by David Todd | May 19, 2015 | ESA, Launches, Seradata News, Technology
The former head of the European Space Agency (ESA) rocket programme, Antonio Fabrizi, has died after a long illness at the early age of 67. Under Fabrizi’s tenure as ESA Director of launchers, ESA built the Vega small launch vehicle, allowed Soyuz to operate at...
by David Todd | Apr 23, 2015 | Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Technology
Space News (Peter De Selding) reports that two 3U-cubesat spacecraft of 4kg each have been ordered from Clyde Space as precursors to a full constellation of Sustained Ocean Observation for Nanosatellites (SOCON) consellation which will carry sensors built by the...
by David Todd | Apr 17, 2015 | On a Lighter Note, Seradata News, Technology
So keen are the boys at the US Air Force Research Laboratory on the UK firm Reaction Engines’ SABRE (Synthetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) heat exchanger technology (this writer is a shareholder) that they are apparently willing to do anything to get their hands on...
by David Todd | Mar 27, 2015 | commercial launch services, NASA, Technology
While Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC) was still smarting over losing out to Boeing and SpaceX for NASA’s commercial crew transportation contracts, NASA is throwing its Dream Chaser mini-shuttle a life line. Now teamed with Lockheed Martin, SNC is being allowed to bid...
by David Todd | Mar 26, 2015 | Satellites, SpaceX, Technology
For those getting too excited, or in your spacecraft history-tracking correspondent’s case, too fretful, over the prospect of constellations of hundreds or even thousands of communications satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), a word, or rather a table, of...
by David Todd | Mar 17, 2015 | Satellites, Technology
Greg Wyler, founder of the start-up satellite operator, OneWeb (formerly known as WorldVu), which proposes to put up a large constellation of 650 communications satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, cut a charismatic figure as he presented his wares at...
