Nov 28 2016

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-136 NASA Television to Air International Space Station Cargo Ship Launch, Docking

A Russian cargo spacecraft is set to launch Thursday, Dec. 1, to deliver more than two and a half tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station crew. Coverage on NASA Television and the agency’s website begins at 9:30 a.m. EST ahead of the 9:51 a.m. (8:51 p.m. Baikonur time) launch.

The unpiloted Russian Progress 65 will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft is set to dock to the rear port of the space station’s Zvezda Service Module at 11:43 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 11 a.m. The Progress 65 will spend more than six months docked to the station before departing in June for its deorbit into the Earth’s atmosphere.

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-137 NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Hurricane Microsatellites Launch

Media accreditation now is open for the launch of NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission, currently scheduled for Monday, Dec. 12.

CYGNSS will launch aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket to be deployed from Orbital’s “Stargazer” L-1011 carrier aircraft, which will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. Once airborne, the Pegasus rocket will launch over the Atlantic Ocean, about 126 miles east of Daytona Beach, Florida. The 90-minute launch window opens at 8:19 a.m. EST.

The CYGNSS constellation consists of eight microsatellite observatories that will measure the surface winds in and near a hurricane’s inner core, including regions beneath the eye wall and intense inner rain bands that previously could not be measured from space.

Media prelaunch and launch activities will take place at CCAFS and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to Cape Canaveral. The deadline for U.S. news media to apply for access is 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 1. The deadline for international news media has passed.