Real time satellite tracking for: SPACE STATION – N2YO.com

RUSSIAN ROCKET POISED FOR CRUCIAL SUPPLY RUN TO SPACE STATION - The stakes are high for a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station, after a string of failures has left the orbiting outpost running somewhat low on supplies. Early Friday, an unmanned Russian rocket will lift off with food, fuel and other essentials. The launch comes less than a week after another unmanned rocket from commercial firm SpaceX disintegrated shortly after liftoff. That was the third failure since October. Normally, the station is stocked with six months of supplies. "Today we're at, give or take, about four months," station manager Mike Suffredini said during a recent NASA press conference. More (Source: NPR - Jul 3)

RUSSIA'S MILITARY SATELLITE DELAY LEAVES COUNTRY VULNERABLE TO NUCLEAR MISSILE ATTACKS - Russia may be working on modernizing its strategic missile force by developing advanced nuclear missile systems, but the country is itself vulnerable to similar attacks after delaying the launch of a new satellite-based missile warning system by four months, local media reported Wednesday. The launch of the military satellite system has been postponed until November, leaving Russia blind in the event of a potential nuclear missile attack, The Moscow Times reported. The country's aging Soviet-era early warning satellites seriously malfunctioned last year when one of three units went offline, followed by the decommissioning of the remaining two satellites in January. More (Source: International Business Times - Jul 2)

RUSSIAN CARGO SPACECRAFT WILL LAUNCH TO SPACE STATION EARLY FRIDAY - A robotic Russian cargo vessel will try to buck a negative recent trend when it launches toward the International Space Station early Friday morning (July 3). Russia's Progress 60 freighter is scheduled to blast off atop a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan at 12:55 a.m. EDT Friday (0455 GMT, 10:55 a.m. local time in Kazakhstan). The launch comes just five days after SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded less than 3 minutes into flight, ending the California-based company's seventh contracted cargo run to the orbiting lab for NASA - and about two months after the previous Progress freighter (Progress 59) fell back to Earth, victimized by a problem with its Soyuz booster. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 2)

SPACEX ROCKET FAILURE RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT SPACE STATION'S VITAL SUPPLIES - NASA prides itself on preparing for the worst, but three rocket explosions in eight months are testing the agency's backup plans. Sunday's explosion of a SpaceX rocket, bound for the International Space Station, followed the fiery end of an Orbital Sciences launch in October and the failure of a Russian resupply vessel in April. As both American companies remain grounded during ongoing investigations, questions are now being raised about how long NASA can keep the scientific researchers at the space station. NASA officials remain confident that the crew has adequate food and water until the end of October, but the agency offered a less rosy outlook even before the last two failures. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - Jul 1)

NASA OFFICIALS CONFIRM MYSTERIOUS FIREBALL IS SPACE JUNK - NASA says a mysterious object that light up the night sky in the southeast was space debris re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Channel 2 Action News received several phone calls into the newsroom and many people posted pictures and videos to social media. The object was spotted around 1:30 a.m. in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. People described it looking like a bright fireball with lights streaming behind it. The flash didn't last very long, it disappeared after a few moments. More (Source: WSB-TV - Jun 30)

SATELLITE OWNERS AMONG BYSTANDERS IN FALCON 9 ACCIDENT - The long queue of satellites waiting on launches aboard SpaceX's Falcon rockets - a backlog the company says is worth $7 billion - will stay grounded while investigators determine what caused a Falcon 9 booster to disintegrate after liftoff Sunday with supplies heading for the International Space Station. Commercial and government satellite operators - from telecom giant SES to NOAA's climate research team - were lined up to fly on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in the coming months, and they will have to wait longer than bargained for when they signed on to launch on the commercial booster. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 30)

RUSSIAN SHIP TO SUPPLY INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AFTER SPACE X EXPLOSION - The International Space Station crew will be spared any risk of hardship because a regular Russian Progress supply mission will be launched to them on Friday, according to Garcia's blog. On Sunday, a private sector Space X rocket exploded on an unmanned supply mission to the ISS shortly after being launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Space X Dragon cargo craft "was lost about 139 seconds after launch Sunday morning," Garcia noted. More (Source: Sputnik International - Jun 30)

SPACEX'S FALCON 9 ROCKET EXPLODES ON LAUNCH - Sunday's SpaceX launch failure will not delay plans to send three more astronauts to the International Space Station next month, NASA said. Officials said the mishap -- the third in less than a year by three different resupply vehicles -- also showed the wisdom of the agency's strategy for launching astronauts commercially with two providers, SpaceX and Boeing. SpaceX believes a problem with pressure in the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage liquid oxygen tank caused the rocket to break apart more than two minutes after its 10:21 a.m. launch from Cape Canaveral. More (Source: USA Today - Jun 28)

SPACEX READIES DRAGON FOR LAUNCH TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon cargo ship for launch Sunday to deliver more than 4,000 pounds of equipment, supplies and science gear to the International Space Station, including the first of two new docking adapters needed to capture American crew capsules being built by Boeing and SpaceX. The science instruments and supplies cover a wide range of disciplines, including work to help figure out what is causing vision problems in three quarters of the astronauts who make long-duration space flights. A customized camera will photograph shooting stars from above to determine their chemical composition and the station crew will attempt to grow cabbage that can be added to the lab's menu. More (Source: CBS News - Jun 28)

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Real time satellite tracking for: SPACE STATION - N2YO.com