KUAIZHOU ROCKET LIFTS OFF ON FIRST COMMERCIAL MISSION - A solid-fueled Chinese Kuaizhou launcher positioned to compete for worldwide business took off Monday on its first commercial mission with three small satellites to collect high-definition video and test communications technologies. The Kuaizhou 1A booster launched at 0411 GMT Monday (11:11 p.m. EST Sunday) from the Jiuquan space center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Developed as a low-cost, quick-response launch option, the Kuaizhou rocket flew on orbital missions two times before Monday’s launch, both times with secretive Chinese government payloads. The Kuaizhou 1A version debuted with the latest launch features upgrades to support the launch of multiple spacecraft on the same rocket, with the ability to deploy the satellites once in orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 10)

NEXT SPACEX LAUNCH SLIPPED TO AVOID STORMY WEATHER, RANGE CONFLICT - Forecasters predict a rainy, breezy week along California’s Central Coast, and the poor weather will keep SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket grounded until at least Jan. 14, officials said Sunday. Ground crews were connecting the Falcon 9 rocket with a package of 10 Iridium voice and data relay satellites Friday, aiming for a launch opportunity as soon as Monday on SpaceX’s first mission since a rocket exploded on its launch pad in Florida in September. Iridium officials early Sunday confirmed reports that the flight would be delayed to at least Jan. 14 — next Saturday — with an instantaneous launch opportunity at 9:54:34 a.m. PST (12:54:34 p.m. EST; 1754:34 GMT).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 9)

THERE’S ONE BIG PROBLEM WITH SATELLITE IMAGERY, AND A SPACE STARTUP HAS FOUND A SOLUTION FOR IT - Many space startups are vying to take the place of the world’s governments as the pre-eminent operators of imaging satellites, but this one has a unique scheme to take advantage of orbital radar. Capella Space, which will launch its first satellite this year, aims to take advantage of a gap in current commercial satellite coverage. Most imaging satellites rely on daylight and the absence of clouds for the clearest imagery. At night or when the weather isn’t cooperating, there’s not too much to see. That big image above of the Juan Fernandez islands is beautiful, but it would be difficult to count how many boats, for example, are in the vicinity.   More
(Source: Quartz - Jan 8)

SPACEWALKERS CONTINUE SPACE STATION BATTERY REFRESH WITH SUCCESSFUL EVA - Two spacewalking astronauts working outside the International Space Station Friday completed work to replace aging batteries in one of the lab’s eight main solar power circuits. A second spacewalk next week, along with additional work with the station’s robot arm, will upgrade a second power channel. Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough and flight engineer Peggy Whitson — at 56, the oldest woman to fly in space and one of NASA’s most experienced spacewalkers — began the six-hour 32-minute excursion at 7:23 a.m. EST (GMT-5), leaving the Quest airlock and making their way to the right side of the station’s main solar power truss.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight now - Jan 7)

CHINA LAUNCHES NEXT-GEN TELECOMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - The launch was carried out at 15:19 GMT on Thursday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center using the Chang Zheng 3B (CZ-3B, or Long March 3B) carrier rocket, the ministry said. The second Tongxin Jishu Shiyan (TJS) satellite will help test multi-frequency high-speed data transmission.    More
(Source: Sputnik International - Jan 6)

NOAA’S JPSS-1 SATELLITE LAUNCH DELAYED TO JULY - The flight of the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) has been postponed to a date no earlier than July 2017. According to SpaceNews, the delay was because of technical issues. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spacecraft was originally scheduled for Jan. 20, 2017, before being delayed to March 2017 back in August 2016. Now, according to NOAA’s JPSS program website, liftoff is targeted for July. The first delay was due to problems with an instrument on the spacecraft. Additionally, there were problems with the JPSS ground systems. The most recent delay was caused by similar problems.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Jan 6)

