by David Todd | Mar 1, 2021 | commercial launch services, Launches, NASA, Satellites, Science
NASA has selected Astra Space Inc. to provide a launch service via its Astra Rocket 3 for the agency’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. According to NASA the launch service...
by Philip Hylands | Mar 1, 2021 | Launches, Russia, Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Soyuz
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz 2-1b Fregat M vehicle carrying the Arktika-M 1 satellite into a highly inclined elongated Molniya orbit at 0655 GMT on 28 February 2021. The Arktika-M 1 satellite was built by NPO Lavotchkin for the Roshydromet (Russian Weather...
by David Todd | Dec 23, 2020 | exploration, International Space Station, NASA, Satellites, Science, Seradata News
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...
by Matt Wilson | Dec 15, 2020 | ESA, Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Technology
On 9 December 2020 ESA (European Space Agency) placed an order with Italian suppliers for an reusable lifting body called Space Rider. The Space Rider has been championed by the Italian government and industry for many years as a way forward to a “space...
by David Todd | Dec 10, 2020 | China, Launches, Satellites, Science, Seradata News
A Long March 11 (CZ-11) rocket successfully launched a pair of GECAM (Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-Sky Monitor) satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) from the Xichang Satellite Center, China, at 2015 GMT on 9 December 2020. The two...
by David Todd | Dec 7, 2020 | exploration, JAXA, Satellites, Science, Seradata News
The Japanese Hayabusa-2 mission gave JAXA a laudable success when it returned to Earth with its asteroid samples safely on board the return capsule on 5 December. Having made trajectory corrections, the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft entered the Earth’s gravitational field at...
