30 April 2009 - The GIOVE-B navigation satellite has successfully completed its first year in orbit. The 500 kg satellite, which was built by an industrial team led by Astrium under contract to the European Space Agency, is the second of two in-orbit demonstration missions for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system. The satellite was launched into a Medium Earth Orbit on board a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 27, 2008. After completion of an intensive in-orbit test campaign, the satellite was declared fully operational in July 2008. Since then, GIOVE-B has been broadcasting its navigation test signals around the Earth to ground receivers, allowing engineers and researchers the opportunity to perform long-term measurements of the signal quality. Notably, GIOVE-B is the first satellite to transmit the Multiplexed Binary Offset Coding modulation standard from space, thus paving the way for its future roll-out on Galileo.
30 April 2009 - NASA Television will provide live coverage of the 2009 US Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, May 2, at 3 p.m. EDT. The ceremony will take place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Joining the hall of fame this year are former astronauts George "Pinky" Nelson, one of only four space shuttle astronauts to fly untethered in space using NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit; William Shepherd, commander of the first crew to live aboard the International Space Station; and Jim Wetherbee, commander of the longest docked shuttle-Mir mission. CNN reporter John Zarrella will host the event. More than 20 hall of fame astronauts are expected to attend, including Scott Carpenter, Walt Cunningham, Jim Lovell and Bob Crippen.
29 April 2009 - NASA is preparing to fly a small satellite about the size of a loaf of bread that could help scientists better understand how effectively drugs work in space. The nanosatellite, known as PharmaSat, is a secondary payload aboard a U.S. Air Force four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket planned for launch the evening of May 5. PharmaSat weighs approximately 10 pounds. It contains a controlled environment micro-laboratory packed with sensors and optical systems that can detect the growth, density and health of yeast cells and transmit that data to scientists for analysis on Earth. PharmaSat also will monitor the levels of pressure, temperature and acceleration the yeast and the satellite experience while circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. Scientists will study how the yeast responds during and after an antifungal treatment is administered at three distinct dosage levels to learn more about drug action in space, the satellite's primary goal.eginning
28 April 2009 - Orbital Sciences Corporation today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2009. Revenues were $295.7 million, a 4% increase compared to $283.5 million in the first quarter of 2008. First quarter 2009 operating income was $11.2 million, compared to $20.0 million in the first quarter of 2008.
28 April 2009 - Prelaunch operations for the launch of the Progress M-67 cargo vehicle started yesterday at the Baikonur cosmodrome. The vehicle was delivered to the space port on April 25. RSC-Energia and Baikonur Space Center experts unloaded the vehicle from the cargo carriage and installed it into site 254, the integration and test facility. Progress M-67 is scheduled to fly to the ISS at the end of July 2009
27 April 2009 - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed a rigorous qualification of its new Draco spacecraft thruster and Draco propulsion tank at the SpaceX Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. The Draco thruster test series included 42 firings with over 4,600 pulses of varying lengths and was performed in a vacuum test chamber to simulate the space environment. The series resulted in a total firing time of over 50 minutes on a single thruster. The company’s dragon spacecraft, recently selected by NASA as part of their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and return cargo to Earth, utilizes 18 Draco thrusters to provide precision control in orbit and while approaching the ISS. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to make its first flight in 2009 as part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
27 April 2009 – The official launch date for space shuttle Atlantis will be set this Thursday at the agency-level Flight Readiness Review, which will be held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA managers will hold a news conference to confirm the date following the wrap-up of the review. The purpose of the day-long meeting is to verify that the shuttle and payload are ready to go for the STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The targeted launch date is May 11, with a liftoff time of 2:01 p.m. EDT.
