Recently in Satellites Category

So last Thursday, the 31st January, was the 50th anniversary of the US coming second in the race to space and according to this some people want to recreate the other space event American came second in, putting a man in space - well best of luck with that

Over at Mars blog Thomas James has a think about an RIA Novosti report of a Russian space programme veteran's apparent revelation that Gagarin was not the first man in space. But the report just seems to be a re-hash of this 2001 Pravda report to me

When I was in Russia in 2005 I asked about the theories that Gagarin was not the first man in space. It is not a question the Russians like to hear. I was talking to a lecturer of the Moscow Bauman State University and he denied any suggestion that Gagarin was not the fist man to orbit the Earth but he was open to the idea that there may have been suborbital flights before Yuri

January 2007 saw the Chinese shoot down one of their own satellites at an altitude of about 800km (496miles) resulting in an international outcry and a lot of debris

We hear that the Russians and the Americans both tested ASAT missiles in the 1980s but knocked out satellites at much lower altitudes avoiding the space debris problem China has now given the world

So have the Great Powers, in their inifinite wisdom, abandoned ASAT technology? No, silly!

In my humble opinion this US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme called Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits (SUMO) is exactly that

As if the name is not enough, its website blurb says, "SUMO can remove and install Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) and replenish propellant and pressurant. For spacecraft with compatible interfaces, SUMO can perform station-keeping and attitude control and modify the spacecraft's orbit [emphasis added]."

But somehow I can imagine that this SUMO spacecraft could "modify" an orbit even if the target satellite does not have a "compatible interface"

Here you can watch a video of it doing its thing

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced that it has carried out observations using two of Kaguya lunar orbiter's onboard sensors, the laser altimeter and sounder mode of the lunar radar sounder

However JAXA has not been so lucky with an Earth observation satellite

While in Russia Khrunichev Space Center prepares one of its Proton rockets for a satellite launch

As Proton user, International Launch Services, celebrates its first year separate from Lockheed Martin Eutelsat places an oder for a new spacecraft from EADS Astrium

And, care of Hobbyspace.com, Popular Mechanics has this article about an allegedly radical new solar energy technology. Reading it I am highly dubious it works. I agree with some of the comments below the article. Hydrogen is not an easy element to work with. It has to be cryogenically stored for many applications, and I would imagine for a heat transfer device like the one described, that is also necessary. Many materials are very porous where hydrogen is concerned so the idea of using such a gas in a "closed system" sounds bogus

Aviation Week is reporting Chang'e-1 is going to get very cold and without sunlight for a long 5.5h soon, suggesting the Chinese might not see much more of their lunar explorer

While the South Koreans have apparently already lost contact with their first satellite

But for the Israeli's there is hope that their synthetic aperture radar satellite will be flying soon

According to this the Russians are aiming for 13, unlucky for some, satellite launches in 2008

And finally, here is a report about Sea Launch's next launch, which the company's website confirms is its resumption of operations since the disastrous on-pad Yuzhnoye Zenit-3SL explosion it suffered back in January last year

Chairforce Engineer is laying down the law when it comes to what he thinks needs to be done to open up space to the masses and apparently it involves achieving minor successes such as developing anti-gravity - easy when you know how of course

This news just in, the Romanian manned spaceflight organisation ARCA has put its latest mission video on youtube

Now back to our planned broadcast...

So far, so good for China's Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter as the sort-of-communist country prepares to switch on the spacecraft's instruments to start scanning the Earth's only natural satellite.

A good demonstration of China's growing competence in space systems the country apparently is now aiming to substantially improve its spacecraft's levels of electronics reliability - something else to give US and European satellite manufacturers nightmares

Apparently China has now confirmed what Flight had already reported last month, that it is prepared to allow private enterprise a role in its space programmes

Meanwhile China's Asian billion-people rival India pushes ahead with its cryogenic upper stage work and discusses joint Moon missions with the Russians

Space Daily thinks that Russia only intends to stay at its Baikonur, Kazakhstan cosmodrome for another 12 years.

This has sort of been rumoured, well bar the precise date, for some time as Russia has been trying to develop its Angara family of rockets to achieve Baikonur-like orbital capabilities but from its northern launch complex at Plesetsk instead. And of course Soyuz is to be launched from French Guiana in a joint venture with the European Space Agency so in a way dumping a launch pad that is actually in another country with whom your relations can allegedly be fraught makes sense.

On the other hand this report is sheer nonsense. Well, Russia may plan more modules for the ISS but, a, that would require a lot more power, and, b, it is still official policy among the ISS partners, at the moment to de-orbit the thing in 2016...

Chinese state media is reporting all is go for its Chang’e 1 probe, while Japan’s Kaguya/Selene spacecraft is also readying itself for lunar probing

China’s state media is also reporting that seven Chinese citizens have booked flights with Virgin Galactic

Meanwhile astronauts entered the newly attached International Space Station's Italian built Node 2 module over the weekend and discovered mystery metal shavings while moving other bits of the ISS around

In Russia they are more concerned with planetary defence

And finally Space.com is reporting about the US defense department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's solar thermal propulsion work and NASAWatch.com has video of VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine testing

More stuff as always from hobbyspace.com

The head of India's space agency worries about the fact that Google Earth has the capability to get images that show things governments would rather people could not see. Well personally I would be very happy to have an independent civilian organisation monitor what is going on, who trusts governments, elected or otherwise, anyway?

Hobbyspace in this blog entry links to this article about how three years after SpaceShipOne there is no obvous sign of major progress. And we can expect more articles like this, not just because the wider media's journalists know nothing about aerospace development but also because the personal spaceflight industry itself has got to do better or investment interest will evaporate.

Space Politics has more on NASA's budget woes

NASASpaceflight.com apparently has some detail about NASA's Lunar Lander progress. Flight reported on the Lander's project office's plans back in July with an expected first design analysis cycle to be completed by August.

Russia is to provide instruments for Moon and Mars missions according to this report

The US Senate has passed an amendment to the appropriations bill that includes NASA's budget to give the US space agency an extra $1 billion. But its not obviously good news, the US House of Representatives has passed its version of the relevant appropriations bill but I am not aware of any extra billion from them. And under US law the Senate and House have to come together to agree a final appropriations bill, and so this amendment could be a very temporary. At the moment NASA is being funded for its 2008 fiscal year that started on 1 October under what is called a continuing resolution, which is what NASA was funded by for its last fiscal year. That resolution is essentially the appropriated 2006 budget.

Cosmiclog podners the next 50 years of spaceflight

Leonard David has a look at what people can expect to see at the forthcoming X Prize Cup

Hobbyspace.com's spacetransportnews.com has plenty of links for everything from the LA Times debate about space with transterrestrial musing's Rand Simberg to the North Dakota student rocket initiative.

Aviation Week and Space Technology has reported that the US Senate has killed plans from the Missle Defense Agency to develop a space based test bed, which means anti-ICBM missiles in space, I think.

MSNBC reports on Russian celebrations of Sputnik. And if you're still hungry for Sputnik stuff then there is this clutch of links from spacetransportnewws.com or you can see ex-NASA engineer and author Jim Oberg's writings on the subject here and here or you could even checkout Flight's Sputnik stuff here.