SSI News
Vandenberg hosts Falcon 9 launch of NRO L-87 payload
The Vandenberg launch site in California hosted the launch of yet another secret satellite payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). This time the mission was dubbed NRO L-87 and it was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 launch vehicle at 2027...
Falcon 9 launches COSMO-Skymed Second Generation 2 satellite from Cape Canaveral
After several delays, a final one involving a cruise ship straying into the danger zone, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA, at 2311 GMT on 31 January 2022. The vehicle was...
Shi Jian 21 docks with Beidou-2 G2 then takes it to a graveyard orbit
Space News reports that China's docking technology test satellite Shijian-21, having completed its own rendevous testing with a dummy satellite while in an eight degree inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit (GSO), was moved in late December 2021 to rendezvous and dock...
European company Plus Ultra books satellite launch with German RFA and lunar deployments from Japan’s ispace
A Spanish-German start-up Plus Ultra Space Outposts (Plus Ultra) as expended on its plans to provide reliable, high-speed connectivity for Lunar missions. It envisions an eight-unit fleet with an orbit 6,000 km above the Moon. These satellites will then be able to...
Loft Orbital raises US$140m in funding and later orders more satellite buses from LeoStella/Airbus
American “Space infrastructure” company Loft Orbit raised US$140 million in funding in December. Its largest fundraising round to date was led by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager and renowned for its investment in the space industry. Loft Orbital declined...
Chinasat-6A is likely total loss after attitude control issue
The Chinese telecommunications satellite Chinasat-6A (aka Sinosat 6) is likely to be declared a total loss for insurance purposes after the satellite failed to recover from the attitude control issues it has been suffering since early December. The satellite, which...
TAIFA-1 to be built by Endurosat for Kenya’s Sayari Labs, launched on Falcon 9 as Endurosat also tapped to build space weather cubesat for Mission Space
Bulgarian small satellite maker Endurosat has joined forces with Kenya's SayarLabs who will respectively build and operate a 3U cubesat-class spacecaft TAIFA-1. TAIFA-1, meaning “one nation” from Swahili, first Kenyan 3U software-defined NanoSat. TAIFA-1 will be...
China launches Long March 4C out of Jiuquan carrying Ludi Tance radar sat
China successfully launched a Long March 4C (CZ-4C) launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, China, at 2355 on 25 January 2022. The vehicle was carrying the Ludi Tance-01-A (English meaning: Land Exploration-01-A) satellite which carries a L-band...
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) puts itself into Halo orbit around Sun-Earth L2
After a painstaking operation during its four weeks post-launch, engineers at NASA confirmed that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had all its key pieces (sun shield, secondary and primary mirrors etc) properly deployed, erected and locked into place. However,...
One Starlink launch batch does not look very healthy: one in five satellites appear to have failed
While for the most part SpaceX Starlink satellites have proved to be reliable – or at least reliable enough to begin commercial telecommunications service – astrophysicist and space orbital analyst, Jonathan McDowell, has noted that the satellites launched on Starlink...
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