India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 was launched at 0913 GMT on 22 July 2019, from the Sriharikota launch site. The initial plan was to place the spacecraft into a low Earth orbit. From here it will slowly raise its orbit and then be injected into a...
The Spektr-Rontgen-Gamma X-ray astronomy observatory, better known as Spektr-RG, was launched at 1230 GMT on 13 July 2019, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakstan. The first burn of the Block DM-03 upper stage placed it and Spektr-RG into an initial...
NASA has formally awarded a contract for the launch of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission. This will take place on a Falcon 9 rocket flying from the Kennedy Space Centre on April 2021. The launch will use a preflown reusable first stage. The...
Starting in the South Pacific, the track of a total solar eclipse moved across northern Chile and then crossed the Andes into Argentina. Due to clear skies, eclipse chasers and watchers were reportedly treated to an excellent view in Chile. Maximum totality lasted...
NASA has selected two new science missions as part of its Small Explorer (SMEX) programme to go forward to full production and which will be launched on the same rocket together. PUNCH – the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere mission will employ...
Space News reports that on 31 May 2019, NASA awarded lunar landing contracts initially to three companies out of the nine finalists in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The three winners of the contracts worth a total of US$250 million will make one...
