NASA - SPACEX Collaborative Dragon Demo Mission

With collaboration of NASA, Spacex launched its first private crew demonstration spacecraft "Dragon". The launch was successful from the historic apollo launch pad on board Falcon 9 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The launch took place as a part of Commercial Crew Program that established to design and test numerous infinite capabilities of new system. It will soon contribute the US nation in returning the astronauts and cosmonauts to moon as well as Mars (the new destination).

One of the most remarkable part of the space revolution is, the credit goes to the private firm SpaceX which established in 2002. Within 17 years it had reached a far distance in space and rocketry sciences due to its spontaneous hard work, dedication and sacrifice of spacex members.

The NASA is doing great with partnerships from private as well as public firms. Within few decades it is estimated that United States will soon reach Mars and will establish a beautiful colony there.

Platform to know more about Commercial Crew Program

Image Credit: NASA

Tags: SpaceX Dragon Demo Flight | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions

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ISRO PSLV-C44 Launch with Microsat-R | Kalamsat-1

PSLV-C44 lift-off from SDSC, Sriharikota

Highlights:

• ISRO launched its 46th flight from SDSC
• Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) carried Microsat-R and Kalamsat-1

India launched their Microsat-R and Kalamsat-V2 satellites onboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) on 24 January 2019 at 23:37 Hours Indian Standard Time (IST). The launch vehicle lifted-off from ISRO's first launch pad Satish Dhawan Space Center SHAR, Sriharikota.

It is assigned as 46th flight. Immediately after 13 minutes and 26 seconds into the flight, PSLV successfully injected the spacecraft into intended orbit. Along with ISRO's mission, one more small satellite called Kalamsat-V2 - a student satellite was also launched to use PS4 orbital platform.

Tags: ISRO launch PSLV-C44 | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions

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ISRO launched its 39th communication satellite GSAT-7A

GSLV-F11 standing on second launch pad SDSC, Sriharikota

Highlights:

• India launched its 13th heaviest launch vehicle GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)
• The rocket delivered 39th Indian Communication Satellite
• GSLV-F11 is Fourth Generation indigenous rocket with three stages 

On 19 December 2018, Indian Space Research Organisation shortly called ISRO launched its 39th communication satellite (GSAT-7A) onboard GSLV-F11 rocket from second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The launch was categorized under 13th heaviest flight of Geosynchronous Satellite launch vehicle and it also 7th flight with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage. The total lift-off (launch) mass was around 2250 kilograms including GSAT-7A. 

Application:

           The satellite was built and manufactured by ISRO for providing better communication over the Indian region.

Image Credit : Indian Space Research Organisation | ISRO

Image Source : https://www.isro.gov.in

Tags : ISRO GSLV Launch | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions

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SpaceX launches spy satellite

          Spacex going to launch United States first national security mission satellite - spy satellite for military applications. This navigation and military application satellite was scheduled to launch earlier. But the launch was triggered by onboard SpaceX's rocket (Falcon-9) computer.

This is a Global Positioning Satellite estimated cost around $500 million USD dollars. It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The satellite will be carried out by Space X's Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday morning local time.

Tags: SpaceX's new launch | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions

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GSAT-11 Successful Launch - India's Heaviest Communication Satellite

GSAT-11 Launch from Kourou, French, Guiana on 05 December 2018

     India launched its heaviest communication satellite "GSAT-11" on 5 December 2018 from Kourou launch site, French, Guiana onboard Ariane-5 VA-246. The satellite weighing 5854 kilograms. It is the heaviest satellite ever built by ISRO scientists.

     GSAT-11 is considered as pioneer in series of advanced communication satellite covering areas of India and neighbour Islands. It will be playing vital role in providing broadband communications and to demonstrate new technological applications.

     After the launch, GSAT-11 was placed in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and the mission control and management was undertaken by Master Control Facility located at Hassan. They will control orbital raising manoeuvres in placing in a circular geostationary orbit. The satellite is expected to work for a period of 15 Years. It is capable of producing 13.6 kW of power from earth orbit.

