by David Todd | Apr 16, 2019 | exploration, Launches, NASA, Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Technology
While Hollywood has long flagged the dangers of asteroid and comet impact via its science fictional disaster movies Meteor (1979), Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998), real life space seemed to have no solution to the threat. Now NASA, in conjunction with John...
by David Todd | Apr 12, 2019 | exploration, Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Technology
The Israeli privately-financed SpaceIL Beresheet (B’reshit) unmanned lunar landing probe has crashed on the Moon as the result of a complication which caused its landing engine to be cut off at a key moment. Having hitched a paid-for ride on a Falcon 9 launch on...
by David Todd | Apr 8, 2019 | SpaceX, Technology
While it might be sans its “pointy” nose cone after it fell off and was damaged in windy weather, the Starhopper test rocket has nevertheless begun to make static firings and short tethered hops at its Boca Chica test site in Texas. This was announced...
by David Todd | Mar 29, 2019 | Launches, Military space, Satellites, Seradata News, Technology
An Electron rocket built and operated by RocketLab lifted off from the Mahia Penisula launch site in New Zealand at 2327 GMT on 28 March 2019. Aboard was a satellite called the Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration Satellite (aka R3D2) which will...
by David Todd | Mar 25, 2019 | On a Lighter Note, Satellites, Seradata News, Technology
There is an amusing scene in one the comedy film follow-ons to the BBC Steptoe and Son comedy television series in which the two rag and bone characters find an abandoned baby at Christmas time. As they do so they look up to see a Bethlehem-like star in the sky, and...
by David Todd | Mar 25, 2019 | Satellites, Seradata News, Technology
For those who thought that 1kg CubeSat nanosatellites and 0.1-1kg picosats were the smallest satellites that would work, Stanford University is trying to prove that even smaller femtosats can also do the trick. They have devised a “Sprite Chipsat” configuration...
