NASA and SpaceX, the agency’s six-year-old Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program partner, stressed the experimental nature of the company’s bid to lift off early May 19 on the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. The launch of the Falcon 9/Dragon rocket and spacecraft combination from the company’s launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT, during a nearly instantaneous launch window.

Spacecraft controllers are checking out Telesat’s Nimiq 6 direct-to-home broadcast satellite after a 9-r., 14-min. launch mission on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket that lifted off May 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 4.5-metric-ton satellite reached its geostationary transfer orbit en route to its operational orbital slot at 91.1 deg. W. Long. From there its 32 Ku-band transponders will deliver direct-to-home television services to customers in North America for its Canadian operator.

NASA has cleared Innovative Space Propulsion Systems (ISPS), a Houston-based partnership developing green rocket engines, to fly a thruster testbed on the International Space Station (ISS)

KOUROU, French Guiana — The future of communication satellites appears to be moving toward larger, more powerful models, but satellite manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin will have the challenge of keeping within the capability of current launchers.

Says newcomer SpaceX still has to prove itself and that China poses no competitive challenge.

A Japanese H-IIA rocket orbited two remote-sensing satellites May 17, one of them a South Korean spacecraft that marked Japan’s first international commercial customer. Liftoff from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launch site on Tanegashima Island in Southeast Japan came on time at 12:39 p.m. EDT, and the spacecraft separated as planned.

KOUROU, French Guiana — Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. of Japan, which says it is Asia’s largest satellite operator, plans to sign contracts this year to buy more satellites. Osamu Inoue, president of the company’s satellite and space business group, says Lockheed Martin and Sky Perfect are discussing a purchase.

Congressional language directing NASA to pick a single commercial crew vehicle to back during development threatens to boost the cost of commercial crew operations if it is adopted, according to a member of the presidential panel that recommended using commercial vehicles to transport U.S. astronauts to low Earth orbit.