Diversity agenda can go too far says former female astronaut
While NASA does not officially have any kind of "diversity-promoting" positive discrimination or quota system such as the BBC is much criticised for using when it books its TV presenters and guests (despite this being technically illegal). Nevertheless, NASA's own...
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Robot leaves the International Space Station (ISS) on board Soyuz MS-14
Having been undocked from the ISS, the unmanned, albeit with the Skybot F-850 robot aboard, Soyuz MS-14 descent module landed in rural Kazakhstan at 2132 GMT on 6 September 2019.
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Belated news: Our Apollo 11 crossword is now corrected…and we also publish its solution…
To celebrate the 50th Apollo 11 anniversary earlier this year, we ran a crossword to test the brains of our readers. Unfortunately, we had some technical issues compounded by a few human errors. This meant that the clues were either wrongly numbered or missing. Thus,...
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Momentus orders Terran 1 spacelaunch for its Vigoride Extended GEO spacecraft delivery tug
Momentus, the start-up planning to offer delivery services to other satellites from a low Earth orbit launch to GEO has now ordered a launch for its Vigoride Extended delivery tug. The spacecraft which uses water plasma thruster propulsion will be carried into orbit...
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China’s Long March 4B launches three sats from Taiyuan
China successfully launched a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) launch vehicle at 0326 GMT on 12 September from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre. The vehicle was carrying three satellite payloads, Zi Yuan 1-2D, BNU-1 and Jinniuzuo-1. The Zi Yuan 1-2D is an 1840 kg Chinese-built...
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Pad fire delays H-2B launch of HTV-8
During propellant loading three and a half hours before the launch of the JAXA HTV-8 cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS), a significant fire broke out at the base of the launch pad beneath the H2B launch vehicle at 1805 GMT on 10 September 2019....
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First seven O3b mPower satellites will be launched on two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets
SpaceX has received a two-launch launch order from SES to launch the first seven of the SES O3b mPower series of satellites. The satellites will be launched with four of the Boeing-built 1,200kg satellites on one launch and three on another. The order of this flights...
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Vector loses US Air Force ASLON-45 launch mission to AEVUM’s new Ravn air-launched design
Given its financial woes it was not a surprise that Vector had to withdraw from its contract with the US Air Force to launch the Agile Small Launch Operational Normalizer (ASLON) 45 mission. That was originally supposed to be formed as an upper stage/delivery...
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India loses its Chandrayaan 2 lunar lander and rover though the orbiter wags on as does ISRO’s maritime tracking plans
Controllers at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were licking their wounds after its unmanned landing attempt on the Moon ended in failure - and with India's Prime Minister Modi looking on. Having journeyed to the Moon in a long-winded transfer process...
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Vega launch failure caused by thermo-mechanical failure of dome part of Zefiro-23 second stage but exact mechanism remains a mystery
An investigation has revealed the cause of the Vega launch failure on flight VV15 which lost the Falcon Eye 1 satellite causing an insurance loss of circa US$416 million. After what appeared to be successful luanch at 0153 GMT from the Kourou Space Centre on 11 July...
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