by Matt Wilson | Oct 6, 2016 | commercial launch services, ESA, India, Launches, Satellites
At 2030 GMT, on 5 October, the heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, carrying two telecommunications satellites, Sky Muster II, for NBN Co and GSAT-18, for ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). This marks the...
by David Todd | Oct 5, 2016 | ESA, History, India, JAXA, NASA, Russia, Technology
IAC 2016 Guadalaraja: Mars missions and new rockets feature… and so does the rain The annual meeting of the World’s space agencies, engineers and scientists at the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, during late September...
by Matt Wilson | Sep 30, 2016 | ESA, exploration, Satellites, Science, Technology
On 30 September 2016, at 1119 GMT the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, announced that the Rosseta probe had completed its de-orbit manoeuvre to land/crash on to the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, sending its last telemetry packet at...
by David Todd | Sep 9, 2016 | ESA, Launches, Science
ESA and Arianespace have signed a contract to secure the launch of the Aeolus satellite on a Vega launch vehicle. The 1,500 kg spacecraft is designed to measure winds using ultraviolet laser/lidar technology. The launch of the spacecraft will take place in 2017. The...
by David Todd | Sep 8, 2016 | ESA, exploration
While the little German Philae lander which had been carried to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the ESA Rosetta spacecraft has been dead for several months (it stopped transmitting last year), at least we now know where it is buried. Or rather not buried. While the...
by David Todd | Aug 9, 2016 | ESA, exploration, NASA, SpaceX, Technology
Every year Seradata publishes its analysis of how well different nations are doing in the “great space race”. In this, we limit our analysis to manned spaceflight and to its two main exploratory targets: a return to the Moon and setting foot on Mars. On...
