30 October 2009 - NASA has cleared space shuttle Atlantis for launch on November 16. The shuttle is targeted to begin an 11-day flight to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a liftoff scheduled for 2:28pm EST. Atlantis' launch date was announced yesterday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready. The target date depends on the planned November 14 launch of an Atlas V rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Atlas has reserved the Eastern Range on November 14 and 15. If the Atlas launch is delayed to November 15, the shuttle’s liftoff will move to no earlier than 2:02pm on November 17. The STS-129 mission will focus on storing spare hardware on the exterior of the space station. The flight will include three spacewalks and install two platforms on the station's truss, or backbone. The platforms will hold spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttle fleet is retired.
29 October 2009 – Today’s sixth Ariane 5 flight of 2009 marked another success for the launcher as it carried the first satellite launched by Arianespace for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting AS – THOR 6, along with the 32nd spacecraft from the SES group of companies – NSS-12. Lifting off at 5:00pm local time from the Spaceport in French Guiana, the Ariane 5 deployed the two television broadcast satellites during a mission lasting 31 minutes. It was the 48th flight of an Ariane 5 and its 34th success in a row."This latest success confirms that Ariane 5 is the commercial market’s only operational launcher capable of simultaneously launching two large direct television broadcast satellites,” said Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall. This mission with NSS-12 continues Arianespace’s 25-year relationship of uninterrupted cooperation with the SES Group of companies, which was initiated in 1984 with the launch of Spacenet 1 on the inaugural commercial Ariane mission performed by Arianespace. The NSS-12 satellite was released first during today’s launch, being deployed at 26 minutes into the flight. THOR 6 was carried in the lower passenger position of Ariane 5’s payload “stack,” and it separated from the launcher at 31 minutes into the flight. Arianespace’s next mission is planned for early December with the Helios 2B French military reconnaissance satellite, marking Ariane 5’s final flight of this year.
28 October 2009 - Arianespace's sixth Ariane 5 flight of 2009 has been approved for its October 29 liftoff following a launch readiness review (October 27), performed at the Spaceport in French Guiana. This traditional milestone prior to every Ariane mission validated the heavy-lift launch vehicle's status, along with the NSS-12 and THOR 6 satellite payloads, the infrastructure at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana and the network of downrange tracking stations. The readiness review clears Ariane 5 for transfer from the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch zone, followed by a final countdown leading to the liftoff during a 1 hour 40 minute launch window that opens on October 29 at 5:00pm local time in French Guiana. Ariane 5's payload lift performance for this latest mission is 9,515kg, which includes a combined total of about 8,700kg for the NSS-12 and THOR 6 spacecraft, plus the launch vehicle's dual-passenger dispenser system and satellite integration hardware.
27 October 2009 – The launch of the Ares I-X rocket was postponed today due to bad weather at launch site. The launch window was from 08.00 – noon. Another attempt will be made tomorrow to launch the first flight test for the agency's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares-1.
27 October 2009 – In a busy day for the cosmodrome a train with the Soyuz TMA-17 crew vehicle arrived this morning at Turatam station in Baiknour. The vehicle will undergo prelaunch processing at Baikonur`s site 254. Soyuz TMA-15 was manufactured at the RSC-Energia plant. It will transport a crew of three to the International Space Station in a launch planned for late December. The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft will remain attached to the ISS for six months before returning with three crew members.
27 October 2009 – Today a Russian An-124 aircraft has delivered the Intelsat 15 satellite to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After the customs clearance, the satellite and the auxiliary equipment was loaded onto the transport platform and delivered to site 31 for further prelaunch processing. Intelsat 15 was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation and is based on the STAR-2 platform. It will be launched by a Zenith-2SB with DM-SLB upper stage in late November.
26 October 2009 - NASA is set to launch its Ares I-X rocket tomorrow morning at 08.00am EDT. It will be NASA's first flight test for the new launch vehicle, which is central to the agency's plans for human spaceflight after the shuttle fleet, is retired.
