SSI News
On a lighter note: Cosmonauts find leak on International Space Station…using tea-bagging technique
While “tea-bagging” now has a secondary, rude meaning, it could be said that cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a tea-bag technique to discover the location of a slow air leak during October which they had been hunting since March. By sealing off...
SpaceX posts another successful launch of 60 Starlink satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket including a first stage recovery…but fairing recovery plan has a hole in it
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 vehicle carrying 60 Starlink satellites from the ex-Space Shuttle Pad 39A leased from NASA at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA at 1225 GMT on 18 October. The launch was the 14th Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satelites and...
Elon Musk lays out Starship timeline hopes at Mars Society online conference
SpaceX supremo and founder Elon Musk took time out from his Tesla automotive activities to lay out his plans for the Starship via a web interview at the Mars Society’s online conference on 16 October. Musk led off by saying that for long-term, long-range human...
DARPA contracts with Telesat for two satellites as part of its Blackjack initiative
An American subsidiary, Telesat U.S. Services, of Canadian global FSS operator Telesat was awarded a satellite production contract on 14 October. The contract was handed down by the US DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a military technology research...
IAC 2020 Online: So how did the “Cyberspace” edition go?
Every year a city gets the honour present to the world space community the latest news, technology and - dare we say it - political moves involved in the performance of human and unmanned spaceflight. This year it was supposed to be in Dubai - a move which chimed with...
ESA hands out contracts…for Lunar Gateway elements and for Earth Return Orbiter
The European Space Agency (ESA) took the opportunity at the International Astronautical Congress IAC 2020 (Online/Cyberspace edition) to announce contracts related to exploration. First out of the bag was the €491 million construction contract awarded to Airbus...
Crewed Soyuz MS-17 launches and docks with International Space Station in just over three hours
In a record-breaking flight, the Soyuz MS-17 crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched by a Soyuz 2.1a from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan, at 0545 GMT on 14 October. On board were NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and...
IAC 2020 Online: Highlight & GNF lectures show China’s Chang’e 4 success and hopes for NASA Artemis lunar plan
While the Chinese Chang'e 4 programme's design team bathed in the success of winning their gong from the IAC (Wu Wieren, Yu Dengyun and Sun Zezhou, were awarded the prestigious IAC's World Space Award medal), the highlight lecture presented by Dr. Yu Dengyun of the...
Blue Origin New Shepard completes 13th sub-orbital launch, first in 2020
Lifting-off from the Van Horn facility, Texas, at 1335 GMT 13 October a Blue Origin New Shepard booster completed its seventh consecutive mission. Whilst this flight was the seventh for this booster in particular, it marks the thirteenth overall for the "New Shepard...
IAC 2020 Online: Space Agency chiefs note Covid-19 problems and solutions…and their space cooperation attempts
At the Heads of Space Agency online plenary at the International Astronautical Congress IAC 2020, Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s Administrator, started his presentation with the quote that “Competition is a driver, collaboration is an enabler.” By cooperating, nations would...
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