SSI News
Seradata Space Conference 2021: Full agenda is now available
Seradata has now completed its agenda for its two-half day (UK afternoons) virtual conference on 23-24 June 2021. In addition, there is also an optional two-hour Seradata SpaceTrak training session on the morning of 24 June. This international event provides...
SpaceX launches second commercial crew mission to the ISS
On 23 April SpaceX successfully launched the "Crew 2" mission on a Falcon 9 vehicle into low Earth orbit from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. Lift-off occurred at 0949 GMT. On board the Crew Dragon Endeavour were four crew: NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough, NASA...
DARPA plans nuclear thermal demonstrator mission called DRACO and taps Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin to provide designs
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded contracts for the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) programme. New contracts go to Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin to add to one already awarded to General...
Rogozin confirms that Russia will leave International Space Station in 2025
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency/conglomerate Roscosmos, has formally confirmed that Russia will be leaving the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025. Russia is known to be working on its own space station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and will be...
Virgin Orbit contracted to launch six hyperspectral imaging sats starting in 2023
On 21 April Virgin Orbit was selected to launch a series of six hyperspectral imaging satellites using its LauncherOne vehicle. The satellites are being developed by a team lead by Hypersat LLC - a geospatial analytics company - and QinetiQ US - the American arm of...
Amazon selects ULA Atlas V launches for upcoming LEO constellation Project Kuiper
Amazon has made its first official contract award for its future LEO satellite internet constellation – known as Project Kuiper. The award, announced on 19 April, was granted to American launch provider United Launch Alliance. ULA has been contracted to provide nine...
Ingenuity helicopter makes historic flight on Mars
Ingenuity – part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission – made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet at 0730 GMT on 19 April. The 2 kg solar-powered drone helicopter, which had been deployed on the Martian surface by the Mars rover Perseverence, managed to...
Soyuz MS-17 crew returns
The Soyuz MS-17 capsule undocked from the International Space Station Poisk module on 17 April to begin its return to Earth. Following a de-orbit burn at 0401 GMT on 19 April 2021, the capsule safely landed at 0455 GMT on 19 April near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Crew...
NASA chooses SpaceX Starship derivative for human lunar lander but was choice forced by limited funding?
As Elon Musk had hinted on his Twitter feed, NASA formally announced on 26 April that it had selected SpaceX to provide a Human Landing System (HLS) for its Artemis Programme. The US$2.89 billion contract covers the development of the lander and a demonstration...
Blue Origin makes another successful uncrewed launch of its suborbital New Shepard
At 1556 GMT on 14 April, Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle and Mk 3 version of the capsule made another successful uncrewed launch beyond the Karman Line official limit of space (100km). The actual altitude reached a peak at 106 km over the Van Horn...
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