RUSSIAN SOYUZ SPACECRAFT DOCKS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew docked successfully at the International Space Station on Thursday following a flawless launch. The Soyuz craft, carrying NASA's Reid Wiseman, Russian cosmonaut Max Surayev and German Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency arrived at the station at 5:44 a.m. (9:44 p.m. EDT). They had lifted off less than six hours earlier from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Mission Control in Moscow congratulated the trio on a successful docking. They are joining two Russians and an American who have been at the station since March.   More
(Source: Fox News - May 30)

RUSSIAN SOYUZ LAUNCHES CREW OF THREE TO SPACE STATION - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday and climbed into space for a four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station, carrying a veteran Russian cosmonaut, a U.S. test pilot-astronaut and a German volcanologist to boost the lab's crew back to six. With family members and dignitaries looking on at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Soyuz rocket roared to life with a rush of fiery exhaust at 3:57:40 p.m. EDT (GMT-4, 1:57 a.m. Thursday local time) and quickly vaulted away from the launch pad, the same firing stand used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age.   More
(Source: CBS News - May 29)

OBSERVING ALERT – SPACE STATION "MARATHON" STARTS THIS WEEK - What’s your favorite satellite? For me it’s the space station. Not only is it the brightest spacecraft in the sky, but it’s regularly visible from so many places. It’s also unique. Most satellites are either spent rocket stages or unmanned science and surveillance probes. The ISS is inhabited by a crew of astronauts. Real people. Every time I see that bright, moving light I think of the crew floating about the cabin with their microgravity hair, performing experiments and pondering the meaning of it all while gazing out the cupola windows at the rolling blue Earth below. Starting Friday, the station will make up to 5 flybys a night from dusk till dawn. Marathon anyone?    More
(Source: Universe Today - May 28)

SEA LAUNCH RETURNS TO FLIGHT WITH EUTELSAT SATELLITE - Sea Launch delivered a 6.6-ton European telecommunications satellite to orbit Monday after a dazzling liftoff of a Ukrainian-built Zenit 3SL rocket, marking the commercial launch company's first mission since February 2013. The 200-foot-tall launcher soared into blue skies over the equatorial Pacific Ocean after igniting its RD-171M main engine at 2110 GMT (5:10 p.m. EDT) and ascending from the Odyssey launch platform, a converted North Sea drilling rig acquired by Sea Launch in the 1990s.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 27)

RUSSIA DEVELOPS MANNED SPACE PROGRAM TO REPLACE ISS - Russia is developing a national program of manned space explorations which will replace the International Space Station (ISS) program after 2020, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, said Thursday. "The development of the national strategy of manned spaceflight is underway now. Along with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the industrial sector we are preparing a certain concept beyond the ISS," Roscosmos Deputy Chief Sergei Savelyev told reporters at the 18th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.   More
(Source: GlobalPost - May 26)

ANTARES ROCKET ENGINE DAMAGED IN TEST MISHAP - A Russian-built rocket engine assigned to launch an Orbital Sciences Corp. commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station in early 2015 was damaged Thursday during a test mishap at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. "A test anomaly occurred earlier today at Stennis during an acceptance test of an AJ26 engine slated to fly in 2015," said Orbital Sciences spokesperson Barry Beneski. "The cause of the failure is unknown at this time."    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 26)

JAPAN LAUNCHES NEW MAPPING SATELLITE TO SURVEY DAMAGE FROM NATURAL DISASTERS - Japan successfully launched a new mapping satellite on Saturday that will be used to survey damage from natural disasters and changes affecting rainforests. The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) will be able to see scars left by catastrophes such as Japan's 2011 tsunami as well as monitor progress made in reconstruction, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. "The satellite was successfully put in orbit," said an official from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, whose H-IIA rocket was used in the launch from a space centre on the southern island of Tanegashima.    More
(Source: Economic Times - May 26)

ORION BEGINS FINAL ASSEMBLY FOR TEST FLIGHT - At Kennedy Space Center, Lockheed Martin personnel have begun attaching a test version of NASA's Orion exploration capsule to the largest spacecraft heat shield ever built. The step marks the start of Orion's final assembly for its first test flight into orbit, planned in December from Cape Canaveral on a Delta IV Heavy rocket. "This team has done a great job keeping us on track for Orion's first test flight," said Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin vice president and Orion program manager.   More
(Source: Florida Today - May 26)

IRAN TO LAUNCH THREE SATELLITES THIS YEAR - The Head of Iran Space Agency (ISA) announced on Saturday that the country is ready to launch three domestically-built satellites this year, IRNA reported. Hamid Fazeli cited the names of the satellites as "Tadbir" (Prudence) and "Sharif Sat" and "Fajr". Replying to questions posed by IRNA reporters, Fazeli said that the "SharifSat", which is capable of capturing high-resolution color images, was to be sent into orbit two years ago, but the launch was delayed to further modernize, optimize and add more functions to the system.    More
(Source: Trend.az - May 19)

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