LOS ANGELES — SpaceX says post-launch indications of a larger-than-expected debris field scattered in the orbital path of its recently launched Falcon 9 v1.1 upgraded launch vehicle do not represent a possible explosion of the rocket’s second stage.

Orbital Sciences has satisfied COTS program requirements

Russia’s Proton M launch vehicle returned to flight Sept. 30, nearly two months after a July 2 mishap sent the heavy-lift rocket and three Russian Glonass M satellites crashing to the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Managed by commercial launch services provider International Launch Services (ILS) of Reston, Va., the Baikonur mission sent the Astra 2E commercial communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit for Luxembourg-based SES, the world’s second-largest fleet operator by revenue.

BEIJING — Top scientists here are citing China’s burgeoning population, growing energy consumption and severe pollution problems to press the case for more research in space solar power (SSP) technology, which would place large solar-energy collectors in orbit to beam gathered energy to Earth as microwaves or laser light.

BEIJING — Engineers in Russia believe the Zarya cargo module, the oldest pressurized module on the International Space Station (ISS), can last in orbit until about 2028 — twice its design service life — despite microcracking in the hull during pressure and loads cycling of a test article on the ground.

HOUSTON — Some of the brightest in global aerospace are poised to pitch their recommendations for NASA’s proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission and Grand Challenge. They will offer suggestions for an unbudgeted, multi-year demonstration of human and robotic strategies to thrust explorers out of low Earth orbit for the first time in 40 years, while assembling defenses against the collision threat posed by Near Earth Objects.

LOS ANGELES — SpaceX launched its upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Sept 29, marking the first demonstration of the vehicle the company plans to also use for human spaceflight missions.

PAYING BILLS: Congress passed a bill Sept. 30 that would keep salary payments going to active military personnel and civilian Defense and Homeland Security department employees and contractors “providing support to members of the armed forces.” The bill comes as everyone else in the U.S. government faced the consequences of a federal shutdown, which loomed Oct. 1 unless lawmakers and President Barack Obama reached an agreement on fresh appropriations overnight.