The concept of a “brick-launcher”, or “micro-launcher” able to launch one or two nanosat-sized spacecraft, has been mooted for a few years. Japan has now begun the era with a successful launch at 0503 GMT on 2 February of its SS-520-5 rocket, which carried the 3...
At 2106 GMT on 17 January 2017, the ASNARO 2 X-band radar satellite was launched into orbit by a Epsilon launch vehicle flying from the Uchinora Launch Centre, Kagoshima, Japan. Built by NEC, the 570 kg spacecraft was placed into a near polar 500 km sun-synchronous...
The SpaceX Dragon CRS-13 cargo mission for NASA has now come to a successful end with its splashdown and recovery in the Pacific. The spacecraft, which was launched on 15 December 2017, was this time carrying 1850 kg of cargo for the downward leg. It was...
As a counter to the era of “fake news” and “alternative facts” a Japanese male astronaut (Norishige Kanai) who represents JAXA on the International Space Station (ISS) has now felt forced to apologise for the exaggeration he made over his...
On 23 December 2017, an H-2A 202 launched the SLATS – the SLATS – Super Low Altitude Test Satellite – and the GCOM C-2 satellite to conduct surface and atmospheric measurements related to the carbon cycle. The launch occurred on 23 December 2017. ...
At 0727 GMT on 17 December a Soyuz FG was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan. The rocket’s payload, the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, US astronaut Scott Tingle and Japanese astronaut, Norishige...
