Space News reports that two DARPA owned satellites, Mandrake 1 and 2, have been damaged during processing. The satellites were apparently dropped on 4 January at a satellite processing facility at Cape Canaveral while being loaded into a payload separation system,...
Peter B. de Selding (spaceintelreport.com) has revealed that after initially wanting three units in November 2020, Intelsat has had to place an order for two satellites from Airbus DS. This renegotiated order was placed on 31 December after its Creditors would not...
On its VS25 flight, a Soyuz ST-A (Fregat M) successfully launched from Sinnamary Launch Site near Kourou, French Guiana at 1642 GMT on 29 December 2020. The 3,562 kg payload carried was the Airbus Defence and Space-built CSO-2 Earth observation...
A Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket successfully launched the Yaogan 33R (aka Yaogan 33-02) radar/remote sensing satellite at 1544 GMT on 27 December 2020. The spacecraft was thought to be a replacement for the Yaogan 33 lost in a launch failure in 2019. However this is...
In what will both please and disappoint the leadership of NASA, US Congress has voted to give NASA US$23.3 billion in funding for the fiscal Year 2021 as part of its “Omnibus spending bill”. The budget deal represents an increase of US$642 million over...
Filling a gap in its rocket stable, China’s new medium-lift rocket, the Long March 8 (CZ-8), successfully lifted off on its maiden flight at 0437 GMT on 22 December from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in South Hainan Province, China. The launch carried the...