26 April 2009 - The Air Force Research Laboratory’s TacSat-3 satellite will launch May 5 on an Air Force Minotaur I rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The launch window on May 5 will run from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Alongside the military payloads will be the PharmaSat experiment, developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center and will measure the influence of microgravity upon yeast resistance to an antifungal agent. PharmaSat focuses on questions key to countermeasure development for long-term space travel and habitation.Also three cubesats will be launched as secondary payloads on the TacSat-3 mission. The satellites, which contain their own power and data systems, are four-inch cubes that weigh 2.2 pounds each. The three satellites are placed in a Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD), the standard deployment system for cubesats. During the rocket’s ascent, each cubesat will be deployed separately from the P-POD into space.
25 April 2009 - Preparations for Ariane 5’s upcoming mission to explore the universe’s origins have entered their final phase with the startup of payload integration on the heavy-lift launcher. The Planck observatory was installed atop the launch vehicle’s core stage yesterday, marking a major step in the build-up of Ariane 5’s dual payload “stack.” This 1,950 kg spacecraft will study relic radiation from the Big Bang, providing new information on the formation of galaxies and how the universe began. Planck is riding in the lower position of the payload stack on Ariane 5, and will be situated below the Herschel space telescope, which will be integrated next on the launch vehicle.
24 April 2009 - The launch infrastructure at Soyuz’ new operating base in French Guiana has literally risen from the pad as the system of two umbilical masts and four primary support arms has now been installed. This marks another key step in preparations of the world’s newest launch facility for the medium-lift Soyuz, which will join Arianespace’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 and the future lightweight Vega in operations at the Spaceport. The Soyuz launch vehicle has been in continuous production since 1957, demonstrating its unmatched reliability with more than 1,700 missions to date. Vega is scheduled to enter operation in 2009 with a target payload lift capability of 1,500 kg on missions to a 700-km circular orbit.
23 April 2009 - China's second navigation satellite, launched a week ago, has been functioning normally since it was put into the working orbit Monday, the Xi'an Satellite Control Center reported Wednesday. The center completed the fourth position adjustment of the satellite on Monday via remote control system, and data showed that it is now correctly positioned. The satellite is part of an ambitious satellite navigation system, code named "COMPASS," that China is building independent of foreign technology. According to reports Compass will cover all of China and its adjacent regions by the end of 2010 or early 2011, and it would expand into a global network by 2020.
22 April 2009 – The Herschel-Planck launch has been postponed for several days due to an anomaly discovered during tests on a subassembly identical to one on the Ariane 5 launcher, Arianespace has decided to carry out additional checks. A new launch date will be announced shortly.
22 April 2009 - Reshetnev has started development of a new small students` satellite. The design documentation for the satellite is ready and in addition the spacecraft payloads have been defined. Developed jointly with students and young scientists from the Reshetnev Siberian State University it is also planned to involve the Moscow Aviation Institute and Tomsk State University in the project. The satellite will be named later in its development.
21 April 2009 - NASA centers across the nation invite the public to see and hear about the agency's efforts and contributions to understanding and protecting Earth. Begun in 1970, Earth Day is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess work still needed to protect the natural resources of our planet. The agency maintains the largest contingent of dedicated Earth scientists and engineers in leading and assisting other agencies in preserving the planet's environment. Special high definition feed from NASA Television on Earth Day, April 22, will feature views of Earth captured by cameras aboard the International Space Station. The space station and its crew orbit Earth once every 90 minutes from an altitude of approximately 220 miles. It can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. The orbiting outpost travels at a speed of approximately 17,500 miles per hour, and the crew experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. The station has been continuously occupied since the first crew arrived in November 2000. The special Earth views HD feed can be seen April 22 from 6 to 9 a.m., noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. EDT.
21 April 2009 - NASA has selected 16 proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards in the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The selected projects have a total value of approximately $9.6 million. The contracts will be awarded to 16 hi-tech firms partnered with 15 universities in 18 states. NASA is one of the federal agencies required to reserve a portion of its research and development funds to award to small business. California-based winners include: Hyper-Therm High-Temperature Composites of Huntington Beach (teamed with California State University in Long Beach) for a project focused on Low Erosion Ceramic Composite Liners for Improved Performance of Ablative Rocket Thrust Chambers; and MetroLaser Inc. of Irvine (teamed with Vanderbilt University) for a project focused on Hydroxyl Tagging Velocimetry for Rocket Plumes.
