Having flown 36 successful flights since its last (partial) failure in 1997, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was bound to be disappointed over the launch failure of its PSLV-C39 flight. The failure, which was caused by the fairing failing to separate...
Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao (aka U.R. Rao), the former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, which he lead from 1984 to 1994, has passed away at the age of 85. U.R. Rao, was a space physicist by training who specialised in cosmic ray research at MIT in...
An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is defined by treaties as having a minimum range of 5,500 km. So considerable concern was generated by North Korea’s announcement that it had developed and test-flown a full liquid-fuelled ICBM at 0040 GMT on 4 July...
While European plans are to replace it with its cheaper-to-operate Ariane 6 equivalent, the expendable Ariane 5 remains the benchmark for launch reliability. The Ariane 5 rocket family has posted 80 consecutive successful launches since its last failure in December...
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) congratulated itself after using its brand new GSLV III (GSLV Mk 3) launch vehicle on its test flight D-1 to put the 3136kg GSAT-19 satellite into a transfer orbit on its way to geostationary operational position. While...
At 1127 GMT on 5 May 2017, a GSLV-2 (CUSP) rocket launched the GSAT 9 communications satellite into orbit from the launch site at Sriharikota. GSAT 9 was claimed to be India’s first “all electric” spacecraft used in Geostationary Earth Orbit...