23 October 2009 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) by H-IIA Launch Vehicle in 2010. AKATSUKI, which is Japanese for Dawn, will enter the orbit of Venus about six months after its launch, and will take some two years to explore the atmosphere of Venus. JAXA would like to enhance people's interest in the project by holding a "message campaign" in which the public can send messages that will be printed in fine letters on an aluminum plate and placed aboard AKATSUKI. Messages will be accepted from anywhere in the world. To send a message in English visit: http://www.jaxa.jp/event/akatsuki/index_e.html
22 October 2009 – SpaceX has successfully conducted two static firings of the first stage, nine engine cluster for its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The firings took place at SpaceX's Texas Test Site, a 300-acre structural and propulsion testing facility just outside of Waco, Texas. With completion of these tests, the first stage has now passed both structural and propulsion acceptance testing and will ship to Cape Canaveral next month in preparation for the first flight of Falcon 9. The first test fired for 10 seconds and occurred on October 12th at approximately 7:30 pm CDT. The second test began around 4:30 pm CDT on October 16th, and lasted 30 seconds. The first stage of Falcon 9 uses a cluster of nine SpaceX-designed and developed Merlin engines. Using rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, the cluster generates nearly a million pounds of thrust for the vehicle upon liftoff. The Merlin engine is one of the only liquid rocket engines designed in the United States in the last few decades, and is now among the highest performing gas generator cycle kerosene engines ever built, exceeding the Boeing Delta II main engine, the Lockheed Martin Atlas II main engine, and on par with the Saturn V F-1 engine.
21 October 2009 - Payload integration of Arianespace's sixth Ariane 5 for launch in 2009 has begun at the Spaceport, with the mission's lower payload - THOR 6 for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting - now installed on the heavy-lift vehicle. This activity is taking place inside the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building, where the Ariane 5 has entered its last phase of preparations leading to an evening liftoff on October 29. THOR 6 is located as the lower passenger, and will be joined by SES WORLD SKIES' NSS-12 spacecraft - which is to ride in the upper position of Ariane 5's payload "stack."
20 October 2009 - For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new vehicle is sitting at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ares I-X flight test vehicle arrived at the pad atop of a giant crawler-transporter at approximately 7:45 a.m. EDT Today. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m. The vehicle is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on October 27. This test flight of the Ares I-X rocket will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle. The Ares I rocket is being designed to carry astronauts to space in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Ares I-X test flight also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the vehicle's integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system. Data collected from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will begin to confirm the vehicle as a whole is safe and stable in flight before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.
20 October 2009 - NASA is targeting November 16 for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-129 mission from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Managers for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate met yesterday and decided to adjust Atlantis' target launch date to optimize the agency's ability to launch both Ares I-X and Atlantis before the end of the year. The same launch team at Kennedy is supporting both the shuttle and the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, which is targeted to lift off on October 27. Ares I-X is scheduled to roll out to its launch pad at 12:01 a.m. EDT later today. Atlantis' new target launch date will give Ares I-X launch opportunities October 27, 28 and 29. NASA has yet to schedule Atlantis' new target liftoff date on the Eastern Range. The change to Atlantis' targeted launch will affect the launch countdown dress rehearsal for the shuttle's six astronauts. The astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test and related training. The simulated countdown has been rescheduled to November 3. The astronauts will practice emergency escape and other related training while they are at Kennedy this week and return there November 2 to conclude their rehearsal work.
19 October 2009 - NASA has rescheduled the rollout of the Ares I-X rocket to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tomorrow. The 4.2-mile journey is expected to last about seven hours. The rollout of Ares I-X originally was set for today however during testing last Wednesday engineers detected a nitrogen gas leak in an accumulator located in the aft skirt of the rocket. The accumulator, which absorbs hydraulic pressure spikes as the system operates, was replaced and successfully retested. Management is assessing what effect, if any, this delayed rollout will have on the targeted launch date of October 27.
