On a lighter note: Musk & Grimes name baby boy after Mach 3 jet…but only Roman style
The SpaceX and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk and his rap-star girlfriend Grimes attempts to name their new baby boy X Æ A-12 has had a little hiccup. Because of a problem with Californian law, they had to change this to from an Arabic to Roman numeral style X Æ A-Xii...
On a sadder note: Saturn is dead (the alligator that is)…along with Little Richard
Pioneering and inspirational rock star Little Richard, aka Richard Wayne Penniman, has passed away at the age of 87. His most famous hits were in the 1950s which included Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally and Lucille. He had a long career, albeit with breaks as he turned...
More woes for Sir Richard Branson: Virgin Orbit LauncherOne fails on first launch
Virgin Orbit suffered the launch failure of the air-dropped LauncherOne small launch vehicle on its maiden flight. After a one day delay due to a sensor issue, the Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl Boeing 747 lifted off from Mojave Air and Space Port base in California at...
EKS class early warning sat is launched into Molniya orbit by Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat M
Russia launched the Cosmos 2546 satellite into a highly elliptical Earth orbit at 0731 GMT using a Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat M launch vehicle from Pad 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. Cosmos 2546 is also known as Tundra 4, Kupol No. 4 and EKS 4. The...
SpaceX rideshares are eating into small launcher business
The very competitive offer to launch 200 kg of ride-share payloads into orbit for just US$1 million plus any extra at the same US$5,000 per kg rate - about half that of a competitive dedicated small launch vehicle - is beginning to show benefits for SpaceX. ...
Final H-2B launch delivers last of the current generation HTV freighters to LEO
On 20 May 2020, at 1731 GMT, the last planned launch of the MHI-built, H-2B variant took place. The mission lifted-off from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, carrying the HTV-9 cargo freighter into LEO. The HTV (H-II Transfer Vehicle) is part of Japan's...
Northrop Grumman secures US$2.4bn order for two polar Next-Gen OPIR satellites
American satellite-manufacturer Northrop Grumman, has on 18 May 2020, received the awaited order for two polar orbit Next-Gen OPIR satellites. The contract is valued at US$2.37 billion. The Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-gen OPIR) satellites will...
Cygnus NG-13 departs from ISS and then drops off a cubesat
Cygnus NG-13 (aka Robert H. Lawrence) was unberthed from the Unity Module on the International Space Station at 1300 GMT on 11 May using the space station's robot arm. It was carrying away the HDEV experiment which had been earlier loaded (on 7 May) onto its outside...
X-37B/OTV-6 minispaceplane mission and Falconsat 8 is launched to orbit on Atlas V
At 1314 GMT on 17 May, an Atlas V 501 rocket lifted off from its pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the X-37/OTV-6 mission of the X-37B spaceplane. The flight, dubbed USSF-7, marked the first time that the X-37B was carried into space with a service module...
Planet to fly final six Skysat’s on two Falcon 9 flights
Earth observation satellite operator, Planet, has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of their six remaining Skysat satellites, Skysats 16-18 and Skysats 19-21. They will be launched as co-payloads as two separate batches on two Falcon 9 launches carrying...
