The second part of the Chinese space docking trilogy has premiered with the successful launch of the unmanned Shenzhou-8 at 21:58 UTC on Monday. The launch took place from 921 / SLS-1 Launch Pad at the Southern Launch Site of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using the Long March-2F (Y8) launch vehicle.
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One of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) suitors – Boeing and their CST-100 spacecraft – have signed a 15 year lease to utilize Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-3) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The deal was announced on Monday, following a NASA agreement with Space Florida – the State’s aerospace economic development agency.
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Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has successfully returned the venerable Soyuz booster to flight via the launch of the Soyuz-U booster carrying the uncrewed Progress M-13M/45P resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch is the first successful Soyuz booster flight to the ISS since the 24th August failure of the Soyuz-U booster carrying [...]
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The Delta II rocket has made what could be its final flight Friday, deploying a new weather and environmental research satellite for NASA and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with six CubeSats. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was on schedule at 09:48 UTC [...]
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NASA 13 day Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission has ended earlier than expected, due to a potential hurricane threat to the Key Largo, Florida – where the Aquarius underwater habitat is located. The mission was still highly successful, with six underwater EVAs conducted, providing valuable lessons for a potential crewed mission to an asteroid [...]
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Teams at the main NASA centers are continuing to build up their involvement in the Space Launch System (SLS), ranging from mission operations in Houston, infrastructure evaluation at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and vehicle design at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Exploration roadmap details remain under evaluation, although NASA claim the vehicle’s “flexibility” [...]
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As part of standard operating procedure, the ISS community has completed a review of the International Space Station’s systems – noting both progress and anomalies on the orbiting laboratory as well as reviewing preparations for the upcoming Dragon, Cygnus, and HTV-3 flights.
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Going out in style, the German X-ray satellite ROSAT has bid farewell to space via a fiery death plunge into the atmosphere in the early hours of Sunday. Interest was high in ROSAT due to its primary mirror, which held the potential of surviving the break up of the spacecraft in the atmosphere during entry. [...]
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The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II launch with the NPP (NPOESS Preparatory Project) satellite has passed through its Flight Readiness Review (FRR) on Friday. The launch from SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California has been set for a launch window which opens at 9:48am GMT on October 28.
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Arianespace have launched, at the second attempt, their debut Soyuz ST-B from the European Spaceport “Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG)” in Kourou, French Guiana, following a scrub during Thursday’s tanking. The launch – was on schedule at 10:30am GMT on Friday – lofting two European “Galileo” navigation satellites into orbit from the specially built launch site.
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International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their Proton-M rocket on Wednesday. Launch was on schedule at 18:48 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the Proton tasked with deploying the ViaSat-1 telecommunications satellite – the highest throughput satellite ever built – into its GEO transfer orbit, after what will be over nine hours of [...]
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October’s NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission, based at the Aquarius underwater habitat in Key Largo, Florida, is set to begin this week – weather permitting. The 13 day mission will conduct an underwater simulation of protocols which may become part of a crewed mission to a Near Earth Object (NEO).
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Engineers at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans are making solid progress on the welded cone section of what is now known as the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) vehicle. While this vehicle is set to ride into space in late 2013, the forward exploration path for Orion continues to be worked, with [...]
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With the Space Shuttle Program now officially a part of NASA’s past, the agency is continuing the process of getting Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour ready for their display at museums around the United States. However, following STS-135, NASA did conduct one official post-flight review – an investigation into RCC nose cap/chin strap damage to orbiter [...]
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Often cited as a highly contentious issue by SpaceX head Elon Musk, the stranglehold on the US Air Force market appears to be loosening, following a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the USAF, the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) and NASA, which opens up the potential for commercial launch vehicles – such as Falcon 9 – [...]
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During Wednesday’s Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearing – which focused on the Russian investigation into their recent Soyuz failure – the question on restarting shuttle was once again dismissed out of hand. However, the shrift response, noting the question would have been “interesting” if asked three or four years ago, failed to elaborate on a [...]
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India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has made its twentieth launch Wednesday morning, carrying the Megha-Tropiques atmospheric research satellite and three other spacecraft into orbit. Liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was on schedule at 05:31 UTC (11:01 local time).
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International Space Station (ISS) Program managers are continuing with precautionary preparations for station operations without the presence of on-board crewmembers, in the event that a de-crewing of the ISS is needed should Russia be unable to return the Soyuz booster to flight by mid-November.
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Orion managers are becoming more interested in the idea of the European Space Agency (ESA) taking over a role in NASA’s exploration future. Adhering to the international cooperation angle for the Agency’s future, managers have told their teams they are “serious” about ESA building the Service Module (SM) for Orion, via Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) [...]
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After the TG-1 TinGong-1 launch success, China took another step in the international satellite market with the successful launch of the European Eutelsat-W3C communications satellite on Thursday. The launch took place at 08:21 UTC using a Long March 3B/E (Chang Zheng-3B/E) launch vehicle.
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