SSI News
Mystery NRO-108 mission gets launch order for SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in October
According to spaceflightnow.com the US Space Force on behalf of the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has booked a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to take place from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on 25 October or soon afterwards. The launch had not been...
Gaofen-13 GEO Earth Observation satellite is launched by Long March 3B
A Long March 3B-G3 (CZ-3B/G3) launch vehicle successfully launched itself from the Xichang launch site in China at 1657 GMT on 11 October 2020. The Gaofen-13 spacecraft carried on the flight is an Earth Observation satellite which has been surprisingly been launched...
Thirteenth (Twelfth operational) Starlink mission finally launched after several delays
Launching at 1129 GMT on 6 October from Cape Canaveral, USA, a SpaceX mission carrying the 12th operational batch of 60 Starlink satellites reached LEO. The mission utilised the company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and made use of a first-stage for the third time. This...
US SDA awards contracts to SpaceX and L3 Harris for new missile warning and tracking satellites
The Space Development Agency (SDA), USA, on 5 October announced it had awarded satellite development contracts to two companies. The contracts cover the inaugural, "Tranche 0", satellites for a planned missile warning and tracking constellation. US companies SpaceX...
US launch vehicles suffer sea of stand-downs & aborts…but Antares launched Cygnus NG-14 OK (Updated)
In what has been a very strange period for launch delays, multiple US government and commercial satellite launches have been affected by a series of aborts, stand-downs and delays. However, one happened in good time. Having suffered a weather related delay on 30...
NASA awards launch contract for its IMAP mission to SpaceX
NASA has awarded a launch contract for its Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission to SpaceX for Falcon 9 launch in 2024. The mission will also carry four secondary payload satellites. The value of the contract covering launch from Cape Canaveral,...
Analysis: President Trump’s record – how has he done? In space and defence well…not so in other areas
With only about a month to go to the US Presidential Election on 3 November, we assess President Donald J. Trump’s successes and failures. While he has made serious – sometimes disastrous – errors, Trump’s opponents and detractors may not like it, but he was not wrong...
Soyuz rocket launches from Plesetsk carrying three Gonets-M satellites and 19 rideshare passengers
Lifting-off at 1120 GMT on 28 September from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Northern Russia, a Soyuz 2-1B mission has carried 22 satellites into LEO. The Soyuz 2-1B rocket utilised a Fregat upper-stage for the mission. The primary payload on-board was a trio of Gonets-M...
Long March 4B rocket puts two Chinese environmental satellites, HJ-2A & HJ-2B, into orbit
China's Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket launched a pair of Huanging satellites, HJ-2A, and HJ-2B, from the Taiyuan launch site in China. Life off was at 0323 GMT on 27 September 2020. Both spacecraft were put into near polar sun-synchronous orbits above 600 km. The...
Airbus DS gets formal contract to build CRISTAL ice monitoring satellite
Having previously been selected as the prime contractor in early July, Airbus DS has formally received a Eu300 million (US$352 million) order to build the 1,700 kg Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography ALtimeter (CRISTAL) ice monitoriing spacecraft from the...
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