20 April 2009 - India's all-weather defence surveillance satellite - radar imaging satellite (RISAT-2) - and the micro education satellite Anusat were successfully placed in orbit by an Indian rocket that flew from the Sriharikota spaceport in South India's Andhra Pradesh early this morning. RISAT-2 will primarily keep an eye on the country's borders round-the-clock and help in anti-infiltration and anti-terrorist operations. The micro education satellite Anusat, built by Anna University with a one year life span. It will carry out drought and wasteland monitoring, urban planning and other studies.
20 April 2009 - Early this morning, the Sea Launch Company successfully launched Telespazio`s SICRAL 1B communications satellite from its equatorial launch site. This event marks Sea Launch`s 30th mission from sea, since operations began in March 1999. On today`s mission, a Zenit-3SL vehicle lifted off at 1:16 am PDT (08:16 GMT) from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude. Less than two hours later, the Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 3,038 kg (6,697 lb) SICRAL 1B satellite into a high perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit. Telespazio`s operators at the Fucino Space Center in Italy acquired the spacecraft`s first signals from orbit during flight operations and confirmed the health of the spacecraft shortly after its separation from the Block DM upper stage. Based on preliminary data, all Sea Launch system flight parameters were nominal and injection accuracy was excellent.
20 April 2009 - Arianespace’s long-term relationship with Japan was highlighted by the announcement of a new launch agreement with this market’s leading private satellite operator – bringing total orders won by Arianespace to 27 out of the 36 Japanese commercial contracts open to competition. Visiting Tokyo for the company’s yearly event, Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said Arianespace maintains its commitment to support Japan’s satellite telecommunications operators with reliable, flexible access to space. The latest Japanese launch agreement is with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation for the JCSAT-13 satellite, which will be orbited by an Ariane 5 in 2013 from the Spaceport in French Guiana. JCSAT-13 will be manufactured by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems based on its A2100AX platform, and is to carry an all Ku-band payload incorporating 44 fixed high-power communication channels for uplink and downlink coverage over Japan, Asia and Oceania.
19 April 2009 - A giant solar protuberance was detected by the Russian observatory Coronas-Photon. The length of the outburst was 50 times the diameter of the Earth. "The solar transition layer research tools were observing the extraordinary protuberance within 10 hours. There was no visible activity on the edge of the Sun, and this giant outburst into space occurred unexpectedly", according to Lebedev Physical Institute experts. Plasma substance was moving at about several hundreds kms. However, the protuberance is under the solar magnetic force, so it may fall back to the Sun. "Even if it overcomes this force, there is little chance that it will reach the Earth. Observations of the giant protuberance will help Russian scientists find out more about the structure of the solar magnetic field.
19 April 2009 - If an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, the best way to avoid a global catastrophe could be to attach a long tether with a weight at the end to deflect its orbit, a U.S. scientist has suggested. David French, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, said that by attaching ballast and a tether to asteroids "you change the object's center of mass, effectively changing the object's orbit and allowing it to pass by the Earth, rather than impacting it." NASA has identified over 1,000 of potentially dangerous objects nearing the Earth, and the number is growing. While none of these objects is currently projected to hit Earth in the near future, slight changes in the orbits of these bodies, which could be caused by the gravitational pull of other objects, push from the solar wind, or some other effect could cause an intersection. French said that while his solution sounds far-fetched, it compares favorably with other methods, which include painting the asteroid to change the effect sunlight has on its orbit or using nuclear weapons.
