons.   More
(Source: Fox Business - Feb 2)

JAPAN LAUNCHES NEW SPY SATELLITE - Japan on Sunday successfully launched a back-up spy satellite, its aerospace agency said, after canceling an earlier lift-off due to bad weather. Tokyo put spy satellites into operation in the early 2000s after its erratic neighbor North Korea fired a mid-range ballistic missile over the Japanese mainland and into the western Pacific in 1998. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries delayed Thursday's planned launch of the H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, due to the possibility of lightning during lift-off.   More
(Source: DefenseNews.com - Feb 2)

ULA DELTA II LAUNCHES WITH SMAP - United Launch Alliance (ULA) has conducted a rare Delta II launch on Saturday morning, at 6:22 am local, following a scrub on Thursday, along with a debonding of insulation on the booster, suffered during the subsequent detanking . The venerable rocket is now en route to orbiting the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite for NASA. Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP, is a NASA mission to produce a global map of the moisture content in the Earth’s soil. During its planned three-year mission the spacecraft will take repeated measurements of the Earth’s surface as it orbits the planet, allowing scientists to study the distribution of water in soil around the world and its role in the water cycle.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jan 31)

ISS ORBIT LOWERED TO ENABLE MORE CARGO TO REACH THE SPACE STATION - The International Space Station’s orbit was lowered by 1.6 miles (2.5km) in a bid to enable spacecrafts from Earth bring more cargo to the space station. To lower the entire ISS, European Space Agency (ESA)’s spacecraft Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-5 was used. The thrusters were deboosted that resulted in ISS being spun 180 degrees and orbit being lowered slightly. “This deboost was required to set up phasing for 58 Progress (58P) 4-orbit rendezvous on February 17, 2015. The delta velocity for the burn was -0.69 m/s with a duration of 4 minutes 49 seconds”, read a press briefing from NASA.   More
(Source: Techie News - Jan 31)

SSTV TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - This weekend, Jan 31/Feb 1, the Russian ARISS team members plan to activate the amateur radio Slow Scan TV (SSTV) experiment from the International Space Station (ISS) on 145.800 MHz FM Transmissions should start around 1000 UT on Saturday and 0900 UT on Sunday ending around 2130 UT each day. It is expected that 12 different photos will be sent using the SSTV mode PD180 with 3 minute off periods between transmissions. The equipment used will be the Kenwood D710 transceiver located in the Russian Service Module.   More
(Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Jan 31)

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