Know More about GSAT-11 - ISRO

Image Credit : Indian Space Research Organisation

Tags: GSAT-11 | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions 

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ISRO on HysIS Mission - Successfully launched PSLV-C43

PSLV-C43 carrying Hysis (India) and 30 international satellite form Sriharikotta, India

India's most successful launch vehicle PSLV-C43 ( Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle of C43 Series) lifted off from First launch pad on 29 November 2018 at 09:57 IST (Indian Standard Time) from Satish Dhawan Space Center (Sriharikotta - SHAR) carrying India's Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite along with 30 international satellites.

Hysis is a primary satellite having mass of 380 kilograms for earth observation. The satellite is configured with Mini Satellite-2 designated as (IMS-2).

Highlights:

• ISRO successfully launched PS:V-C43 on 29 November 2018
• It carried India's Earth Observational Satellite 
• It successfully placed 30 international satellites from 8 different countries

Mission Objectives:

• The primary objective is to study the earth's surface
• To study near infrared and short wave infrared regions of electromagnetic spectrum

Onboard Satellites:

        The PSLV-C43 consisted of 1 Micro Satellite and 29 Nano Satellites from 8 different countries.

Image Credit: ISRO

Tags: PSLV-C43 Launch | Launch Updates | Fornax Space Missions

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BepiColombo Launch 20 Oct 2018

Mission to the Mercury

BepiColombo launch from French Guiana

     A collaborative mission between European Space Agency and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency to the smallest planet in our solar system Mercury lifted off from launch pad at French Guiana Research Center, Kourou on 19th October 2018 at 02:45 AM according to UK standard time.

The spacecraft BepiColombo intended to spend 7 years cruise towards the planet. It will separate into two spacecraft and will conduct orbit around Mercury for a year. It is delineated that, the mission cost was around $2 billion USD dollars.

    The spacecraft was launched onboard Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle carrying the spacecraft together. It will explore and gather more information about the inner most planet in our solar system. This attempt was so long since Messenger intended to flyby observations.

    BepiColombo planned to begin its observation in December 2025 following the series of one of Earth flybys, two to Venus and six flybys to Mercur. Travelling from Earth's orbit to Mercury takes longer time. Perhaps, it allows scientists and engineers to test their instruments onboard before reaching Mercury's orbit.

    It has Mercury Planetary Orbiter designed and built by European Space Agency | Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter built by Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

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ESA's 100th Successful Ariane 5 Launch

Ariane 5 lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana    Credit: Ariane Space

     European Space Agency celebrates its 100th launch of Ariane 5 Rocket. On 26 September 2018, Ariane 5 delivered Horizon-3e and Intelsat-38 telecom satellites into their orbits.

     The lift-off took place at 22:38 GMT from Kourou, French Guiana. The mission duration was about 42 minutes. Horizons-3e had a launch mass of 6441 kilograms and the Intelsat-38 was about 3500 kilograms.

     Upon success, ESA reached a milestone of achieving 100 launches of Ariane 5 launch vehicle. To make this event remarkable, ESA released 100 limited-edition T-Shirts via ESAshop.

     Hats-off for great excellence of achieving 100 successful launches of Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

References:

• Information was retrieved from ESA's official site https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Ariane_5_100_and_counting on 28 September 2018.

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ISRO launches two foreign satellites NovaSAR and S1-4 from Sriharikota

PSLV-C42 Launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR

Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched two foreign satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) located at Sriharikota Range on 16 September 2018. It was aimed to launch two Earth Observation Satellites named NovaSAR and S1-4 ( a total mass of about 889 kilograms). This satellites were from United Kingdom and the launch was a commercial arrangement from Antrix Corporation Limited, Department of Space, India.

PSLV-C42 successfully injected both the satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit after its launch. NovaSAR is a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Rader Satellite intended for forest mapping, ice covering and disaster monitoring. S1-4 is a high resolution EOS (Earth Observation Satellite) intended for surveying resources and environmental monitoring.

Credits:

Image Credit : ISRO

Information Source: PSLV-C42/ISRO

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Insight Mars Lander Launch

Insight Mars Lander on Atlas-V Rocket at Vandenburg launch pad

     NASA's mission to Mars to study the Interior part of Mars with the launch of Insight Mars Lander on 5th May 2018. It will the first mission to be launched from Canada. The lander will be launched in May-June Mars launch window, which is determined by Hohmann Transfer Orbit. ( The cheap and most fuel saving path for Mars). 

   This lander was designed and constructed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory a part of California Institute of Technology.The lander will be carried out by Atlas-V class launch vehicle.

