SSI News
SpaceX completes 100th straight Falcon 9 mission and completes the first Starlink “shell”
At 1859 GMT on 26 May 2021 SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Space Forces Station, Florida, USA. The rocket was carrying 60 Starlink satellites intended to complete the first "shell" - 1,584 units, at 550km, inclined at 53...
CesiumAstro reveals plans for its first technology validation mission in September
CesiumAstro announced on 25 May that it would be launching its first mission, dubbed "Cesium Mission 1", to LEO alongside the NASA Landsat 9 satellite in September this year. Cesium Mission 1 will consist of two 6U-CubeSats, built in-house, and are intended to...
Gallagher Snaps Up Willis Specialty and Willis Re
Insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co is once again set to be a beneficiary of another firm’s mega takeover. In a re-run of its successful 2019 acquisition of part of JLT speciality – with the main deal going to Marsh – Gallagher has struck a US$3.57 billion...
UKSA funds OneWeb-led consortium to develop satellite to showcase “beam-hopping” and other technologies
On 24 May the UKSA (UK Space Agency) awarded GBP£32 million (US$45 million) to a consortium led by LEO constellation operator OneWeb. This group of UK space industry companies has been tasked with developing a satellite - known as "Joey-Sat" - to demonstrate new...
Virgin Galactic completes a SpaceShipTwo suborbital test flight
At 1526 GMT on 22 May Virgin Galactic achieved its first successful suborbital crewed mission from Spaceport America, New Mexico. Following its release from the WhiteKnightTwo - VMS Eve - carrier aircraft the SpaceShipTwo vehicle - VSS Unity - completed a crewed...
Money for newspace
Funding for newspace companies continued to flow this month, boosting the prospects for three budding space ventures. Axelspace On 13 May, Japanese imaging firm Axelspace announced a US$23.8m investment from a group of venture capital companies and investment funds,...
Firefly selects SpaceX to launch its lunar lander mission
On 19 May Firefly Aerospace contracted SpaceX to launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander mission, planned for 2023. SpaceX will utilise its Falcon 9 launch vehicle for the mission. Firefly is developing the Blue Ghost lander as part of the NASA CLPS (Commercial Lunar...
China launches ocean monitoring satellite to LEO
China successfully launched a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) vehicle carrying the HAIYANG 2D satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 0403 GMT on 19 March 2021 into a sun-synchronous orbit. The HAIYANG 2D satellite is to be used to monitor the health of the seas...
ULA Atlas V launches SBIRS GEO-5 to bolster American missile launch detection capability
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the SBIRS GEO-5, TDO 3 and TDO 4 satellites into a GTO orbit at 1737 GMT on 18 May on an Atlas V 421 vehicle (using a pair of the standard AJ60A solid rocket boosters) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,...
China lands rover on Mars
Mars is now the red planet in more than one way: on 14 May, China successfully landed its Zhurong rover in a dune field in Utopia Planitia. This is significant because it marks China as the third nation to land a spacecraft on Mars, and only the second to make a...
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