The Cassini probe is preparing to make it's first encounter of 2008 with a flyby around Titan, a moon of Saturn. On January 5th, the probe will map Titan with it's visual and infrared spectrometers, mapping the Huygens probe's landing site.

This flyby also features two separate stellar occultations to study the structure of Titan's atmosphere. The spectrometer will be watching the star Alpha Bootes, and the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph will be pointed toward Alpha Lyra.

On Friday, Dec 14, RADARSAT-2 was successfully launched into orbit from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket.

RADARSAT-2 is Canada's next-generation Synthetic Arpeture Radar (SAR) to follow up to the successful RADARSAT-1 satellite. RADARSAT-2 has been designed with significant technical advancements which include 3 meter high-resolution imaging, flexibility in selection of polarization, left and right-looking imaging options, superior data storage and more precise measurements of spacecraft position and attitude.

GeoEye has announced the securing of insurance covering the 2008 calendar year for the IKONOS satellite. Insurance was obtained from Willis Inspace with terms similar to the 2007 calendar year for an amount of $20M (USD). This was facilitated, in part, by analysis conducted by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) on the long-term viability of the IKONOS platform.

Two space launches were scrubbed today - a space shuttle and a Delta on opposite coasts. Both will try again Friday. [and more delays now noted in the comments.] Here are more details...

On November 24, 1977, ESA launched Meteosat-1, Europe's first geostationary satellite, into orbit. Meteosat-1 and successive satellites heralded a new age of weather modeling and forecasting. The data provided by the weather satellites combined with quickly increasing computing power have given meteorologists unprecedented accuracy in weather forecasting.

We're still setting up the software on SpaceDash, but making a lot of progress. This post in my blog is the first one with the MetaWebLog API, though it should also now take Blogger API and MoveableType API. So even as we set up other parts of the site, we're ready to host personal aerospace-related blogs.

I flew on Wednesday to the Mojave Air & Space Port. It's my first time as pilot flying into a licensed spaceport. I've actually been to Mojave many times. And it always seems crazy to drive for 5 hours to a General Aviation airport. (Well, except when the weather wouldn't allow flying there.) So here's some info about the trip...

Henry Vanderbilt announced on the arocket mail list that the Space Access '08 conference will be March 27-29, 2008 in Phoenix. The details are at the Space Access Society web site. So, for those who haven't heard of it, what is the Space Access conference all about?

After 15 days in space, including installation of the Node 2 "Harmony" module on the space station and some unscheduled spacewalking repairs to the station, the space shuttle Discovery landed safely in Florida at 1:02PM Eastern Time. See NASA's Image of the Day for the touchdown on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center But the approach took a path NASA once said they would never do again...

NASA has posted the ground tracks for two opportunities for STS-120 Discovery to re-enter for landings on Wednesday. If one of these tracks is used, it will be the first time since the Columbia accident in 2003 that a shuttle re-entry has flown over the continental US. Of course, since then they have developed the ability to positively check the condition of the orbiter, and Discovery has passed that check. So the main interest now is that some people may have the opportunity to see the re-entering shuttle orbiter in the mid-day sky. It still depends on the weather - but NWS forecasts for Kennedy Space Center (KSC) look good so far, with the only potential problem being winds. So what does this mean?

The X-Prize Cup 2007 was held at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The only one of nine competing teams to qualify to fly was Armadillo Aerospace. The Level 1 Prize, $350,000 for two 90-second hover flights, was left unclaimed after four attempts, one which came within seconds of victory. The Level 2 Prize, $1,000,000 for two 180-second hover flights, has still not been attempted. Here's a summary of news about it.

AMSAT-NA (Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation, North America) announced a deal with IntelSat which will allow amateur payloads to be carried on IntelSat communications satellites to geosynchronous orbit, when on-board space allows. This is fantastic news. Let's look at what it really means...

This is SpaceDash. We're going to report on interests for space enthusiasts and promote amateur and commercial access to space. At the time of this article, we're putting together the news, forum and blog support on the site. We're looking for fellow space enthusiasts to help report the news - and we'll provide blog space for the ones who do.

That's the starting point. Every successful idea takes off in unanticipated directions. So we'll see where SpaceDash takes all of us as we pursue space flight and related interests.

A friend pointed out an article at NASA Science News about "A Fantastic Monday Morning Sky Show". There will be a lot of things to look for in the pre-dawn sky on Monday, November 5... Venus, Mars, Saturn, the comet Holmes, and the just-undocked International Space Station and shuttle orbiter Discovery. They offer some help finding them all with a star map and a link to NASA's SkyWatch web site.