OrbitalHub

ESA dixit:

[…] the Sentinel-1A liftoff on a Soyuz launcher from Europe\’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST) on 3 April 2014. Sentinel-1A is the first in a fleet of ESA satellites poised to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to Europe\’s Copernicus programme.

[…] footage was acquired by cameras on the Soyuz Fregat upper stage that released Sentinel-1A into orbit on 3 April 2014. It shows the Sentinel-1A satellite separating from the Fregat to start its life in orbit around Earth. The 2.3 tonne satellite lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe\’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). The first stage separated 118 sec later, followed by the fairing (209 sec), stage 2 (287 sec) and the upper assembly (526 sec). After a 617 sec burn, the Fregat upper stage delivered Sentinel into a Sun-synchronous orbit at 693 km altitude. The satellite separated from the upper stage 23 min 24 sec after liftoff.

Designed as a two-satellite constellation — Sentinel-1A and -1B — the Sentinel-1 mission uses an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth\’s surface. The data will benefit numerous services, including the monitoring of Arctic sea-ice extent, the surveillance of the marine environment, the monitoring of land surface for motion risks and mapping to support humanitarian aid and crisis situations.

Sentinel-1 is the first in the family of satellites for Europe\’s Copernicus programme. It carries an advanced radar to scan Earth\’s surface in all weather conditions and regardless of whether it is day or night. This new mission will be used to care for many aspects of our environment, from detecting and tracking oil spills and mapping sea ice to monitoring movement in land surfaces and mapping changes in the way land is used.

Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“Expedition 39/40 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos launched on the Russian Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft on March 25, Kazakh time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a six-hour journey to the International Space Station. Once aboard the orbital outpost, the trio will start a six-month mission.”

Credit: NASA / Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos landed safely in Kazakhstan on March 11, local time, after bidding farewell to the Expedition 39 crew members and returning to Earth in their Soyuz spacecraft. The trio completed 166 days in space since launching in September.”

Credit: NASA / Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“From the Tanegashima Space Center near the southernmost tip of Japan, NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a joint mission to study global measurements of rainfall and snowfall aboard JAXA\’s H-IIA rocket. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory is a new NASA built science satellite that will link data from a constellation of current and planned satellites and produce the most precise observations of rain and snow every three hours from anywhere on the globe. The GPM Core Observatory will fly 253 miles (407 kilometers) above Earth in an orbit inclined at 65-degrees to the equator and will begin normal operations in about 60 days after launch. Data will be downlinked through NASA\’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to the agency\’s Goddard Space Flight Center\’s Precipitation Processing Center in Greenbelt, Md., where it will be processed and distributed over the Internet.”

Read more about GPM…

February 11, 2014, Baikonur Cosmodrome. Launch of Proton-M / Breeze-M with TurkSat-4A.

Read more about Proton-M…

Orbital dixit:

Orbital Sciences Corporation,
one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today announced the
successful completion of the first of eight Cygnus^TM operational cargo
logistics spacecraft missions to the International Space Station (ISS) as
part of the company’s $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS)
contract with NASA. The Cygnus spacecraft unberthed from the ISS yesterday
morning at 6:41 a.m. (EST), completing a 37-day stay at the orbiting
laboratory. Today, Cygnus reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific
Ocean east of New Zealand at approximately 1:20 p.m. (EST).

“We are very proud to have a second flawless cargo mission to the space
station brought to a successful conclusion this afternoon,” said Mr. David
W. Thompson, Orbital’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Following
Cygnus’ successful demonstration mission in late 2013 conducted under our
COTS research and development partnership with NASA, the picture-perfect
execution of the first operational mission is a great way to start the CRS
contract. We are looking forward to the next Antares launch and Cygnus
cargo delivery mission currently scheduled for early May.”

The CRS-1 mission began on January 9, 2014 when Orbital’s Antares^TM rocket
launched Cygnus into orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS)
located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Cygnus,
which carried 2,780 lbs. (1,260 kg.) of cargo and science payloads,
rendezvoused and berthed with the ISS three days later on January 12.
Prior to its departure from the station, the astronauts loaded the cargo
module with approximately 3,250 lbs. (1,477 kg.) of unneeded items for
disposal.

Under the CRS contract with NASA, Orbital is using Antares and Cygnus to
deliver up to 44,000 lbs. (20,000 kg.) of cargo to the ISS over eight
missions, including the CRS-1 flight just completed, through late 2016.
For these missions, NASA will manifest a variety of essential items based
on ISS program needs, including food, clothing, crew supplies, spare parts
and equipment, and scientific experiments.

Preparations are already well advanced for the next Cygnus cargo delivery
flight, the CRS-2 mission, scheduled to take place in early May. The
Antares rocket for the mission is now undergoing final assembly at Wallops
Island, while the Cygnus spacecraft is being prepared for shipment to the
Wallops launch site in mid-March. The CRS-2 flight is expected to deliver
about 3,630 lbs. (1,650 kg.) of cargo to the Space Station.

Read more about Cygnus…