Satellite News

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Satmex 8; Date: 26 March 2013, 1906 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Spacecraft separation is scheduled for 0419 UTC [too late for this issue].

A Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the company’s second cargo flight to the International Space Station on 26 March with a 1736 UTC splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred kilometers west of Baja California, Mexico.

XCOR Aerospace announced the firing of a full piston pump-powered rocket engine. The company said this breakthrough is the foundation for fully reusable spacecraft that can fly multiple times per day, every day.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has resumed science investigations after recovery from a computer glitch that prompted the engineers to switch the rover to a redundant main computer on 28 February.