Following a successful launch on 22 May, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft spent two days chasing the International Space Station and on 25 May was ready to attempt getting into position for capture by the stations robotic arm. The capsule conducted tests of its positioning laser to cautiously approach the station until it was at a distance of 10 metres. Once there astronuat Don Pettit manoeuvered the robotic arm to capture the craft at 1356 GMT. Once captured the robotic arm moved the spacecraft to dock with the Earth facing port of the Harmony module of the station. Docking took place at 1602 GMT. The craft will be opened up on 26 May and the cargo unloaded. Once unloaded the craft will have the results of science experiments loaded into it and will undock on 31 May. Once undocked the Dragon capsule will return to Earth, re-entering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean to be recovered.

After Saturday's aborted launch attempt of the Falcon 9, a second attempt on 22 May was carried out successfully. The vehicle launched at 0744 GMT from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Now in orbit the Dragon spacecraft will be conducting several tests on its chase to rendezvous with the International Space Station. The biggest test of the craft will be the safe rendezvous, approach and docking with the station. If all goes well the Dragon craft will be captured by the stations robotic arm and dock with the station on 25 May. The craft is carrying non-essential cargo for the station and once successfully docked this will be unloaded. Under the current schedule the Dragon will remain docked with the ISS until 31 May. Once undocked the craft is planned to be deorbited over the Pacific Ocean and conduct a controlled re-entry, parachute descent and then splash down 300 miles of the the western coast of Southern California and then be recovered. If all the tests of the spacecraft are successful this will clear the way for SpaceX to start commercial re-supply missions to the Space Station under a contract with NASA. The first of these missions is currently planned for August this year.

Citing safety and environmental concerns a Russian Defence Ministry report is recommending the end of using old RS-20 (SS-18, Satan missile) ICBM's for space launches. The RS-20's were called the Dnepr when converted for space launches. The first launch of the Dnepr as a space launcher took place in 1999. Since then there have been a further 16 launches of the vehicle with one failure which happened in 2006. Recent launches have suffered from numerous delays due to the failure of the Russian and Kazakhstan governments to agree on the drop zones for the first and second stages of the vehicle.

An ILS Proton Breeze M rocket successfully launched the Nimiq 6 commercial communications satellite for the satellite operator Telesat at 1912 GMT on 17 May from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan.  After a 9 hour 14 minute 5-burn mission, the Breeze M upper stage successfully released the satellite into its planned geostationary transfer orbit.  The satellite, which uses a version of the Space Systems Loral, SS/L-1300 bus design, will use its on-board propulsion to positition itself into its final geostationary Earth orbit position.

 

 

The Japanese climate change monitoring satellite GCOM-W1 (Shizuku) was launched successfully at 1639 GMT on 17th May 2012 by a Japanese H-2A202 launch vehicle.  The lift off took place at Japan's main launch site at Tanegashima. Also aboard was the South Korean Earth observation satellite Kompsat 3 and two small satellites: the Houryuu 2 (aka Houryuu 2) amateur radio satellite and the experimental satellite SDS 4.

As the Malaysian satellite operator Measat sues Intelsat over an alleged breach of contract and for alleged lost earnings due to a damage-related launch delay, Measat has revealed details about exactly how the damage was done to its Measat 3A satellite.

While it was known that the Measat 3A communications satellite was struck by an overhead crane hook duriing its Baikonur launch preparations in August 2008 (for which led a pre-launch insurance claim was paid out), less well known is that in November 2008, as the spacecraft was being loaded into its transport aircraft on its way back to the satellite's maker, Orbital Sciences, for repairs, the Measat 3A satellite was accidently dropped by another crane.  In the end Measat 3A was returned and successfully repaired, and was finally launched by a Zenit 3 SLB rocket flying from Baikonur in June 2009.

After Internatioal Space Station Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers played Sir Elton John's famous song Rocket Man to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the song, so now the 65 year old singer has sent up a video of a live version which he performed in Las Vegas, also to celebrate the 40th anniversary.  

The United Kingdom's Institude of Directors (IoD) has commissioned a report into Britain's Space Industry.  The report called Space: Britain's New Space Infrastructure  notes how well the space business is doing in the United Kingdom.  While it reports that this is mainly on the back of "downstream" activities like satellite television and space insurance, it also states that Britain has found itself a successful niche role in spacecraft manufacturing via  Astrium and Surrey Satelltie Technology Limited (both firms are owned by EADS).   

As it notes the growth of commercial orbital and suborbital space launch providers in the world, and reports the UK firm Reaction Engines' progress with its Skylon spaceplane technology studies (this writer is a small shareholder in the firm) the report has called for the construction of a spaceport with an extra long runway in the UK to allow it and other reusable launch operators to use.

Comment by David Todd:  This spaceport idea is probably a good one but it should be built on UK territory rather than on the UK mainland.  While Scotland could be used as a launch site for polar and sun-synchronous missions (northbound flights would not overfly any built up areas)  for most other orbits it is important to be as close to the equator as possible (this increases the velocity boost from the Earth's spin - for Eastbound flights - and reduces the amout of orbital inclination needed for removal for those boosted satellite missions heading for geostationary Earth orbit - GEO).  As such the UK's territory of Ascension Island in the Atlantic would be ideal for a space port/launch site.  And it could also be used for polar/sun-synchronous flights as well.

The Russian military spacecraft designated Cosmos 2480 was successfully launched at 1405 GMT on 17 May by a Soyuz U launch vehicle flying from the Plesetsk launch site in Northern Russia.  The spacecraft is believed to be a Yantar-4K2M (Kobalt M) class military reconnaissance satellite.