A busy May for Musk: mulling over buying Twitter, fighting a sexual impropriety allegation and as SpaceX sells stock
It has been a busy month for SpaceX and Tesla supremo Elon Musk. The world's richest man grabbed headlines at least three times in May. His move to buy Twitter, driven by a well-known fondness for the platform and his support for "free speech", resulted the magnate...
China launches three communication satellites on Long March 2C
A Chinese rocket, Long March 2C (CZ-2C), has been launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China at 1030 GMT on 20 May 2022, according to reports by Xinhua. The vehicle reportedly carried three “communication test satellites”, as yet unnamed, to lower Earth...
Atlas V launches Starliner OFT-2 test flight to ISS successfully but spacecraft has a shaky orbital insertion (Updated)
NASA successfully launched an Atlas V N22 rocket, carrying Starliner OFT-2, from Cape Canaveral, USA at 2254 GMT on 19 May 2022 - but not without some significant hiccups along the way. The launch of the unmanned CST-100 Starliner on the OFT-2 mission to the...
Russian military launches Bars-M 3 cartography reconnaissance satellite on Cosmos 2503 rocket
The Russian Ministry of Defence has successfully launched a Soyuz 2-1A from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia at 0803 GMT on 19 May 2022. The rocket is thought to have launched an electro-optical area surveillance satellite to a lower Earth Orbit (LEO)...
Kongsberg orders three dual AIS/radar detection satellites from NanoAvionics
On 3 May 2022 the Defence & Aerospace arm of Norwegian international technology group, Kongsberg Gruppen, contracted with NanoAvionics, Lithuania, to supply them with three maritime surveillance microsatellites. These satellites are intended to enhance Norway's...
SpaceX launches 53 Group 4-18 Starlink satellites successfully
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Kennedy Space Station, Florida, USA at 1059 GMT on 18 May 2022. The vehicle was carrying 53 Starlink communications satellites (Group 4-18) as part of the constellation to an initial deployment orbit,...
Cosmos 2555 appears to be a dead duck after its Angara 1.2 launch
The Cosmos 2555 (Kosmos 2555) Russian military codenamed satellite, which was launched from Plesetsk on 29 April by an Angara 1.2 rocket, has not performed any manoeuvres in its very low Sun-synchronous orbit. Analysts now think that the satellite, which is suspected...
SpaceX: Two rockets, two days and 106 new Starlink satellites
It was a busy weekend for SpaceX which launched two Falcon 9 rockets in less than 24 hours between 13 and 14 May. A Falcon 9 (Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5) from Vandenberg, USA was launched at 2207 GMT on 13 May 2022. The vehicle carried 53 Starlinks (Group 4-13) into...
CACI to launch nav test payloads as part of demo to US military
US defence contractor CACI International will launch two demonstration payloads on a York Space built satellite as part of an experiment in military use of space technologies. The satellite will be placed into a low Earth obit (LEO) in January 2023 and carried by the...
Upgraded Hyperbola 1 (SQX-1) rocket fails losing another Jilin-1 Mofang-1A observation satellite (Updated)
The launch of the Jilin-1 Mofang-1A (R) Earth Observation satellite by an upgraded version of the four stage Hyperbola 1/SQX-1 (Shian Quxian-1) rocket has ended in failure. The launch took place from Jiuquan at 0709 GMT on 13 May 2022. Initial reports are that after a...