NASA ASSIGNS UPCOMING SPACE STATION CREW MEMBERS - NASA is assigning veteran astronaut Andrew Feustel and first-flight astronaut Jeanette Epps to missions aboard the International Space Station in 2018. Feustel will launch in March 2018 for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 55, and later as commander of Expedition 56. Epps will become the first African American space station crew member when she launches on her first spaceflight in May 2018. She'll join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56, and remain on board for Expedition 57.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 6)

NEWLY-LAUNCHED SATELLITES SET TO SMASH INTO EARTH AFTER CRUCIAL MISTAKE - It's claimed the two satellites, launched last Wednesday, are in an egg-shaped orbit ranging from 133 to 325 miles high. Such an orbit would likely see them re-enter Earth's atmosphere within months, spaceflightnow.com reports. And it's unclear whether the craft have enough fuel to force themselves into a safer, higher altitude. The news comes follows revelations that China's Tiangong-1 space station had lost control and would also crash to Earth.   More
(Source: Daily Star - Jan 5)

VA. COMPANY TO LAUNCH SATELLITE WITH SPACEX - The Satellite Network Operations Center at Iridium is rehearsing for a new satellite to be launched on a SpaceX rocket that will start replacing an aging commercial constellation. Iridium, a company out of McLean, Virginia, worked with SpaceX to launch the first of 10 new satellites on the Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It’s all part of the new $3 billion NEXT constellation, a mission geared at replacing the aging commercial constellation being called the ‘largest tech refresh out there.’   More
(Source: WUSA9.com - Jan 5)

ISRO AIMS FOR WORLD RECORD WITH 103 SATELLITE LAUNCHES IN ONE GO: 10 FACTS - India will launch a record 103 satellites in one go during the next mission of PSLV, space agency ISRO announced at the ongoing Indian Science Congress in Tirupati today. The launch, said the participating scientists of the organisation, will take place in the first week of February. The launch will be huge feat, as an attempt of this scale has never been made before. The previous world record is held by Russian rocket Dnepr, which launched 39 satellites at one go in June 2014.    More
(Source: NDTV - Jan 5)

NASA PICKS SPACEX AND BOEING TO FERRY ASTRONAUTS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NASA has hired U.S. firms Boeing and SpaceX to ferry more astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), with the first crewed test flight set for as early as May 2018. In 2014, both private firms entered in to a contract with NASA to carry out a space taxi service but were only offered two missions each. Now Boeing and SpaceX will get six missions each, but only if their technology can pass NASA certification. At present, NASA astronauts go to and from the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and have done since 2011when NASA last flew its space shuttle mission.    More
(Source: CNBC - Jan 5)

A COMPANY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF PLANS TO BUILD THE WORLD'S FIRST PRIVATE SPACE STATION - Not many people have heard of Axiom Space outside a small segment of the space community. The company didn't exist until 2016, and only has a half-dozen employees. Yet it only takes a quick glance at the company's publicity materials or a chat with one of its representatives to see that the name Axiom fits well. An axiom is a statement that is established, accepted or self-evidently true, and that's how the company talks about its future. They aren't planning to build the first private space station—they're doing it. They aren't hoping to launch a mutlipurpose module to the International Space Station in 2020—they are. An Axiom-sponsored astronaut isn't projected to visit the station in 2019—he or she is.   More
(Source: The Planetary Society - Jan 4)

CHINA IS RAINING SATELLITES... SUSPECTS ARE WAYWARD OUT OF ORBIT SATELLITES - Last week, China launched satellites that were to become part of their Earth Observation Constellation. Almost immediately they did not reach their intended orbit, and today parts of a satellite fell to Earth. According to South China Morning Post... Debris that has rained down on a city in the central China province of Henan is believed to be from two recently launched satellites. The debris found in Lingbao, some of which bears the wording “China Aerospace”, was confirmed by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center to be pieces of two high-resolution Earth-imaging satellites, The Beijing News reported.   More
(Source: SatNews Publishers - Jan 3)

