Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent war between the nations has had ramifications for launches. The most obvious ones were removals of western-built satellites from Russian Soyuz or Proton launches, either as part of retaliatory sanctions or because of...
An Indian PSLV-CA (Core Alone) variant rocket lifted off from the Sriharikota launch site at 0101 GMT on 30 July 2023. Aboard were seven satellites. The main payload was the DS-SAR – a 352 kg radar satellite which is operated by DS Engineering for the...
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy (v1.2FT Block 5) rocket launched what is, to date, the heaviest ever communications satellite on its way to geostationary orbit: Echostar 24/Jupiter 3 on behalf of Echostar – Hughes Network Systems. The launch, which had been delayed for a...
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA at 0401 GMT on 28 July 2023. The vehicle was carrying Starlink Group 6-7, a total of 22 v2 Mini Starlink satellites for the second generation constellation. The B1062...
Launching at 2002 GMT on 26 July, a Chinese Long March 2D (CZ-2D) rocket has carried three satellites into LEO. This mission lifted-off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites make up Yaogan 36 Group 05 and consist of two optical and one radar...
While Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTR) concepts (e.g. the NERVA project) have been considered for space missions since the 1960s, their lack of suitable application combined with their technical risk has held back their actual use – until now. Seeing that a...