SSI News
International Space Station: Astronauts make another spacewalk and CubeSats are ejected as was a “spacejunk” pallet…plus a reparking of Soyuz MS-17
On 13 March, two NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins, made an EVA (extra vehicular activity), more commonly known as a spacewalk, from the International Space Station (ISS). Five minutes after depressurisation the airlock hatch was opened at 1314...
Long March 4C launches three Yaogan 31-04 satellites
At 0220 GMT on 13 March 2021, a Long March 4C (CZ-4C) launch vehicle successfully launched three Yaogan 31-04 satellites (Yaogan 31-04 A,B & C) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. Officially the satellits are for measurement of the electromagnetic...
Long March 7A makes successful return after maiden failure as it launches Shiyan 9
China launched a Long March 7A vehicle carrying the Shiyan 9 satellite into GEO at 1751 GMT on 11 March from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan Island. The Shiyan 9’s mission is believed to be imaging the Earth from Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). The satellite...
US Space Force hands out four launch contracts: two apiece to ULA and SpaceX
On 9 March 2021 the US Space Force (USSF) awarded launch contracts for four upcoming missions planned to launch in 2023. The contracts were split two apiece between ULA (United Launch Alliance) and SpaceX. ULA has been given responsibility for launching...
Another day…another Starlink launch: 60 satellites launched by SpaceX Falcon 9
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 launch vehicle carrying 60 STARLINK satellites at 0813 GMT on Thursday 13 March from Cape Canaveral Air Force base in Florida, USA. The launch vehicles first stage was successfully landed on the drone barge “Just...
Spacewalkers finish solar array fixture preparation work
Two astronauts, NASA's Kathleen Rubins and JAXA's Soichi Noguchi, ventured out of the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 March for a near seven hour EVA spacewalk to finish work on the P6 truss new struts and brackets at locations 2B and 4B. The work involved...
Following a long series of delays SpaceX has managed to launch its lingering Starlink mission
On 4 March 2021 at 0824 GMT SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, carrying the long-delayed seventeenth batch of v1.0 Starlink satellites. On-board the flight were 60 Starlinks which were released into a sub-300 km...
Not quite “Third time’s a charm” for SpaceX Spaceship prototype SN10 as it lands successfully but later explodes…and then SN11 falls out of the sky (Updated)
After two explosive landing failures with the SpaceX Starship prototypes SN8 and SN9, SpaceX engineer and commentator John Inspruker tempted fate again on 3 February for the SN10 test flight by saying “Third time’s a charm.” At this point it was true that the SN10...
The newspace SPAC craze continues with established players Rocket Lab and Spire Global going public
Rocket Lab announced on 1 March 2021 that it plans to merge with Vector Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC (Special-purpose acquisition company) to become listed on the NASDAQ. The deal is expected to close in "Q2 2021" and has valued the company at US$4.1 billion. So...
Spacewalking astronauts attach brackets on ISS solar arrays ready for new ones
On the 28 February, spacewalking NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover made an extra vehicular activity (EVA) in order to add new structure to support new solar arrays which will begin to be installed later this year. Solar cells degrade over time and so the...
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