SSI News
Cosmonauts in airlock forced to abandon spacewalk after Soyuz MS-22 springs leak
The Soyuz MS-22 sprung a coolant leak while still attached to the International Space Station (ISS) on 14 December. Soyuz MS-22, which brought a crew of three to the ISS in September, is also the crew’s means of returning home. The leak, which spewed droplets of fluid...
Zhuque-2 rocket fails to reach orbital velocity on maiden flight (Corrected)
The Landspace commercial Zhuque-2 (ZQ-2) Liquid Methane/Liquid Oxygen (LOX) powered two-stage rocket failed on its maiden flight from the Jiuquan launch site in China. The launch took place at circa 0830 GMT on 14 December. It is believed that the first stage worked...
Ariane 5 ECA+ launches three satellites from French Guiana: Galaxy-35 and -36, and MTG-I1
An Ariane 5 ECA+ rocket was launched from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on 13 December at 2030 GMT. It carried Eumetsat's MTG-I1 (Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1), along with two communications satellites for Intelsat: Galaxy 35 and Galaxy 36. The...
SpaceX launches another two Falcon 9 rockets from KSC and Cape Canaveral as it vies with China in “international” launch championship
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC), Florida, USA at 2227 GMT on 8 December. The vehicle was carrying forty OneWeb communications satellites (465 plus 39 others) to go into the OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO)...
China has a mini-splurge of three launches with Long March 2D, Jielong-3 and Long March 4C all in action
China successfully launched a Long March 2D/2 (CZ-2D/2) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China at 1831 GMT on 8 December 2022. The vehicle was carrying Gaofen-5-01A, a hyperspectral and infrared Earth observation satellite for the Chinese Ministry of Natural...
Artemis I Orion returns from its lunar test flight using a “Zond-like” skip re-entry to achieve a safe splashdown
After a 25½ day journey to the Moon and back, NASA’s Artemis I mission Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 1740 GMT on 11 December. In doing so, it tested out the guidance and thermal protection systems...
SLD lunar lander competition: Blue Origin-led National Team has Boeing replacing Northrop Grumman which joins competitor Dynetics
Having previously lost the original Human Landing System (HLS) contract to SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has announced a new "National Team" to build a second lunar lander. in the new "National Team" Boeing replaces Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman has now teamed...
Kuaizhou-11 returns to operational status with launch of Xingyun Jiaotong VDES
Kuaizhou-11 (KZ-11) returned to flight at 01:15 GMT on 7 December 2022 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. KZ11 successfully sent the traffic management satellite Xingyun Jiaotong VDES aka Jiaotong VDES to orbit. It carries AIS tracking and VDES data relay...
SpaceX moots Starshield defence applications for its Starlink constellation
While the primary purpose of the SpaceX Starlink large low Earth orbit satellite constellation is a commercial communications service, as has been seen in Ukraine, it has a significant military application. And so SpaceX is now pivoting towards this as it hopes to...
Shenzhou 14 undocks from the Chinese Space Station before its crew’s safe return to Earth
On 4 December 2022 Shenzhou 14 with its three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, aboard, left the Chinese Space Station (CSS), undocking from the Tianhe core module's nadir port of the at 0430 GMT. The taikonauts had been onboard the...
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