30 November 2009 – Yesterday’s launch of Intelsat-15 by a Zenith-2SB/DM-SLB rocket from the Baikonur Cosomodrome was postponed due to technical reasons.
29 November 2009 - China will launch Chang'e-2, it’s second lunar probe, in October 2010 according to a senior Chinese space scientist. The mission will be used to carry out tests in preparation for the Chang'e-3 mission, China's first lunar-lander and rover, which is scheduled to be launched by a Long March 3B launch vehicle by 2013.
28 November 2009 – Earlier today JAXA, Japan's national space agency, launched an information gathering satellite from Tanegashima Space Center on a H2A rocket.
28 November 2009 - DirecTV-12 the spacecraft scheduled to launch on a Proton-M in late December arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome yesterday. The satellite has been installed in a clean room for prelaunch processing. Launch services are being provided by International Launch Services Inc. (ILS). DirecTV-12, with its payload mass of 5,940kg, is based on the Boeing 702 platform. It will supply satellite communications, Internet and digital direct-to-home TV services for the continental USA, Alaska and Hawaii.
27 November 2009 - Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts ended an 11-day journey of nearly 4.5 million miles with a 9:44am EST landing today at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, designated STS-129, included three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the International Space Station's truss, or backbone. The platforms hold large spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttles are retired. The shuttle crew delivered about 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain a proper orientation in space. STS-129 Commander Charlie Hobaugh was joined on Atlantis' STS-129 mission by Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Atlantis returned with station resident Nicole Stott, who spent 91 days in space. This marks the final time the shuttle is expected to rotate station crew members.
27 November 2009 - Final firing tests for the Angara URM-1 have been completed at Space Industry’s Research Center (NITs RKP) in Peresvet near Moscow. The Angara project has the highest priority at state level and the bench tests of Universal Rocket Module URM-1 of the Angara launcher were carried out at the largest test bench in Europe. The series of bench firing tests consisted of three stages: The first stage began on July 30; the second stage was performed on October 1 and the third and final stage took place on November 26.
26 November 2009 – A Chinese China Long March 3B/E carrier rocket will launch the APTSTAR-7 satellite made by the Thales Alenia Space for the Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holding Limited in the first half of 2012.
25 November 2009 - Atlantis and International Space Station crew members closed the hatches linking their two spacecraft at 12:1 pm CST in preparation for the shuttle’s undocking and return home. The two have been docked since 10:51am last Wednesday. The crews were linked through open hatches for 5 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes. Atlantis brought to the station more than 14 tons of cargo, including two large carriers with heavy spare parts and installed them. The shuttle also carried about a ton of cargo in its crew cabin. It is bringing home about the same weight of cabin cargo from the orbiting laboratory. Atlantis astronauts did three spacewalks at the station.
25 November 2009 - Arianespace has marked a historic milestone with the arrival of its first two Soyuz launchers in French Guiana, which will be used to inaugurate service with this medium-lift workhorse vehicle next year from the Spaceport. The Soyuz 2-1a launchers were carried aboard the MN Colibri roll-on/roll-off transport ship, which docked on schedule Monday morning at Pariacabo port near Kourou after completing the transatlantic crossing from St. Petersburg, Russia. Also brought ashore yesterday from the MN Colibri's upper deck was a functional model of the Fregat, which will be used for fueling tests in French Guiana. Soyuz is one of the world's most utilized launchers, having been operated in 1,750 missions from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Russia's northern launch site at Plesetsk. Its introduction at French Guiana will bring this venerable medium-life vehicle into Arianespace's growing launcher family, joining its heavy-lift Ariane 5 now operational at the Spaceport, and subsequently the lightweight Vega.
24 November 2009 - The launch of the Eutelsat W7 satellite which was delayed for 24 hours took off this evening from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton rocket. The satellite, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space on a Spacebus 4000C4 platform, will be positioned close to Eutelsat’s W4 satellite at 36 degree east and is due to replace the Sesat 1 satellite which has been in orbit since 2000.
24 November 2009 - United Launch Alliance has successfully launched the Intelsat 14 satellite (IS-14). Liftoff of the Atlas V 431 configuration booster occurred at 1:55 a.m. ET, followed by signal acquisition and spacecraft separation nearly two hours later at 3:53 a.m. ET. The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, will provide high-powered data services through its C- and Ku-band payload to Intelsat customers throughout Latin America, Europe and Africa. Once IS-14 is operational, it will replace Intelsat’s 1R satellite at 315º E. “IS-14 kicks off our 11-satellite investment campaign, the largest in our company’s history. This satellite provides capacity for our growing network services and government customers,” said Dave McGlade, Intelsat CEO. “Our customers use our infrastructure as an essential component to deliver in-demand services that include cellular backhaul to enable wireless communications in remote regions, broadband networks for enterprise and oil and gas applications, and IP trunking services for Internet connectivity.”
