D-Orbit and $1.2 billion SPAC merger falls apart
Italian satellite delivery company D-Orbit and Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) have cancelled a planned merger. D-Orbit initially announced its plans for a merger with the SPAC in January 2022. The deal valued D-Orbit at...
Russian spacewalk cut short after spacesuit battery power fluctuates
ISS Commander Oleg Artemyev and fellow Roscosmos Cosmonaut Denis Matveev began their six and half hour scheduled extravehicular activity (EVA) when they opened the Poisk module airlock at 1353 GMT on 17 August. Their mission objective was to continue outfitting the...
Analysis: USA falls back in great space race as China plans interim heavy lift rocket for quicker human lunar landings
Every August - the silly season when hard news is hard to come by - this column does its bit to help out with an analysis of the runners and riders in the "Great Space Race". We rate space nations' space programmes in the form of bookmaker's odds rating, according to...
Synspective of Japan anticipates launch of its third SAR satellite by Rocket Lab in September
Synspective Inc., Japan, has announced that its first commercial unit, known as StriX-1, is expected to be launched in September. The SAR satellite will be the third such for the company, which refers to the two preceding units - StriX-ALPHA and -BETA - as...
SpaceX launches 46 Starlink Group 3-3 satellites
SpaceX successfully launched 46 Starlink satellites onboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 2140 GMT on 12 August. The satellites are identified as Group 3-3, part of SapceX's Starlink LEO communications constellation. The spacecraft which...
D-Orbit to launch 20 Astrocast nanosatellites on ION Satellite Carrier
Astrocast has ordered the launch of 20 nanosatellites from Italian new-space company D-Orbit. Through multiple missions over the course of three years, D-Orbit will arrange the launch of the Swiss company's nanosatellites aboard the ION Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit's...
SpaceX launches 52 Starlink Group 4-26 satellites
After a slight delay due to upper-level winds in the vicinity of the launch site, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launched 52 Starlink satellites on 10 August at 0214 GMT from the Kennedy Space Center – Eastern Test Range. Less than 9 minutes after the launch, first...
Space “carpooling”: NASA smallsats to hitch a ride with SPHEREx
NASA has announced that its Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will join the SPHEREx satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 flight, scheduled to launch in April 2025. NASA's PUNCH missions consists of four smallsats to measure the outer part of...
China launches 16 EO sats on a Long March 6 rocket
China launched a Long March 6 (CZ-6) rocket at 0450 GMT on 10 August from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried 16 satellites built by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., into a sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit. They will form part of its...
Russia builds and launches Khayyam spy satellite for Iran plus 16 cubesats onboard Soyuz 2-1B Fregat (corrected)
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz 2-1B Fregat from their Baikonur Cosmodrome site at 0552 GMT on 9 August. The launch's main payload was Khayyam, a Russian-built Earth-observation/reconnaissance satellite built for Iran. Khayyam (aka Project 505) will be used by...