April 18 2009 – So far this year 8 rockets and 9 spacecraft have been launched by the Russian Federation (status April 5): 4 launches under the Federal Space Program (5 spacecraft launched); one launch for the Ministry of Defence and 3 launches under the international cooperation programs and commercial contracts. During the same period in 2008 there were 5 launches (1 partly successful), 5 spacecraft launched (1 was injected into the off-nominal orbit); 2007- 1 launch, one spacecraft launched; 2006- 2 launches, 2 spacecraft launched; 2005- 4 launches, 5 spacecraft launched
18 April 2009 - A welcome ceremony for the ISS-18 and VC-16 crews was held in Roscosmos yesterday. The ceremony started with flower-laying at the Gagarin`s monument by Yury Lonchakov, Michael Fincke and Charles Simonyi. In his introductory speech, V. Davyidov, Roscosmos State-Secretary and Deputy Head, congratulated the crew on their return, and for completing a successful mission (ISS-18) where two Progresses and two Shuttles docked with the ISS, two EVAs were carried out and more than 50 scientific experiments completed. The ceremony was also attended by leaders, veterans of the space industry and NASA representatives.
17 April 2009 - NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth. The new "first light" images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. One image shows millions of stars in Kepler's full field of view, while two others zoom in on portions of the larger region. The images can be seen online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ kepler/multimedia/20090416.html. "Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking." One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view -- a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 millions stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting. Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. In one image, a cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the lower left corner. Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching more than 100,000 pre-selected stars for signs of planets. It is expected to find a variety of worlds, from large, gaseous ones, to rocky ones as small as Earth. The mission is the first with the ability to find planets like ours -- small, rocky planets orbiting sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans of water. oms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days.
April 16 2009 - Boeing has shipped the IndoStar II/ProtoStar II satellite from the company's satellite manufacturing facility in El Segundo to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch facility in Kazakhstan. Upon arrival, the spacecraft will undergo final preparations for launch this May aboard an International Launch Services Proton/Breeze M rocket.
16 April 2009 - NSR latest report looks at the global satellite demand especially with regard to the Sub-Saharan market. In the last two years, much has been made within the satellite industry of transponder shortages and higher capacity pricing impacting the Sub-Saharan African market. Evidence from NSR's Global Assessment of Satellite Demand, 5th Edition study details the current capacity issues facing this regional market, and numerous operators have already responded. Some additional capacity on existing satellites has been relocated to the Sub-Saharan Africa market, and a number of recently launched satellites have already increased supply with more to come in the next several years. It has even been argued that the recent high demand coming from the sub-continent has led satellite operators to over-invest in new capacity for the region following the classic over/undersupply cycle that is so common within the industry. To make matters worse, others are contending that the potential oversupply situation may be compounded by the global economic downturn that could slow, at least temporarily, transponder demand growth in Africa. NSR is indeed focused on this satellite supply imbalance in Sub-Saharan Africa, but would argue that a closer look at the details of the situation is in order. NSR has projected in its GASD 5th Edition study that demand for commercial C- and Ku-band satellite capacity will almost double between 2007 and 2017. Leading the drive will be substantial transponder leasing gains coming from the video distribution and DTH markets in the region. African television households continue to have relatively limited programming choices, especially for locally produced content, and the region is aching for low cost DTH services. NSR is confident that over the long term the various video and DTH services will come to account for 60% to 80% of total transponder demand in the region, just as is found elsewhere in the world. Further details on the report can be found at: www.nsr.com
16 April 2009 - China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early on the 15th April, as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system. The carrier rocket, Long March 3C, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 0:16 am.
