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.

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...