NASA's Mars InSight Lander Postponed to 2018

NASA will hold a press call Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 22) to discuss its decision to suspend a March launch campaign for the Mars InSight lander, which was shipped to its launch site this month despite a problem with one of its instruments.

The holdup with the instrument, the French-built Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), means InSight will miss its Mars launch window and be stuck on the ground for about another two years, NASA said in a press release that hit the wire Tuesday afternoon on the heels of a brief heads-up emailed to journalists that morning.

“After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission,” NASA said in its Tuesday morning notice. “The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair an air leak on a key component of the mission’s science payload.”

SEIS, provided by the French Space Agency (CNES), suffered “a leak in the vacuum container carrying its main sensors,” NASA confirmed Dec. 3. The instrument is still in France undergoing repairs at at Paris-based Sodern.

The leak was caused by a defective weld on the instrument’s vacuum tank, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall told SpaceNews Dec. 8. At the time, Le Gall said CNES had performed a new weld that should have fixed the problem.

Even as NASA was preparing to brief reporters Dec. 22, Le Gall told SpaceNews that CNES had not given up on fixing the SEIS instrument in time to launch this year.

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Russia Delays New Start Required Demo of RS-26 Nuclear Ballistic Missile to 2016

The demonstration of Russia’s newest RS-26 Rubezh ballistic missile to US inspectors has been delayed until next year, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS on Wednesday.

"By decision of the Defense Ministry, the demonstration of our new intercontinental ballistic missile RS-26 to a group of US inspectors has been rescheduled from November 2015 to 2016 and the new time schedule of the demonstration has not yet been determined," the source said.

"The US side has been notified of this decision and has taken note of it," the source said.

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First Chinese Su-35s to be Delivered in 2016?

The first batch of Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets will be supplied to China in 2016, a source in the system of military and technical cooperation told TASS on Friday.

"The first fighter jets will arrive for China in 2016," the source said.

It was reported on Thursday that Russia had signed a contract on the delivery of 24 Su-35 fighter jets to China. The deal is estimated at no less than $2 billion and also envisages the delivery of ground support equipment and reserve aircraft engines.

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Jindal has Left the Building

Another one down.  He said it was not his time.  Really?  Never would have suspected.

Based on what he is espousing, probably never.

Is China Going to Trigger a Global Recession Soon?

Several leading mainstream economic institutions are warning of the risk of the coming global economic crisis. On 8 September, the Citi Group published a research report, “Is China Leading the World into Recession?”, written by Willem Buiter, Citi’s chief economist. The report warns that “a global recession starting in 2016, led by China is now our Global Economics team’s main scenario. Uncertainty remains, but the likelihood of a timely and effective policy response seems to be diminishing.”

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Hat tip to Randy.

Tiangong-2: China's Second Space Station is to be Launched in 2016

China will send a cargo ship into the space in 2016 to dock with a future space module scheduled to be launched earlier the same year, a leading Chinese space scientist said Friday.

The Tianzhou-1, which literally means "heavenly vessel", will carry propellants, living necessities for astronauts, research facilities and repair equipment to China's second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2, said Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program.

Cargo transportation system is a key technology China must master and make breakthroughs to build its own space station, said Zhou who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body.

China's multi-billion-dollar space program, a source of surging national pride in the country, aims to put a permanent manned space station into service around 2022.

The country already launched its first space lab, Tiangong-1, in September 2011 and has conducted two dockings with the module in the following two years. In June 2013, three Chinese astronauts delivered a physics lesson onboard Tiangong-1.

According to Zhou, Tianzhou-1 will be blasted off on top of a next-generation Long March-7 rocket, possibly from a new launch site in the southern Hainan Province.

Research on the Long March-5 carrier rocket - to be used to lift the Tiangong-2 lab into space - Tiangong-2's payload, and selection of astronauts for the mission are currently "progressing in an orderly manner," Zhou said.

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China Plans to Launch 2nd Small Space Station in 2016

China will launch its second orbiting space laboratory in two years' time, a top official said Wednesday, the latest step in an ambitious space programme Beijing says will one day land a Chinese man on the moon.

Astronaut Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became China's first man in space and is now deputy director of the country's manned space programme, made the announcement at the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) congress in Beijing.

"We are going to launch the spacelab Tiangong-2 in 2016, and then we will launch Shenzhou-11 and then Tianzhou-1 cargo spaceship to dock on the spacelab," he said.

It is the first time China has hosted the annual meeting, which has drawn nearly 100 astronauts from 18 countries to Beijing, in a marker of the country's scientific progress.

Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a symbol of its rise and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

Yang added that Beijing plans to launch an experimental core space station module in 2018 and finish construction of a Chinese space station around 2022.

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Sierra Nevada Corp to Launch First DreamChaser (unmanned) in Nov 2016

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces that it has confirmed that the first orbital flight of its Dream Chaser® Space System will occur on November 1, 2016. Dream Chaser will be brought to orbit on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that is being built in Decatur, Alabama and will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

During SNC’s press event at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which was carried live on NASA TV, Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems also unveiled the plans for Dream Chaser flight operations and vehicle processing in Florida through a detailed multi-part presentation.

Sirangelo started the announcement by saying, “SNC is thrilled to be the first company to confirm a launch date for our country’s return to orbital human spaceflight and the restart of human spaceflight operations from Florida’s Space Coast. We could not have done this without the spirit and engagement from our national and state governments, the best aerospace companies in the industry, and several major universities, which all hail from over 30 states. Together these passionate people will return our astronauts to space on American spacecraft and rockets launched from America’s space coast right here in Florida.”

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