17 October 2009 – Intelsat has two major launches coming up in November: Intelsat 14 on a Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida and Intelsat 15 satellites on Land Launch Zenith rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The company is also involved in a third launch, slated for the fourth quarter of 2009. The THOR 6 satellite, which will provide high power direct-to-home (DTH) television services, is scheduled for launch on Thursday, 29 October aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana. In September 2007, Intelsat contracted with Telenor to procure 10 Ku-band transponders on the THOR 6 satellite, which will be operated at 0.8º West, providing capacity for Intelsat’s 1º West customers. THOR 5, based at the 0.8° W Longitude orbital position and launched in 2008, and THOR 6 are replacement satellites in Telenor Satellite Broadcasting's replacement program for THOR 2 and THOR 3.
16 October 2009 - The seventh and final Ariane 5 for launch in 2009 has begun its assembly process in French Guiana. This latest vehicle is taking shape inside the Launcher Integration Building at Europe's Spaceport, and it will be built up on one of two mobile launch tables operational for Ariane 5. The other launch table currently is in the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building with an Ariane 5 that is being readied for a launch later this month, carrying the NSS-12 and THOR 6 satellites.
15 October 2009 - Ministers from the 29 European Space Agency and European Union Member States will meet in Prague on 23 October for the 1st EU-ESA International Conference on Human Space Exploration, to prepare a roadmap leading to the definition of a common vision and strategic planning for space exploration. This first step in a process that will lead to the definition of a European vision in this field stems from a Resolution adopted by the 5th Space Council in September 2008. Besides Ministers and delegates from the EU, ESA and third countries, the conference will also be attended by Members of Parliament and representatives of industry and academia. The Prague Conference, which will take place at Stirin Castle south-east of Prague, will be a brainstorming session at a high political level where Ministers will have an opportunity to provide initial political guidelines to ESA and the EU on the development of a policy in the field of exploration of our solar system, going back to the Moon or reaching beyond to Mars.
14 October 2009 - NASA is partnering with the US Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a technology roadmap for the commercial reusable launch vehicle, or RLV, industry. "NASA is committed to stimulating the emerging commercial reusable launch vehicle industry," said Lori Garver, deputy administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "There is a natural evolutionary path from today's emerging commercial suborbital RLV industry to growing and developing the capability to provide low-cost, frequent and reliable access to low Earth orbit. One part of our plan is to partner with other federal agencies to develop a consensus roadmap of the commercial RLV industry's long-range technology needs." The study will focus on identifying technologies and assessing their potential use to accelerate the development of commercial reusable launch vehicles that have improved reliability, availability, launch turn-time, robustness and significantly lower costs than current launch systems. The study results will provide roadmaps with recommended government technology tasks and milestones for different vehicle categories. The study will begin at the Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange 2009, held in Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 26-29. NASA and the Air Force Research Lab, with participation from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, will meet with representatives from the commercial RLV industry to explore and understand their long-range growth plans and the technology they could use to implement those plans successfully.
13 October 2009 - This morning the Soyuz-U/Progress M-03M assembly was rolled out from site 112 and erected on launch pad 1 at Baikonur. The launch is planned for Thursday and the vehicle is due to dock with the International Space Station on Sunday (October 18). Progress M-03M will deliver about 2.5 tonnes of cargo to the station, including propellant components, scientific equipment, air, water, food.
13 October 2009 – The pre-launch processing for the launch of Intelsat 14 on board a Atlas V launcher continues at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The propellants, which make up more than half the mass of the satellite at launch, finished loading on Friday and the launch service provider, United Launch Alliance, are now working on the optimum set of parameters to load into the guidance software of the Atlas V to ensure that Intelsat 14 is put into orbit exactly where it needs to be to garner the longest possible spacecraft lifetime.
12 October 2009 – The life of the ISS is expected to be extended beyond 2015 when its future is discussed by Space agency heads next year according to a news report from Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. The partners in the ISS are NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japanese and Canadian space agencies.