15 April 2009 - New Dawn Satellite Company Ltd. ("New Dawn"), a joint venture between Intelsat and a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners, has awarded Arianespace the launch contract to deliver the Intelsat New Dawn satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. This new contract is the 6th signed in 2009 by Arianespace with the major satellite operators.The launch is planned for the end of 2010, using an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The Intelsat New Dawn satellite will be the 50th Intelsat satellite orbited by the European launcher. This contract is in addition to the agreement signed by Intelsat and Arianespace in December 2008. New Dawn will provide critical communications infrastructure to Africa supporting wireless backhaul, broadband, direct-to-home and video applications.The satellite will weigh about 3,000 kg at launch, and has a design life exceeding 15 years. Built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Intelsat New Dawn will be fitted with 28 C-band and 24 Ku-band 36 MHz transponder units. It will be positioned at 33 degrees East and will deliver new capacity to Africa for voice, wireless backhaul, Internet and media applications.
15 April 2009 - The International Space Station module formerly known as Node 3 has a new name. After more than a million online responses, the node will be called "Tranquility." The name Tranquility was chosen from thousands of suggestions submitted by participants on NASA's Web site, www.nasa.gov. The "Help Name Node 3" poll asked people to vote for the module's name either by choosing one of four options listed by NASA or offering their own suggestion. Tranquility was one of the top 10 suggestions submitted by respondents to the poll, which ended March 20. "The public did a fantastic job and surprised us with the quality and volume of the suggestions," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations. "Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July. We selected 'Tranquility' because it ties it to exploration and the moon and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station." NASA announced the name Tuesday with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Suni Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The show's producers offered to host the name selection announcement after comedian Stephen Colbert took an interest in the poll and urged his viewers to suggest the name "Colbert," which received the most entries.
14 April 2009 - NASA is inviting the public to vote online for the most important contribution the space agency has made to exploring Earth and improving the way we live on our home planet. NASA is conducting the survey as part of its celebration of Earth Day, April 22. Voting begins today, and closes on April 21. Poll results will be announced on NASA's Web site on Earth Day. A 2008 National Research Council study identified major accomplishments resulting from Earth observations made from space. The report, "Earth Observations from Space: The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements," cataloged scientific discoveries and practical applications, including many that resulted from NASA missions, made possible from satellite observations. NASA selected 10 candidates highlighted in the study for consideration as the greatest achievements about planet Earth. The options include diagnosing Earth's ozone layer, predicting food shortages and tracking ecosystems worldwide. Visitors to the online polling site will be able to cast their votes for up to three candidate accomplishments. Since the launch of the United States' first satellite in January 1958, NASA has pioneered the exploration of our home planet from space. With more than a dozen observation satellites circling the globe, NASA continues to advance the frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future. NASA's multidisciplinary Earth science program contains a broad-based portfolio of cutting-edge science and technology, from new remote-sensing instruments in orbit to basic research.
13 April 2009 - China plans to launch the second Beidou satellite, the Chinese version of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), into orbit on Wednesday (April 15) on board a Long March 3 carrier rocket. The launch was announced by a spokesman for the Xichang Space Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
13 April 2009 - Roscosmos has signed a contract with The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee covering GLONASS equipment for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The agreement covers shipment of GLONASS equipment to the organizations involved in construction of the Olympics in Sochi. Anatoly Perminov, Roscosmos Head said that the transport involved in construction of the Games in Sochi will be equipped by GLONASS equipment, and the ground sensors.
12 April 2009 – Due to a lack of funding Kazakhstan has had to indefinitely postponed a plan of sending its own cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) Talgat Musabayev, head of the National Space Agency, has announced. He told reporters that the sole reason for putting off the plan was lack of funding but he did not disclose the exact amount that was specified in contract signed with Russia for the joint space mission. The Director General of the Russian Aerospace Agency Anatoly Perminov has said that a Russian cosmonaut or a space tourist would take the place of the Kazakh crew member.
11 April 2009 - A meeting and festive concert devoted to the Cosmonautics Day was held in the Russian Army theatre in Moscow on April 10. The Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in April 12. On that day Yury Gagarin made his world-first space mission in 1961. The festive event gathered more than thousand people: cosmonauts, veterans and employees of the Russian space industry. Anatoly Perminov, Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, opened the meeting and proclaimed congratulations from Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, and Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Russian Government.
