SSI News
Taikonaut Wang Yaping becomes first Chinese woman to complete spacewalk
Wang Yaping has become the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk. On 7 November at 1051 GMT, Mission Commander Zhai Zhigang opened the hatch of the Chinese Space Station (CSS) to be joined by Wang. The third member of the crew, Taikonaut Ye Guangfu, assisted from...
America’s Viasat announces intent to purchase UK-based Inmarsat
Viasat, an American company which primarily operates a fleet of GEO satellites, has announced its intention to buy British satellite operator Inmarsat. Outlines of the proposed transaction were released in a joint announcement on 8 November. The purchase is expected...
China launches satellite triplet starting a new Yaogan-series
China successfully launched a Long March 2D (CZ-2D) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, at 0300 GMT on 6 November. The vehicle was carrying a triplet of satellites identified as Yaogan 35-01-A, 35-01-B, and 35-01-C. The satellites were placed into a near...
Long March 6 launches a remote sensing Earth sciences satellite for China
China successfully launched a Long March 6 (CZ-6) vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China, at 0219 GMT on 5 November. The vehicle was carrying the SDGSAT-1 satellite developed by the China Academy of Sciences to provide Remote Sensing data to support...
ABL selected to launch first two Kuiper prototypes in 2022
ABL Space Systems, USA, has been selected by Amazon to launch the first two prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper LEO constellation. The announcement was published on 1 November and also mentioned an additional multi-launch deal between the companies. ABL is...
SS-520 (Two Stage version) makes suborbital plasma science flight from Svalbard
A suborbital/sounding rocket launch of the Japanese SS-520 (Two Stage Suborbital) rocket was launched from the Svalbard Rocket Range in Norway at 1009 GMT on 4 November 2021. It flew to an altitude of 956 km before re-entering and falling into the ocean downrange,...
Bezos and Blue Origin bow out of legal battle to get lunar lander contract after court goes against them
“Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract.” This was the response of Blue Origin founder and leader Jeff Bezos, via Twitter, to a court judgement against the firm’s plea that NASA should...
Two suspected ELINT satellites launched by China
China successfully launched a Long March 2C with a YS-1 upper-stage (CZ-2C/YS-1) vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, Chine, at 0743 GMT on 3 November. The vehicle was carrying the Yaogan 32-02-A and Yaogan 32-02-B satellites which are believed to have an...
UK Ministry of Defence forgets its past loyalties and chooses SpaceX over Arianespace to launch its Skynet 6A comsat
The UK Ministry of Defence has surprised the pan-European launch provider Arianespace by selecting a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch for its urgently needed Skynet 6A military communications satellite. While the early Skynet satellites used US Delta and Titan rockets for their...
Thales Alenia Space selected to build a dual-band HTS GEO unit for Indonesia
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) has been awarded a contract to build a dual-band HTS GEO satellite for PT Telkom, Indonesia. The satellite will carry C- and Ku-band payloads and is due to be located at the 113 degrees East national slot, according to the 28 October...
Stay Informed with Seradata
Stay informed on the latest news, insights, and more from Seradata by signing up for our newsletter.