11 October 2009 - International Space Station Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt landed their Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft on the steppes of Kazakhstan earlier today, wrapping up a six-month stay. Joining them was spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte, who spent 11 days in space. Padalka, the Soyuz commander, guided the spacecraft to a parachute-assisted landing at a site northeast of the town of Arkalyk. Russian recovery teams were on hand within minutes of landing to help the crew exit from the Soyuz vehicle and reacclimate to gravity. The crew members will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, for reunions with their families. Padalka and Barratt spent 199 days in space and 197 days on the station after their March 26 launch. Laliberte launched with the Expedition 21 crew on a Soyuz vehicle September 30 and returned after nine days on the station. Padalka and Barratt presided over the inauguration of a six-person crew and two space shuttle assembly and resupply missions to the station. They also were station crew members during the delivery of tons of cargo and new science facilities for expanded research, and the arrival of the first Japanese H-II Transfer cargo vehicle. The station now is occupied by Expedition 21 Commander Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency and Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko and Max Suraev of Russia, Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Nicole Stott and Jeff Williams of NASA.
10 October 2009 – Yesterday engineers carried out fairing encapsulation on the Progress M-03M cargo vehicle at Baikonur. The launch of the Soyuz-U rocket with the Progress M-03M spacecraft on board is planned on Octber 15. The space freighter, the third of Russia's new generation of digitally controlled Progress vehicles, will deliver over 2.5 metric tons of suipplies to the ISS.
9 October 2009 - WorldView-2, the second of the DigitalGlobe’s next-generation of imaging Satellites, was successfully launched yesterday by Boeing Launch Services and United Launch Alliance aboard a Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch vehicle delivered the satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit where it will begin its mission of collecting and recording high-resolution, commercial, digital Earth imagery from space. DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 was also launched by a Delta II in September 2007.
8 October 2009 – The US Air Force has delayed the planned launch later this month of its Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite by a Minotaur 4 rocket until early 2010. The delay is due to technical issues with the Minotaur 4 launch vehicle. The Boeing-built SBSS spacecraft is designed to track objects in space, particularly in geosynchronous orbit above the equator.
7 October 2009 - Preparations continue at Plesetsk Cosmodrome for the 2 November launch of ESA`s Earth exploring spacecraft SMOS and the technology demonstrator Proba -2 on a Rockot launcher. A dry run of the launch is currently under way and during the next few days of the rehearsal all pre-flight activities and countdown procedure will be checked. The Rockot Booster Unit, the first two stages of the launcher, was transported to the launch pad on October 1 and then the Upper Composite (Breeze M upper stage/fairing stack) was lifted and installed on the boosters.
6 October 2009 - Space shuttle Atlantis will be moved to the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on October 13 for the STS-129 mission to the ISS. Atlantis is targeted to launch on November 12 on an 11-day cargo flight. The 3.4 mile journey to Launch Pad 39A is expected to take approximately six hours.
6 September 2009 - Stork Fokker and Dutch Space, part of the European EADS Astrium consortium, have signed an important agreement for production of Ariane 5 engine frames. The contract is for engine frames for at least 35 Ariane 5 launchers and represents a turnover value of at least US$44 million, spread over the period from 2009 to 2014. This order brings the total number of engine frames to be produced to 70, because Stork Fokker also produces the frames for the first and second stages of the rocket. Around 50 Stork Fokker employees are involved in this aerospace project. The contract between Dutch Space and Stork Fokker was officially signed in the Werkspoor Museum in Amsterdam on 30 September. An engine frame is the structure on which the rocket engine and all the associated equipment is mounted, and which transmits the engine’s thrust to the rest of the launch vehicle. The structure is subject to severe structural, thermal and acoustic loads, but must still be made as light as possible. It is a complex conical structure made of high-grade aluminium. The engine frame for the first stage has a diameter of 5.5 meters and a height of 3.5 meters, and weighs more than 1,500kg. Each frame consists of some 2000 components which are assembled at Stork Fokker in Hoogeveen.