11 April 2009 - NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name on April 14. The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams. The name was selected from thousands of unique suggestions submitted on NASA's Internet site, www.nasa.gov. The "Help Name Node 3" poll asked people to vote for the module's name either by choosing one of four NASA options or by offering their own suggestion. "The node naming poll was organic and took on a life of its own," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We received more than a million entries, in large part because social media Web sites and television programs, such as 'The Colbert Report,' took an interest. This spread overall awareness of the International Space Station." Node 3 is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the space station's life support systems. Attached to the node is the cupola, a one-of-a-kind work station with six windows around the sides and one on top. Node 3 is targeted for launch in late 2009.
10 April 2009 - NASA has exercised a $58 million, one-year extension option for a contract with Science Applications International Corporation of Houston to provide support to safety and mission assurance activities at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Safety and Mission Assurance Support Services contract helps ensure safety, reliability, maintainability, and quality in the International Space Station Program, the Space Shuttle Program and the Constellation Program. This cost-plus-award-fee contract option continues services from May 1, 2009, through April 30, 2010. Work under the contract will be performed at Johnson, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Significant subcontractors in the work include Futron Corp. of Bethesda, Md.; GHG of Houston; M.H. Chew of Livermore, Calif.; URS - Washington Division of Princeton, N.J.; Management Technology Associates of Huntsville, Ala.; J&P Technologies of Houston; JES Tech of Houston; SoHaR Incorporated of Culver City, Calif.; and Texas Southern University of Houston.
10 April 2009 - The larger of two spacecraft passengers on Arianespace's upcoming Ariane 5 mission is being fueled at the Spaceport in French Guiana as preparations accelerate for this second heavy-lift flight of 2009. Fuelling of the Herschel space telescope is being performed in the Spaceport's S5 payload processing facility, readying this 3,300kg platform for its May 6 liftoff with another space science spacecraft - the Planck observatory. Both Herschel and Planck were developed in programs managed by the European Space Agency, which is Arianespace's customer for this flight.
9 April 2009 - The second Ariane 5 launch of 2009 is set for a May 6 liftoff, following additional flightworthiness checks performed on one of its two payloads: the Herschel space telescope. These verifications - requested by the mission's customer, the European Space Agency - were made to ensure the Herschel telescope's mirror structure has sufficient design margins for the flight loads it will experience during Ariane 5's ascent. The telescope mirror will be the largest ever launched into space, and was built by brazing 12 silicon carbide petals into a single piece.
8 April 2009 - Members of the 18th crew to live and work aboard the International Space Station and a spaceflight participant returned to Earth at 2:16 a.m. CDT Wednesday 8 May. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of southern Kazakhstan. The Expedition 18 crew members undocked their Soyuz from the station at 10:55 p.m. April 7. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward Earth began at 1:24 a.m. April 8. The landing was moved to a more southerly landing site because of poor landing conditions at the original site.
7 April 2009 - Launch date for Ariane 5's space science mission with the Herschel and Planck payloads is under review. Verifications of the European space science payload on Arianespace’s upcoming Ariane 5 mission are being continued, resulting in the postponement of a final launch date determination by a few days. This flight initially was delayed in March at the request of Arianespace’s customer – the European Space Agency – allowing time for additional checks on ground segment operations for the Herschel and Planck payloads.
7 April 2009 - Prelaunch processing of the Fregat-SB upper stage has begun in the clean room at Baikonur`s site 31. The upper stage, delivered to Baikonur on April 4, is intended for lifting the Electro-L meteo-satellite by a Zenith-3M rocket later this year.