About Insight Mars Lander:

Insight Lander

     It is a robotic lander designed to study the interior and subsurface of Mars. This study will help scientists to understand the history of Earth and Solar system. The expectation of the arrival is around November 2018. It carries two science instruments additionally to deploy during EDL phase to perform radio science experiment. They are Seismometer and heat probe to study the internal structure of Mars.

Backronym: InSight

InSight - Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport. 

Successfully Launched:

     Rocket of United Alliance (Atlas-V) lifted-off from the Space Launch Complex-3 that is Vandenburg Air Force Base, California.  The lift-off was on 4:05 AM at PDT time and 7:05 AM at EDT time. It will be the first mission to look beneath the Martian surface.

Credits:

Image and Text  : NASA

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Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy standing on launch pad

     Falcon Heavy is a giant reusable heavy launch vehicle designed and manufactured by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Its two Falcon-9 first stages and one Falcon-9 rocket makes it a powerful rocket.  It has variable payload lift capability which increases from 63,800 kilograms to Low Earth Orbit. It became world's fourth highest capacity rocket built ever after the Saturn-V and Energia rockets. It was designed to carry humans into space including Moon.

First Successful Launch:

     SpaceX made a history by launching its first heavy vehicle on 6 February 2018 at 3:45 pm according to European Standard Time. It carried a dummy payload "Roadster". It design and manufacture struggling started from September 2005, finally its made its achievement on Feb 6,2018.  It was developed with complete private capital somewhat around $500 million USD dollars and no government financial support was provided from the government.

Design:

     The primary design is the centered rocket is complete Falcon-9 and it side boosters are first stages of Falcon-9 rocket. Elon Musk gave a talk in Mars Society for launch of Falcon type rockets in around 2013 and it finally got success in 2018. 

Falcon Heavy propelling into space

First Flight:

     Flight-1 - It was carried on 6 February 2018 at 20:45 UTC by SpaceX. It carried Spacex's Roadster as payload and the mission outcome was success. It lifted successfully from the ground and then the Roadster was sent to Trans-Mars Injection heliocentric orbit. Then its both side boosters landed successfully and the two centered boosters suffered a engine failure, re-entered and struck the ocean damaging the engines. (Drone ship).

Future Flight:

     SpaceX aimed to make its next launch in June 2018 carrying some nanosatellites, deep space atomic clocks, and cosmic satellites.

Spacex's Falcon Heavy Test Flight:

Credits:

Image Credit : Space-X 

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SBRIS-GEO-4 Mission launch

Atlas-V getting ready for launch in Cape Canaveral AFS

Mission Name      SBIRS-GEO-4

Launch Site         Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

Launch Date        19 January 2018

Time in EST         19:48:00 EST

Launch Vehicle    Atlas V Version.411

Owner                   United Launch Alliance

Mission Type       Warning Satellite

Application          Warning Purpose

About Mission:

     SBIRS-GEO-4 is a early warning satellite,this will be launched under United Launch Alliance on Thursday at 19:48:00 European Standard Time. It is ULA's 75th launch. This satellite is fourth geostationary satellite which uses Space based infrared system to detect and track missile launches.

Origin:

     This satellite is constructed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems . It carries two infrared sensors and a scanning sensor to detect smaller range missiles. This satellite has a mass of 4500 kilograms and it was planned to be in operational for about 12 year mission. SBIRS was a third geostationary satellite.

Cooperative Work:

     This SBIRS-GEO-4 satellite will join another three existing geostationary satellite for a cooperative work for the detection of missiles. Previous satellites were launched and deployed in May 2011, March 2013 and January 2017. And two more GEO Satellites were aimed to launch in 2020s.

SBIRS-GEO-4 Live Launch:

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Falcon-9 Zuma Launch

Falcon-9 standing on launch pad

About Mission:

     Space-x scheduled to launch "Zuma" mission using Falcon-9 version 2.0 on 4th January 2018 at 08:00 PM. The rocket will be launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. After, transferring the satellite into transfer orbit, the reusable falcon-9 first stage will attempt landing at landing zone-1 which is located near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Zuma Satellite:

     Zuma is a secret mission undertaken by United States government. It is considered to be Aerospace and defense satellite, but still it is unclear with the mission.

