The withdrawal of GSAT-11 from its planned Ariane 5 ECA launch (with Azerspace 2/Intelsat 38) caused a major interruption in Arianespace’s launch schedule. The heaviest satellite produced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at 5,725kg, GSAT-11 arrived at...
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has formally selected the Liquid Hydrogen/Liquid Oxygen (LOx) RL-10C-X engine built by Aerojet Rocketdyne for the upper stage of ULA’s new proposed Vulcan rocket. In doing so it is thought to have beaten the other main...
Independent analyses have shown that reusable launch vehicle elements have to be capable of reuse ten times, with minimal refurbishment, to make the economics of launch reusability work. While SpaceX had shown the technical feasibility of recovery and reuse...
The CubeSat deployment service firm D-Orbit has signed a contract with launch provider Arianespace for the carrying of the D-Orbit ION CubeSat Carrier – a cubesat delivery spacecraft – on a Vega launch. The mission which is part of the Small Spacecraft...
The Japanese communications satellite operator Broadcasting Satellite System Corp (BSat) has awarded a launch order for the launch of its BSAT 4B spacecraft. The launch will be a flight of the Ariane 5 ECA in 2020. The 3,520kg spacecraft is currently under...
While the concept of a space hotel has long held interest amongst science fiction and other writers – even Roald Dahl had a “Space Hotel USA” in his children’s story “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator” – the planned ending...
