SSI News
Arianespace collects launch orders for eight Galileo satellites and for a pair of Italian PLATiNO satellites
Arianespace got the year off to a good start thanks to an announcement by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) confirming plans to carry eight additional Galileo satellites. Arianespace will launch the first two...
2021 Launch Year: A new record for both orbital rocket and satellite launch totals
The final score for orbital launches in 2021 was 146 – a record number since space launch history began with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The previous record of 139 was set back in 1967. The “winner” in terms of number of launches was China with 56 launch attempts...
Movie Review: Don’t Look Up amuses (& worries) as a satire dressed up as a space disaster movie
Don't Look Up (2021) has become the must see movie this Christmas...but not everyone likes it. Produced and aired by Netflix, and directed by Adam McKay, it is all the space/geo-disaster movies you have ever seen like When Worlds Collide (1951), Meteor (1979),...
Success of Iran’s Simorgh launch disputed with three satellite payloads not quite put into orbit
Quoting the Iranian Ministry of Defence, Iran’s Mehr news agency website has reported that a Simorgh (Safir 2A) rocket has successfully launched three payloads – but the success is disputed. The payloads - assumed to be small satellites - were announced as having been...
China finishes its launch year with two separate Long March launches – one from Jiuquan and one from Xichang
China made two final launches in 2021. It successfully launched a Long March 2D/2 (CZ-2D/2) vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, China, at 1113 GMT on 29 December. The vehicle was carrying the Tianhui 4 cartography satellite for the PLA (Peoples...
Another 36 OneWeb satellites are launched into orbit by a Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz 2.1B/Fregat vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan, at 1310 GMT on 27 December. The vehicle was carrying 36 OneWeb communications satellites. This launch brings the total of OneWeb satellites launched to...
Angara A5 Persei makes its test launch but upper stage undershoots
The launch of the newest version of the Angara A5 rocket series, the Angara A5 Persei using the new Persei (Perseus) upper stage modified from the old BLOK DM-03, did not go exactly to plan. The launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Northern Russia, occurred at 1900 GMT on...
Taikonauts make spacewalk from Chinese Space Station…after it dodges Starlink near misses
An EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) spacewalk by two of the crew of Shenzhou 13 – the fourth made from the Chinese Space Station “Tiangong” – began at 1044 GMT on 26 December 2021 with the hatch of the main Tianhe module being opened. Two “taikonauts” (Chinese...
Long March 4C launches Ziyuan 1-2E imaging satellite plus a student one
China successfully launched a Long March 4C (CZ-2D) vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China, at 0311 GMT on 26 December 2021. The launch vehicle was carrying the Ziyuan 1-2E imaging satellite and the Xixwan_3 (CAS-9) technology demonstrator and amateur...
To the relief of many, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is launched successfully by Ariane 5
European launch provider Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane 5 ECA vehicle from Kourou Space Centre, French Guiana, at 1220 GMT on 25 December carrying the 6.2 metric ton James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST was starting its 29-day transfer to the L2...
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