6 October 2009 – SpaceX has successfully completed the acceptance testing of both the Falcon 9 first and second stages in preparation for the first flight of Falcon 9. Acceptance testing took place at SpaceX's Texas Test Site, a 300-acre structural and propulsion testing facility, located just outside of Waco, Texas. This recent series of tests subjected both stages to a variety of structural load and proof pressure tests to verify acceptability for flight. Acceptance testing began in late summer with the first stage and concluded last week at SpaceX's Texas facility with completion of acceptance testing for the second stage. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 is a demonstration flight, and is expected to occur one to three months after Falcon 9 arrival at Cape Canaveral next month. The final launch date will depend on range scheduling, weather conditions and time required to make adjustments for any vehicle-to-ground equipment interactions. For its first flight, Falcon 9 will launch a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit into orbit to provide SpaceX with valuable aerodynamic and performance information. The second flight of the Falcon 9/Dragon system is the first flight under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, a new commercial-government partnership under which SpaceX will demonstrate the ability to dock with the International Space Station, transfer cargo, and return cargo safely to Earth.
5 October 2009 - World Space Week began on Sunday with celebrations in over 50 nations and an announcement that President Obama will host a “Star Party” on the White House lawn Wednesday evening. The White House event for middle-school students will “highlight the President's commitment to science, engineering and math education as the foundation of this nation's global technological and economic leadership,” according to a White House statement. “The event will include 20 telescopes on the White House lawn focused on Jupiter, the Moon and select stars; interactive dome presentations; and hands-on activities including scale models of the Solar System,” the White House said. “This is the 10th anniversary of World Space Week, declared by the UN General Assembly in 1999,” said Association Volunteer President Dennis Stone. "The theme this year is Space for Education. Teachers can inspire students by using the excitement of space. It's a powerful tool to fuel their motivation to learn,“ Stone said.
4 October 2009 – The UN’s World Space Week begins today on the anniversary of the launch, by the USSR of Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, which occurred in 1957. The satellite was 58cm in diameter and weighed approximately 83.6kg. Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes. Sputnik`s R-7 booster had previously proven itself one month earlier as the world`s first ICBM in a successful long-range test flight. The UN General Assembly announced the week from October 4 to October 10 as World Space Week. Both dates are very important for space exploration as October 10, 1967, the Agreement on Space Exploration and Utilization which regulates space activities of the states was signed.
4 October 2009 - Russian scientists believe that a new spike of solar activity will happen 3 years later than expected. The conclusion is based on recent data acquired from the Russian Coronas-Photon satellite. Astrophysics had thought that a new maximum of solar activity would occur in 2011-2012. However, Coronas-Photon has provided information which makes the scientists believe that the peak will come in 2014-15 and will be about 1.5 times stronger than the previous spike in 2001. Coronas-Photon was launched on January 30 from the Plesetsk space port and is the first in a series of three satellites intended to study the behaviour of the Sun.
3 October 2009 - Prelaunch operations are continuing on the Progress M-03 cargo vehicle at Baikonur. The spacecraft, developed at RSC Energia, is the first of the third generation of the series which has upgraded on-board systems. The technical management has given permission for propellant and pressurized gas filling of the vehicle in readiness for it launch to the ISS on October 15.
2 October 2009 - The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft docked with the ISS early this morning in automatic mode. The astronauts and the space tourist, Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of the world-renowned acrobatic group Cirque du Soleil, opened the hatch and entered the ISS. The space capsule, carrying the Expedition 21 blasted off from Baikonur on Wednesday. The Expedition 21 crew will stay on the station for six months Laliberte will spend 12 days and nights at the space station, before returning to earth on board the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft together with Gennady Padalka and Michael Barratt, who have been at the orbital station since March.
1 October 2009 – Arianespace’s fifth launch of the year took place this evening at the spaceport in French Guiana carrying the civilian Amazonas 2 satellite for Spain's HISPASAT, along with the German COMSATBw-1 military telecommunications platform. The total lift performance for the launch was 9,087kg, which includes 7,905kg for the Amazonas 2 and COMSATBw-1 satellites, along with the mass of Ariane 5's SYLDA dual-payload dispenser and the associated integration hardware. Riding as the upper payload in the payload "stack," Amazonas 2 was released 27 minutes into the flight. The satellite will provide a wide range of telecommunications services over its coverage area extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. COMSATBw-1 was deployed from Ariane 5's lower passenger position at just over 33 minutes into the flight.
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