23 November 2009 - The launch of Eutelsat W7 on a Proton-M from Baikonur which was planned on today at 17.19 Moscow time has been postponed for reasons that are unclear. It would appear that the delay has been caused by the Kazakh authorities and has nothing to do with either the rocket or the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos who lease the cosmodrome from Kazakhstan. Built by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center, Proton is the largest Russian launch vehicle in operational service. Proton launches all Russian geostationary and interplanetary missions under Khrunichev, establishing it as the principal workhorse of the Russian space program. International Launch Services, the US based company, is responsible for marketing and managing commercial satellite launches on the Proton system. Eutelsat W7 manufactured by Thales Alenia Space on a Spacebus 4000C4 platform is designed to replace the SESAT 1 satellite, which has been in orbit since 2000.
22 November 2009 - A Soyuz-U carrier rocket was launched on Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to orbit a Cosmos-series military satellite. The satellite was deployed about nine minutes after the launch. The Cosmos name has been used since 1962 for any satellite that does not fit into a specific program.
21 November 2009 - A Japanese government panel set up to cut wasteful spending has suggested scrapping a new rocket development. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is seeking US$70 million of on-going funding in 2010 for the GX rocket project. The GX is a two-stage rocket currently under development by JAXA. It is smaller the H-2A rocket and is designed for small and medium satellite launches.
21 November 2009 - The site of a ground station for Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite system, inside the Guiana Space Centre, near Kourou in French Guiana, was inaugurated on 19 November. The site, which was made available by France's Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), will play an essential role in the setting up of the Galileo system, since it will accommodate the most comprehensive of the Galileo ground segment stations. The Kourou station will consist of a telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) station to monitor and control the Galileo constellation satellites, a sensor station (GSS) for acquisition of the satellite navigation signals, and two uplink stations (ULS) for transmission of navigation and integrity messages to the satellites. In all, the Galileo ground segment for the in-orbit validation phase will comprise 18 sensor stations, 5 uplink stations, 2 telemetry, tracking and command stations, and 2 Galileo Control Centres. The Control Centres will be situated at Fucino in Italy and Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. The data gathered by the sensor stations will be continuously transmitted to the GCCs where they will be processed by mission control in order to determine the navigation and integrity messages to be sent back to the satellites via the uplink stations. The Galileo system's capability to directly inform its users of the integrity level of its signal represents a major advance compared to other satellite navigation systems.
20 November 2009 - Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher wound up the six-hour, 37-minute spacewalk at 3:01pm CST. It was the first of three spacewalks scheduled for Atlantis’ mission to the International Space Station, a flight devoted largely to bringing sizeable spare parts to the station to be attached to its exterior. The spacewalk officially began at 8:24am when Foreman and Satcher switched their suits to internal power. Their first task was to install a spare S-band antenna structural assembly on the station’s Z1 truss. That was completed about an hour ahead of schedule. The spacewalkers then separated. Foreman installed cables for a space-to-ground antenna on the Destiny laboratory and replaced a handrail on the Unity node with one having a bracket to route an ammonia cable for the Tranquility Node to be delivered next year. He also successfully connected a cable on the Unity Node, which in September had defied efforts by STS-128 astronauts.
19 November 2009 - The Russian company, Glushko NPO-Energomash, has shipped three liquid-propellant engines RD-180 intended for the first stage of the US Atlas-5 launcher from Moscow’s Sheremetievo airport to the USA. The first delivery of RD-180 occurred in 1999 and so far 46 Russian engines have been shipped for use in 24 launches of the Atlas-3 and Atlas-5 rockets under launch services provided by ULA.
19 November 2009 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been studying measures to deal with the anomaly detected in one of the ion engines aboard the Asteroid Explorer "HAYABUSA" reported on November 9. As a result, the project team has decided to resume operations while carefully watching the status of the ion engines. During a study of the characteristics of the neutralizers and the ion sources enough thrust has been found for the rest of the cruise when the neutralizer of the engine-A is combined with the ion source of the engine-B. If the spacecraft can continue its current cruise rate it will arrive back on earth around June 2010. The Explorer was launch in May 2003.
18 November 2009 – Yesterday Reshetnev shipped Glonass-M N34 to Baikonur. The satellite will be launched in cluster 41 along with the other two spacecraft to fly in the same cluster that will be shipped to the space port later this month.