SPACEX FAILURE PROBE COMPLETE; FLIGHTS TO RESUME SUNDAY FROM CALIFORNIA - After an exhaustive investigation, SpaceX engineers have identified the most likely cause of the spectacular explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket during a pre-launch test Sept. 1 that destroyed the booster and its $195 million satellite payload, the company announced Monday. SpaceX engineers believe the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station mishap was triggered by the failure of a high-pressure helium tank, one of three used to pressurize the second stage liquid oxygen tank. Putting corrective actions in place, the company said Monday it plans to resume flights with a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles on Jan. 8 to boost 10 Iridium NEXT satellite telephone relay stations into orbit.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 3)

LAUNCH OF RUSSIA'S NEW PROGRESS SPACECRAFT SET FOR FEBRUARY 2 - The launch of Russia's Progress MS-05 space freighter to the International Space Station (ISS) is preliminary set for February 2, 2017, although it could be postponed, a space industry source told RIA Novosti. "So far the launch is scheduled for February 2. But if the commission fails due to objective reasons to conclude its work by December 30, as it was declared by Roscosmos [Russia's space agency], and a definite cause of the [Progress MS-04] accident is not revealed, then the launch dates of the next 'Progress' could be shifted...," the source said on Wednesday.   More
(Source: Space Daily - Jan 2)

ASTRONAUTS RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH SPACE STATION SHENANIGANS - Happy New Year from the International Space Station! Six crewmembers aboard the orbiting laboratory celebrated the start of 2017 after finishing their last few days of 2016 goofing around and working hard. Two NASA astronauts, three Russian cosmonauts and one French astronaut all rang in the new year together at 0000 GMT (i.e., midnight) — the designated time zone at the International Space Station (ISS) — which was 7 p.m. EST on New Year's Eve. "Wishing everyone on Earth a Happy New Year from 250 miles above our planet!" NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, the station's commander, wrote on Twitter Saturday (Dec. 31).   More
(Source: Space.com - Jan 2)

LOOKING UP: CATCH A PASSING SATELLITE TONIGHT - More Content Now One of the pleasures of star watching in the space age is the watching of manmade satellites as they cross the sky. If you gaze at the starry sky, it likely won't take long before you are notice a "star" moving past stars and through whole constellations. Here awesome pointers. Satellites are launched towards the east to benefit from the centrifugal force as the Earth also spins towards the east. That means while looking up you generally see satellites traveling west to east; you won't see them going the opposite way. Many satellites, however, are put in polar orbits, either north to south or the other way around; some may be traveling southwest to northeast, or northwest to southeast.   More
(Source: Beauregard Daily News - Jan 1)

WHAT GOES UP: THE YEAR IN SPACE, 2016 - It's been a busy year in space with new Mars missions launched, a NASA probe saying hello to Jupiter, and humanity's most ambitious comet exploration mission drawing to a close. It was a year when NASA geared up for the return of astronauts to deep space, and new launch vehicles reached technological milestones as well as suffering frustrating setbacks. It was also the year when we said goodbye to the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts. So join us as we look back on the highlights of the year in space, 2016. In some ways, 2016 felt a bit like the early 1960s as NASA and private companies jockeyed to create the next generation of launch vehicles that can not only deliver payloads into space, but also return to Earth for reuse. Unfortunately, like the 1960s, it was also a year marked by setbacks, delays, and spectacular launch pad explosions.    More
(Source: New Atlas - Jan 1)

CHINESE SATELLITES RAISING ORBITS AFTER LAUNCH ANOMALY - Two Chinese remote sensing satellites placed into a low orbit after an apparent problem with their launch vehicle are gradually raising their orbits and may still be able to carry out their missions. The two SuperView-1 satellites launched at 10:23 p.m. Eastern Dec. 27 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 2D rocket. Chinese media declared the launch a success, but satellite observers noted the two spacecraft were placed in elliptical orbits ranging from 214 to 524 kilometers rather than the planned circular sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 530 kilometers. Since the launch, the two satellites have been gradually raising their orbits. Orbital data provided by the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Space Operations Center indicated that as of early Dec. 30 one spacecraft, designated SuperView-1 01, is in an orbit of 352 by 526 kilometers.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Dec 31)