Posted: Sat, Feb 4 6:36 AM ET (1136 GMT)
Iranian officials announced Friday that they launched a small imaging satellite, the third satellite launched by the nation. A Safir-1 rocket lifted off from an Iranian base near Semnan, Iran, at shortly after 7 pm EST Thursday (0000 GMT Friday) and placed the Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite into low Earth orbit. The satellite, weighing 50 kilograms, is primarily designed to take images of the Earth, but officials did not disclose the resolution or other attributes of the imagery it will take. The satellite is the third launched by Iran into orbit, after launches of smaller satellites in 2009 and 2011.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  AFP article
•  AP article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Press TV (Iran) article

Posted: Sat, Feb 4 6:21 AM ET (1121 GMT)
Two smaller European satellite manufacturers have won a contract to build the next batch of Galileo navigation satellites, beating out once again a European aerospace giant. A team led by Germany's OHB-System and the UK's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) won the contract awarded by ESA on Thursday to build the next set of eight Galileo satellites. The same team won the contract to build the first 14 operational satellites in 2010. In both cases OHB/SSTL bid beat out one from EADS Astrium. ESA also awarded a contract to EADS to modify the Ariane 5 rocket, allowing it to launch four Galileo satellites at a time, for launches planned in 2014 and 2015.

Related Links:

•  Space News article
•  Reuters article
•  BBC article
•  AFP article
•  ESA press release

NASA confirms delay of next Soyuz flight
Posted: Fri, Feb 3 6:08 AM ET (1108 GMT)
The launch of the next crew to the ISS will be delayed from late March to mid May because of problems with a Soyuz spacecraft,...

Another potentially habitable exoplanet discovered
Posted: Fri, Feb 3 5:58 AM ET (1058 GMT)
Astronomers announced Thursday the discovery of a "super-Earth" extrasolar planet in the habitable zone of its star. The planet, designated GJ 667Cc, is the...

NASA spacecraft detects atoms of interstellar matter
Posted: Thu, Feb 2 6:49 AM ET (1149 GMT)
A NASA spacecraft has detected atoms from the interstellar medium, finding a lower concentration of oxygen than previously expected. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft,...