17 November 2009 – The prelaunch processing of Eutelsat’s W7 satellite which is due to be launched on a Proton-M rocket with Breeze-M upper stage on November 23, is continuing with the upper composite, of the Breeze-M and satellite under the fairing, being moved to the assembly building and integrated with the rocket. Tests are now being carried out on the control systems and the Breeze onboard computer system.
16 November 2009 - Space Shuttle Atlantis and its crew of six astronauts lifted off on time from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:28 p.m. EST on their 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The STS-129 mission is commanded by Charles O. Hobaugh and piloted by Barry E. Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert L. Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik are making their first trip to space. Atlantis and its crew are delivering two control moment gyroscopes, equipment and EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 and 2 to the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks and will return station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth.
16 November 2009 - Atlantis is ‘Go' for launch later today. The rotating service structure was rolled back Sunday evening revealing space shuttle Atlantis poised for launch. The STS-129 countdown is proceeding smoothly and on schedule. The weather remains at 90 percent favorable for an on-time liftoff at 2:28pm Monday afternoon.
14 November 2009 – Last night New Horizons, the Pluto-bound spacecraft, reached 15 astronomical units from the Sun – the equivalent of 15 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. Cruising between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, the spacecraft is currently speeding toward Pluto at nearly 60,000 kilometers per hour. New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt of rocky, icy objects beyond. Principal Investigator Alan Stern leads a mission team that includes the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, Ball Aerospace Corporation, the Boeing Company, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford University, KinetX, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, University of Colorado, the U.S. Department of Energy, and a number of other firms, NASA centers and university partners.
13 November 2009 – The Intelsat 14 satellite’s launch vehicle was rolled out to Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex yesterday, defying threats of residual winds from Hurricane Ida. Lift off is scheduled for 12:48am EST tomorrow, Saturday 14 November. The launch event will lift the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit and will, following the completion of in-orbit testing, serve customers throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa from 315 degrees East.
13 November 2009 - The new Soyuz operating base in French Guiana is entering final preparations for Arianespace’s inauguration of commercial missions next year, with the facility’s launch pad undergoing final outfitting and acceptance, and assembly now underway for its mobile gantry. This activity is continuing apace as the first two Soyuz 2-1a launchers are en route from Russia to French Guiana for an arrival later this month aboard the MN Colibri roll-on/roll-off transport ship. The Spaceport’s new Soyuz launch site is nearly identical to the legendary vehicle’s long-operating facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia – retaining the simplicity and robustness demonstrated in more than 1,740 missions performed from these two continental locations. One key difference is the Spaceport’s 52-meter-tall mobile gantry, which will be rolled out to the launch pad for Soyuz’ payload integration and final pre-liftoff processing. This allows for the vertical installation of payloads atop the launch vehicle, which is typical in Western operations, rather than the horizontal procedures used in Soyuz operations from the Baikonur and Plesetsk Cosmodromes. It also provides a controlled environment for the launcher, and enables customer access to the payload when required prior to final countdown.
12 November 2009 - The Russian Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2), also known as Poisk, docked to the space- facing port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station earlier today. Poisk was launched aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday.
11 November 2009 - One of the four main ion engines of JAXA’s Asteroid Explorer "HAYABUSA" has stopped during the second propulsion period on its return journey back to Earth: It is due to arrive in June 2010. Since the anomaly was identified, the project team has been trying to restart the engine while investigating the causes; however, the engine has failed to restart. In the current plan, two thrusters will be used in the second propulsion period as operation of the third thruster was suspended due to instability just after the launch in May 2003. HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) was developed to investigate asteroids and is bringing back samples from the Itokawa asteroid named after the late Dr. Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japan’s space development program.
10 November 2009 - A new ISS module called Poisk, meaning Search, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome earlier today. The Mini-Research Module 2 was launched on top of a modified Progress Spacecraft by a Soyuz-U rocket. The module will join three others on the Russian segment of the ISS. The mission is due to dock with the Space Station on Thursday 12th November. This is the first of two mini-Modules, the second one called MRM-1 will be launched aboard the STS-132 mission targeted to launch in May 2010.
9 November 2009 - Prelaunch operations for the next Soyuz-U/Progress M-MRM2 launch continue at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Yesterday the stack was rolled-out from the integration facility to launch pad 1. Mini-research module MRM2 (Poisk) will become the fourth module in the Russian segment of the ISS. The module will be used for scientific experiments and to provide an additional docking port and EVA airlock. Poisk is due to be launched on November 10, at 17.22 Moscow time.