Launch Window:

Falcon-9 successful landing during past missions

    Space-x has planned to launch this satellite in a two hours window on Thursday evening at 8 pm as per European Standard Time. But the weather issues made delay in countdowns. The launch window for this mission launch is between 01:00 GMT to 03:00 GMT. Zuma had earlier launch, scheduled on 15 November 2017, but the company announced the delay of launch of Zuma mission.

Target for Transfer Orbit:

    Zuma satellite will be injected into earth's LEO which commonly called low-earth orbit. The LEO is about 2000 kilometers from the earth's surface and all the satellites orbit earth in every approx. 90 to 120 minutes, which determines their altitude from the surface.

Falcon-9 Rocket Launch:

     This video shows the launch of Iridium, falcon-9 rocket developed by space-x

Zuma Launch Live Cast:

    You can see the live of Zuma launch on space-x official youtube channel.

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Joint Polar Satellite System-1 Launch

    National Aeronautics Space Administration successfully launched for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's first series of satellite, equipped with next generation technology and designed accuracy of weather forecast. This is one of the satellite for four advanced satellite.

Launch Details:

Name of Satellite : Joint Polar Satellite System-1

Country : United States / NASA

Date : 18 November 2017

Time : 1:47 A.M PST

Launch Pad : Vandenburg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex

Type of Satellite : Weather Satellite for United States

Credits : NASA and NOAA

Photo Credit : NASA

More Details:

• To know more - visit http://www.jpss.noaa.gov/
• NOAA - https://www.noaa.gov/

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Progress 68 Cargo Spacecraft Launch

     Today the Russian Progress 68 cargo craft was launched from Russian Launch pad Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhastan. It carried almost Three tons of food, fuel and other supplies required for the International Space Station crew members. The automated Russian Progress-68 cargo spacecraft was lifted-off from launch pad at 4:46 a.m from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Within 10 minutes after the launch, it reached its orbit and deployed its solar panels and antennas. And it was fully monitored by Expedition 53 Crew Members for approach and docking.

It will arrive the Pirs docking Compartment of the International Space Station for docking on 16th October 2017 | Monday at 7:09 a.m

Follow NASA TV Coverage and Websites for Live Telecasts

Further Links:

• National Aeronautics Space Administration - Website
• International Space Station - NASA

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NROL-52 Spy Satellite Launch

      The United States is launching a new spy satellite on a secret mission on October 6. The rocket Atlas-V will carry NROL-52 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:03 A.M. It was scheduled to launch on 5 October in Thursday, but the launch was delayed. The spacecraft will be launched under United Launch Alliance.

The Satellite will be operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) which manages the country's fleet of spy satellites. 

See Live Launch Video of NROL-52 :

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India's GSAT-17 Successfully Launched

GSAT-17 Indian Communication Satellite

GeoStationary Satellite GSAT-17 India's communication satellite successfully launched on 29 June 2017 from Kourou, French Guiana Space Center by Ariane - V238 Rocket. It weighted 3477 kilogram on lift-off and have some payloads,

Special Instruments:

• C- Band
• Extended C - Band
• S - Band
• Meteorological Data Relay

Meteorological data relay for weather and rescue purposes during natural disasters. After successful injection into Geostationary Transfer Orbit, GSAT-17 was fully controlled by Mastet Control Facility at Hassan. This sat will be maneuvered for its position from this center. GSAT-17 was expected to be active for next 15 years ( lifespan).

References:-

• Insat/ Gsat Brochure
• Gsat-17 official webpage

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Successful test of Scramjet Engine

Scramjet - Air Breathing Propulsion System. Indian Space Research Organisation successfully tested its experimental launch of air breathing ticket "Scramjet Engine" on 28th August 2016 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikotta. The fight duration was 300 seconds, after its flight it reached Bay of Bengal nearly 320 km from Sriharikotta. It was successfully tracked and recovered during its first flight. Air Breathing Propulsion, holding flame at supersonic speed, ignition of engines, air injection mechanism and fuel intake process was successfully demonstrated by scientists of ISRO.

This engine was designed in such a way, so that it uses Hydrogen as fuel and atmospheric oxygen as oxidizer. This engine get design from ISRO Advanced  Technology Vehicle. This is a short duration experimental launch of Scramjet on March 6. It weighted 3277 kilogram while lift-off.

Tags: SLV, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV, GSLV MARK-II, GSLV-MARK-III

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