HOUSTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully completed its first NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station early Feb. 18, as the Dulles, Va.-based company’s “Orb-1” Cygnus capsule was unberthed from the U.S. segment Harmony module and released with Canada’s robot arm at 6:41 a.m. EST. The resupply craft is scheduled for a destructive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 1:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 19.

NEW DELHI — India’s first manned space flight program has received a major boost with a higher budgetary allocation and development of a crew module structural assembly. The federal interim budget, announced on Feb. 17, increased the allocation for the human space flight program from 92 million rupees ($1.5 million) to 170 million rupees. The increase comes days after state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) handed over the crew module to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

HOUSTON — The terrifying Chelyabinsk explosion over Russia one year ago has significantly altered the debate over efforts to detect and deflect asteroids that pose an impact threat to the Earth, according to one of the nation’s top experts in the field. “It was a wake-up call for the world,” said David Morrison, senior scientist at NASA’s recently established Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), at the Ames Research Center Feb. 14.

Rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are sending the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to explore north-facing rock layers, after discovering the source of a tiny rock fragment that triggered an unusual lawsuit. Dubbed Pinnacle Island, the 1.5-in.-wide red-and-white rock turned up in a rover image collected Jan. 8 in a spot where it had not been four days earlier. After collecting more images, JPL experts concluded that the rock had broken loose from a larger rock that was hit by one of Opportunity’s six wheels and rolled downhill.

SPACE SPENDING: Government spending on space programs worldwide dipped last year for the first time since 1995, according to Euroconsult, dropping $800 million total (1%). The consulting company said this was “a direct result of the cyclical nature of countries’ investment in space-based infrastructures, combined with governments’ belt-tightening efforts during tough economic times.” But the advisors said there are positive signs for industry, starting with growing international activity in space.

BEIJING — The rover of China’s Chang’e 3 lunar mission is showing signs of life after almost being declared dead. Jade Rabbit, as the rover is known, is again receiving signals from the Earth, Chinese media report.

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, already the longest-working spacecraft ever dispatched to the red planet, is maneuvering to take on a new task: global observations of seasonal variations in fog, clouds and surface frost in the thin atmosphere after sunrise. What’s more, the solar-powered spacecraft, launched in April 2001 as a $297 million, three-year mission, is forecast to function for another decade or so serving as a communications relay for other Mars spacecraft, just as it did for the Curiosity rover’s dramatic August 2012 landing.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a €60 million ($82 million) contract to Ariane 5 prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space to continue definition and feasibility studies this year for Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 launcher. The Phase B1 studies will “pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher’s main characteristics,” the company—formerly EADS-Astrium—said in a Feb. 12 news release. The results of these studies will be unveiled in November during an ESA System Requirements Review (SRR) of the Ariane 6.