6 November 2009 - Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, has been appointed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to the NASA Advisory Council, a federally chartered body of experts that provides advice and counsel directly to the NASA Administrator. Additionally, Alexander has been selected to chair the newly formed Commercial Space Committee of the NASA Advisory Council. Following his appointment, Alexander attended a meeting of the full NASA Advisory Council on October 29 at the NASA Ames Research Center, which included discussions with NASA Administrator Bolden, Ames Center Director Dr. Pete Worden, and NASA Advisory Council Chair Dr. Kenneth Ford. According to NASA, “the NASA Advisory Council provides the NASA Administrator with counsel and advice on programs and issues of importance to the Agency and presents any findings and recommendations to the NASA Administrator on a quarterly basis.” Speaking about his appointment Alexander said: “It is a deep honor to be appointed by the Administrator to serve on the NASA Advisory Council. I believe the Administrator recognizes that the success of NASA’s exploration activities must involve commercial spaceflight and I look forward to chairing the Commercial Space Committee.
6 November 2009 - The initial two Soyuz vehicles for Arianespace's operation from the Spaceport in French Guiana are being loaded aboard the MN Colibri transport ship in St. Petersburg, Russia this week in preparation for their transatlantic crossing to South America. These vehicles will depart the Russian port city on November 7 for a 5,119-nautical mile Atlantic Ocean crossing, which is to take 15 days. The MN Colibri roll-on/roll-off vessel - which is one of two sea-going ships used by Arianespace in the regular transportation of launchers from Europe to South America - will dock at Pariacabo port near Kourou, where the Soyuz vehicles will be unloaded and transported by road to the Spaceport.
5 November 2009 - Dr K Radhakrishnan, Member, Space Commission and Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, assumed the office of Chairman, Space Commission, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on October 31, 2009. The outgoing Chairman of ISRO, Dr G Madhavan Nair, during his tenure from September 2003 to October 2009, was responsible for the realisation of 25 successful launch vehicle and spacecraft missions with the pinnacle of his achievement being the successful realisation of India`s first un-manned mission to the Moon Chandrayaan-1. Dr Madhavan Nair also operationlised the launch of multiple satellites using PSLV and was responsible for launch of 18 satellites for international customers and for bagging commercial satellite ventures such as W2M and Hylas for European customers. Dr Madhavan Nair is also credited with providing the second vision for the Indian Space Programme.
4 November 2009 – The launch of the Atlas V Intelsat-14 mission is proceeding as planned with the launch currently scheduled for Saturday, November 14 with a launch window of 12:48-2:18 a.m. EST, just past midnight of Friday evening, November 13.The launch will take place from Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida
2 November 2009 –The second satellite in ESA’s Earth Explorer series – the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission – and the second demonstration satellite under ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) were launched into orbit last night from northern Russia. They were launched by a Rockot launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 02:50 CET this morning. SMOS will play a key role in the monitoring of climate change on a global scale. It is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil moisture on a global scale. It features a unique interferometric radiometer that will enable passive surveying of the water cycle between oceans, the atmosphere and land. Travelling piggyback on the launch of SMOS, Proba-2 is a follow-on to the highly successful Proba-1 satellite launched in 2001. It will demonstrate 17 advanced satellite technologies –such as miniaturised sensors for ESA's future space probes and a highly sophisticated CCD camera with a wide angle view of about 120º – while carrying a set of four science instruments to observe the Sun and study the plasma environment in orbit. Some 70 minutes after launch, SMOS successfully separated from the Rockot’s Breeze-KM upper stage. Shortly after, the satellite’s initial telemetry was acquired by the Hartebeesthoek ground station, near Johannesburg, South Africa. The upper stage then performed additional manoeuvres to arrive at a slightly lower orbit and Proba-2 was released too, some 3 hours into flight. Both satellites are currently circling the Earth on their respective sun-synchronous orbits, at an altitude of some 760 km in the case of SMOS and 725 km in that of Proba-2. The Proteus mission control centre operated by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse, France, is in control of SMOS on behalf of ESA, while the Proba control centre, at ESA’s tracking station in Redu, Belgium, has taken over Proba-2.
2 November 2009 - The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Demonstration Flight successfully re-entered the atmosphere after the third de-orbit maneuver at around 5:53am today (Japan Standard Time). The HTV Demonstration Flight successfully accomplished its initial objective of shipping cargo to the International Space Station, and completed all of its tasks during its 52 day mission.
If you have any events you would like included in our reports then please contact:
|
 |
