SSI News
Ariane 5 successfully launches JCSAT 13 and Vinasat 2
An Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle successfully launched the Japansese commercial communications satellite JCSAT-13 along with the Vietnamese communications satellite Vinasat 2 at 2213 GMT from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.
Black-Eyed Peas star Will-i-am is sought by NASA for Mars song
While ratings for the UK TV talent show The Voice continue to decline on BBC television, one of the judges, Will.i.am, still has fans in the space business it seems. For according to the UK-based tabloid newspaper The Sun, NASA has asked the Black Eyed Peas band member to come up with a song to be broadcast back to Earth on a future NASA science mission to Mars. Will-i-am has previously worked with NASA before, on twitter to encourage interest in NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, and as a narrator on a NASA TV documentary.
Replacement crew launched to ISS
A Russian Soyuz-FG rocket successfully launched the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft carrying three crew to the International Space Station (ISS) at 0301 GMT this morning, 15 May. The three crew are Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mission Commander. Cosmonaut Sergei...
Risat 1 images released
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have released some images taken by the C Band Synthetic Aperture Radar that is on their Risat-1 satellite that was launched on 26 April this year. More images can be seen...
ANALYSIS: F-35B or not – aircraft carriers may be made impotent by sat-targeted diving missiles
After Exocet’s lethality was demonstrated in the Falklands War, a lot of effort was put into developing missile and gun defences against Exocet-class sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and, most recently, against their satellite-targeted supersonic successors (e.g. india’s Brahmos missile). However, now a very different kind of anti-ship missile is threating naval ships. These are ballistic missiles which have been especially designed to make high velocity diving attacks “from the Gods”.
On a sadder note: Sir Raymond Lygo passed away in March
Hyperbola would like to pay a belated short tribute to Sir Raymond Lygo who briefly figured in the UK attempt to build a reusable spaceplane. Sir Raymond passed away in March at the age of 87.
China launches Yaogan 14 reconnaissance sat along with TT-1 small military science sat
China has launched the Yaogan 14 electro-optical military reconnaissance satellite into a near-polar sun- synchronous low Earth orbit on 10 May. The launch took place at 0706 GMT, lifting off from the Taiyuan launch site. The flight used a Long March 4B launch vehicle.
ESA says Envisat mission is over but engineers will keep trying
Following its loss of contact on 8 April, and a subsequent failure to recover the spacecraft, the European Space Agency (ESA) has formally declared that the Envisat environmental and remote sensing satellite mission is now over.
Cambridge University’s amateur rocket flies OK and then gets lost
In early May, teams of rocket enthusasts were at the Big Range 2012 Launch Campaign in Sutherland, Scotland to hold high altitude experimental rocketry tests. The event is a collaboration between the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA), UK Rocket Association (UKRA) and AspireSpace.
Atlas V launches AEHF-2, Long March lofts Tian Hui 1B but Dragon gets delayed
The US military should benefit from the launch of its latest communications satellite, AEHF-2. The military communications satellite was launched successfully at 1842 GMT on 4 May 2012 via a United Launch Alliance (ULA) operated ATLAS V 531 launch from Cape Canaveral.
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