6 April 2009 - NASA astronaut Mike Massimino is using Twitter to provide a unique, behind the scenes peek at the last weeks of his training for the fifth and final shuttle servicing mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino, whose Twitter username is Astro_Mike (@Astro_Mike, will fly aboard space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist and spacewalker during the STS-125 mission, targeted to launch May 12. Atlantis' 11-day flight will include five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments. After the astronaut's visit, Hubble's capabilities will be expanded and its lifetime extended through at least 2014. This will be Massimino's second trip to space. He first flew on the STS-109 mission to Hubble in 2002. During that flight, he performed two spacewalks. Along with Massimino, the crew of Atlantis includes Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Gregory C. Johnson and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld and Megan McArthur.
6 April 2009 - Kim Jong Il leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea observed the complete process of the launch of the Taepodong-2 missile on Sunday morning, at the General Satellite Control and Command Center, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The DPRK's official media reported Sunday that the country successfully launched a rocket carrying the "Kwangmyongsong-2" communications satellite which entered orbit about 10 minutes after launch. However, South Korea, the United States and Russian media said the launch failed to put the satellite into orbit.
5 April 2009 - The DPRK launched a rocket at 11:30 am local time, (02.30 GMT) which was confirmed by US, Japan and South Korea. South Korean and Russian news agencies reported that a satellite was carried by the rocket, The US military said that the rocket, a Taepo-dong 2 missile, failed to put a satellite into orbit despite claims earlier in the day, by the DPRK's official news agency KCNA, that a communications satellite was successfully put into orbit.
5 April 2009 - The Fregat-SB upper stage was delivered to Baikonur today. The upper stage is intended for launch with the Zenith-3M rocket carrier. This assembly is planned to orbit Spectr-R international orbital astrophysical observatory. Zenith-3M/Fregat-SB/Spectr-R prelaunch processing will be carried out during the second half of 2009. The launch is planned in late 2009. Fregat-SB is a modified version of the Fregat upper stage produced by Lavochkin R&D company.
4 April 2009 - A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket has successfully launched the United States Air Force's second Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite into orbit from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. The WGS satellites will form a constellation of five satellites and after the launch of WGS-2, WGS-3 will complete the first phase of the program when it is launched later this year.
3 April 2009 – International Launch Services (ILS), a world leader in providing mission and launch services to the commercial space industry, successfully carried the W2A satellite to orbit for Eutelsat Communications of France on an ILS Proton. The Proton vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:24 p.m. local time (12:24 p.m. EDT, 16:24 GMT).The launch of the W2A satellite marks the first ILS launch of the year and the 50th commercial launch overall for ILS; a significant milestone. The Proton Breeze M vehicle is built by Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow and has a heritage of 344 missions since its inception.The W2A spacecraft built by ThalesAleniaSpace, is a Spacebus 4000 C4 model and carried three payloads including the first S-band payload for Europe. The W2A C-band and Ku-band payloads for Eutelsat will provide Europe, Africa and the Middle East with an array of professional video and business services. Solaris Mobile is a joint venture between SES Astra and Eutelsat. The satellite, the 27th in the Eutelsat fleet, will be operated at Eutelsat’s 10 degrees East location, an orbital location used by Eutelsat for over 20 years.
3 April 2009 - A collection of NASA missions will be involved in a live event on April 3 that will allow the public to get an inside look at how these missions are run. "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" is a 24-hour webcast that is part of the "100 Hours of Astronomy" event for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. During the webcast, viewers will be able to visit some of the most advanced telescopes on and off the planet. For NASA's space-based missions, the webcast will be broadcast from control centers throughout the United States. To view the webcast, visit: http://100hoursofastronomy.org/webcast
3 April 2009 - JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have successfully performed the first captive firing test for the first stage flight model tank of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle at the Tanegashima Space Center. The test verified the safety of firing two engines simultaneously and confirmed the interface between the launch vehicle and the ground facility.
2 April 2009 - Sergey K. Krikalev, Holder of the Golden Star Decoration, has been appointed the Chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut R&D and Training Center, effective from March 30.
2 April 2009 - After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis now awaits liftoff for its target May 12 STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope
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