SSI News
Seven IRIDE SAR and optical satellites order goes to Thales Alenia Space
European space manufacturer Thales Alenia Space has been awarded a contract to build seven satellites for the Italian IRIDE constellation. Six of the 170 kg satellites will be equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that will be able to image the ground through...
South Korean sub-orbital vehicle Hanbit-TLV completes first test flight from Brazil
South Korean company INNOSPACE has launched a sub-orbital rocket from the Alcântara Launch Center, Brazil. The mission took place at 1752 GMT on 19 March and saw the Hanbit-TLV vehicle fly on a sub-orbital trajectory. The mission was primarily intended to test a...
LMV3-2 launches 36 OneWeb satellites allowing full service
Having lost its access to space via Soyuz rockets after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, OneWeb turned to other launch providers. One of these was the commercial arm of ISRO which began offering the GSLV 3 - now called the LMV3 rocket. Thus at 0430 GMT on 26 March 2023...
Blue Origin notes nozzle failure as reason for the failure of its NS-23 suborbital flight
Blue Origin has noted the failure mechanism which doomed the unmanned flight New Shepard NS-23 suborbital spacecraft. After its lift off at 1401 GMT on 12 September 2022 at T+ 1 minute 5 seconds the New Shepard booster (NS Propulsion Module Tail 3) suffered an...
Starlink Group 5-5 is launched by Falcon 9
The Starlink Group 5-5 (56 satellites) was made by a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 from Cape Canaveral, Floriday, USA, at 1543 GMT on 24 March 2023. The Starlink v1.5 satellites were going into the Starlink Gen 2 shell at 43 degrees inclination. The launch included the...
Electron rocket launches Blacksky Global 19 and 21
At 0914 GMT on 24 March 2023, Rocket Lab successfully launched their Electron KS rocket (in reusable waterproofed trim to attempt splashdown recovery of first stage) from Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. Onboard was Blacksky Global 19 and 21, a pair of 55 kg Earth...
Russia launches Bars-M 4 electro-optical area surveillance satellite using Soyuz 2-1a
On 23 March 2023 at 0640 GMT a Soyuz 2-1a rocket successfully launched what is believed to be the Bars-M 4 military electro-optical area surveillance stereoscopic cartography satellite, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia. The last BARS-M satellite (Cosmos 2556 aka...
Relativity Space’s Terran 1 fails on maiden flight – but first stage works well
The Terran 1 rocket, built by Relativity Space, failed to achieve orbit after suffering an ignition anomaly with its second stage during its maiden launch. As it was purely a test mission, the rocket was not carrying a satellite payload or releasable fairing. The...
Italian government gives Vega C vote of confidence with a three-launch order for its IRIDE constellation
Arianespace has won a contract for up to three Vega C launches for IRIDE, the Italian government’s Earth observation constellation. The European Space Agency (ESA), acting on behalf of the Italian government, signed a contract with the French company for at least two...
China launches four meteorology satellites to LEO, part of Tianmu-1 fleet
At 0909 GMT on 22 March, a Kuaizhou-1A rocket built by CASIC affiliate ExPace Technology Corp carried four meteorological microsatellites into LEO. The mission took place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, in service of another CASIC-related entity...
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