Washington (AFP) Nov 24, 2007 - Astronauts at the International Space Station completed a seven-hour space walk hundreds of miles above Earth on Saturday, fixing up equipment to develop the orbiting laboratory, the US space agency NASA said.
RAF Fairford, UK (AFNS) Nov 22, 2007 - When the Space Shuttle Atlantis, mission number STS-122, launches on Dec. 6, a world will stand watching. While it takes a massive crew to get the shuttle off the ground, there will be hundreds more waiting after the blast off. They are ground crew members of the Space Shuttle Transatlantic abort landing sites, one of NASA's just in case options if anything should go wrong with a launch. RAF Fairford is one of nine sites around the world.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 22, 2007 - Plans to launch Russian rockets from a space center near Kourou in French Guiana are under threat from raids on its equipment and territory, a contractor said on Wednesday. Vladimir Grezdilov, general director of the Mir company, which has a contract to build a mobile tower for Soyuz-ST carrier rockets, said the company was the victim of ongoing raids from a private security firm.
Samara (RIA Novosti) Nov 22, 2007 - Russia will start launches of manned spacecraft from a future space center in Russia's Far East in 2018, a first deputy prime minster said on Wednesday. On November 6, the Russian president signed a decree on the construction of a new space center, to be named Vostochny, in the Amur Region, Sergei Ivanov said at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in Samara, in the Volga region.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 22, 2007 - The launch of a Zenit-3SL rocket with a Thuraya-3 communications satellite from the Pacific Ocean has been delayed for a sixth time due to poor weather conditions, a Russian Mission Control spokesman said Wednesday. The launch has been delayed for an indefinite time. The satellite may be launched tomorrow or later. It depends on the weather and the Sea Launch company's decision, the spokesman said.
Houston TX (SPX) Nov 21, 2007 - International Space Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani wound up a 7-hour, 16-minute spacewalk to outfit the Harmony node in its new position in front of the U.S laboratory Destiny at 12:26 p.m. EST Tuesday. With the Harmony Node 2 attached to its permanent home on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory, the spacewalkers hooked up electrical and fluid connections between the two modules.
Muncie IN (SPX) Nov 21, 2007 - Short but intense sessions of exercise may help women on bed rest stay strong and recuperate more quickly, according to a NASA-funded study by researchers at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind. The findings of the first comprehensive bed rest study focusing exclusively on women will help NASA develop more effective countermeasures to mitigate strength and muscle loss in female astronauts on long-duration missions.
Beijing (XNA) Nov 21, 2007 - The country's next-generation launch vehicles for heavyweight satellites or space stations will be ready to blast off by 2013, a senior official has said. The Long March 5 launch vehicle, to be made in the Binhai New Area of the northern coastal city of Tianjin, will be 59.4 meters long, with a launch weight of 643 tons and a lift-off thrust of 825 tons, Zhang Yanhe, deputy director of the Tianjin Office of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, said.
Houston TX (SPX) Nov 20, 2007 - SPACEHAB announced that in accordance with the milestone requirements of the previously announced Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA, the Company hosted a formal Systems Requirements Review of its Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilization Spacecraft (ARCTUS) on October 25-26 at its Houston Headquarters facility. Attendees included representatives from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, United Launch Alliance, Cimarron, Inc., and Lockheed Martin.
Beijing (UPI) Nov 20, 2007 - Chinese space officials announced Tuesday a manned spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in October 2008, shortly after the Beijing Olympic Games.
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Nov 20, 2007 - The SIRIUS 4 communications satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin for SES SIRIUS, was successfully launched today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Liftoff occurred at 4:39 a.m. (5:39 p.m. EST on Nov. 17) aboard a Proton/Breeze M launch vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS). Initial contact with the satellite was confirmed at 3:58 a.m. EST from the Lockheed Martin satellite tracking station in Uralla, Australia.
Beijing (XNA) Nov 19, 2007 - China has finished enclosing land for its fourth satellite launch centre near Wenchang City on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. The Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre covers an area of 20 square kilometres, it will include a command centre, in addition to a rocket-launching site, rocket assembly plant, and a space-science theme park.
Las Cruces NM (SPX) Nov 19, 2007 - A new launch pad being built in New Mexico will host the first escape systems tests for NASA's Orion capsule, the successor to the space shuttle. The new pad, based at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, will be the site for a series of tests for the Orion's launch abort system -- a rocket-powered escape tower that will pull a manned capsule free from its booster if an emergency occurs, Space.com reported Wednesday.
Brasilia (AFP) Nov 19, 2007 - Brazil is to plow 28 billion dollars into science and technology over the next three years in an effort to boost its competivity, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday.
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 19, 2007 - U.S. space agency officials are facing sharp questions from U.S. lawmakers over a five-year gap in American spaceflight capabilities between the planned 2010 retirement of the space shuttle fleet and the anticipated development of a successor vehicle. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, where NASA administrators testified before Congress Thursday.
Paris (RIA Novosti) Nov 19, 2007 - The first launch of a Soyuz carrier rocket from a space center near Kourou in French Guiana will be conducted in 2009, Russia's space chief said on Friday. The first Soyuz [carrier rocket] will lift off from Kourou in 2009, said Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, who is currently attending a meeting of the Russian-French commission on cooperation in space research.
